Ferrari Mailing List: Re: Ferrari "Fires" Its European Dealers one guys experience

[Britt2Asa (Britt2Asa]

Guys  - this is very long so if you aren't interested just delete. It was 
written by a  hopeful Ferrari owner here in the UK. The dealership was 
Stratstones which last  month had the Ferrari brand "pulled" from them and 
assigned to 
another dealer  group. This was posted on the CS website a while back but I 
just found it. I  know the dealer experience is quite different in the USA but 
here in the UK the  "independents" have a great reputation against the majority 
(but not all) of the  authorised dealers..Britt   PS- 360s are selling now in 
the 40's to  low 50's over here..... 
"The  joy of owning a Ferrari.

I've developed a passion over the past few years  for sports cars most 
recently owning a BMW Z8 & a TVR Tuscan S. By the back  end of 2006 I was 
contemplating a Ferrari or an Aston Martin as my next car.  

A chance meeting with a a guy I shall call S who used to work for my  local 
BMW dealer then the Aston Martin dealer & now the main Ferrari dealer  in 
Manchester got me thinking of a 360 Spider as the car to get.
He promised  to look out for a car that matched my brief & over the next few 
months I  sent him links to cars I had seen advertised that I liked. I called 
several  times but by February 2007 he had found nothing, so I decided to 
order the new  Aston Martin V8 Roadster from Stratstone Aston Martin in 
Wilmslow.

As  there would be a wait of several months for the Aston I chanced a visit 
to the  Ferrari showroom where S worked. To cut a long story short, within half 
an hour  I agreed to trade the TVR for a lovely 360 Spider that was in the 
showroom.  Arrangements were made to collect it in 10 days on the 28th February 
at  noon.

I was kind of excited at the prospect of owning my first Ferrari. S  said I 
might like it that much, I wonât want The Aston!

Had I been told  me that it had had 7 owners named on the V5, a faulty 
tracker, problems with the  engine, loose bits, the hood leaked, it would need 
new 
tyres, brakes & the  exhaust replacing within a few weeks & it would spend a 
month out of six in  the service department, I wouldnât have touched it with 
a 
barge pole. But at  this point I was blissfully unaware.

Before buying the car I explained  that I only intended to keep it until the 
Aston arrived in October & as it  was from the same group I would expect get a 
good trade in value, this he  assured me I would. I told him about the two 
European driving trips planed in  the car and I needed to make sure that it was 
fully serviced, ready &  wouldnât need anything doing in the near future. I 
was told it was a great car,  well looked after with FSH, only two previous 
owners. The Doctor (the last  owner), who had really looked after it was 
mentioned 
quite often & it would  be quite some time before anything would need doing 
to it. It had just been  serviced with recent cam belts & clutch. The next 
service would be 12,000  miles or 12 months away, plus anything else needing 
attention would be taken  care of prior to purchase. This sounded perfect.

As arranged, I arrived  at Noon on the 28th February. S was not back from the 
DVLA office with the tax  disc, he must have forgotten it gets busy at DVLA 
offices when the new  registrations come out.
To kill time I headed into Manchester with my wife  (via Taxi) for lunch & 
was looking forward to the phone call to let me know  when the car was ready. 
Several hours later the call came & after a wait in  the rain for a Taxi, we 
returned to the dealer somewhat damp.
I paid the  amount due on my debit card, went through the hand-over rigmarole 
of how to turn  on the lights, open the boot & locate the dipstick etc, I 
asked for  reassurance that everything was as it should be. âwhat about the 
worn 
tyres? 12  month warrantee? Missing tools? Keys? Service book details? Next 
service due?  Previous owners etc etcâ. And I was a little disappointed to be 
told that the  Tubi exhaust had been removed (because it was a 
non-Ferrari-approved item!). Not  all the details in the service & warrantee 
book looked 
complete with missing  services & other details. Plus they were unable to 
provide an 
input for my  MP3 player (apparently the Becker unit fitted was not suitable 
& itâs a bit  risky attempting to adapt it) The promise that the engine oil 
had been toped up  with plenty of sawdust & a coat of Autoglym (not the cheap 
stuff they  normally use) had been applied, along with a friendly wink, nudge & 
a donât  worry, everythingâs spot on, put me at ease. After all I am buying 
it from a  main Ferrari dealer. What could go wrong I thought?
After promising to give  him full marks should I be contacted by Ferrari 
customer service, we shook  hands, took possession of the only key they had for 
the car & I headed home  in the rain with my wife, in my first Ferrari. That I 
discovered  leaked.

Good Start!

My insurance company wanted a health check on  the tracker so I took it to 
the nearest agent. Guess what? It didnât work. The  windscreen had been 
replaced 
in the past cutting the cable to the antenna. This  involved two mornings 
having it fixed & a Â240 bill. Did I bother the dealer  with this? No, that 
would 
be petty.

I started to find more faults & I  was beginning to wonder if I had been 
given the wrong car by mistake. I  contacted S & again I was assured everything 
would be taken care of and that  there was no rush to bring it in. I was told 
to 
leave it until the missing  documents, key fobs & tools etc: were ready.

The cable (I found on  the Internet) arrived to allow me to plug my Mp3 
player into the Becker radio.  Marvellous what you can find on ebay. Only 
Â9.95 & 
it took 5 minutes to do.  I made a mental note to let the dealer know how to do 
it.

Despite many  phone calls from me asking what was going on, I had to wait 
until the 10th May  before they could fit it in. By this time S no longer 
worked 
for them (I wonder  why?) & I would now be looked after by D (Sales team 
leader). Some of the  loose bits were adjusted & the engine problem was 
discussed, 
but deferred  until it could be further investigated. As the tyres clearly didn
ât meet the  minimum tread requirements D agreed to cover the cost of the 
rear tyres! I asked  for the condition of the brakes to be checked at this time 
& 
why the exhaust  looked in poor condition. I was told all was fine. I also 
left the cars  documents again to be filled in correctly.

Around this time I received my  V5 from the DVLA showing seven previous 
owners, Seven! Not two! The cars other  documents still only showed the 
warrantee 
up until November 2007. 

With  retrospect, I should have rejected the car in March got a refund & 
found an  Independent dealer.

Around this time, I asked for the trade in value of  my car towards the 
ordered Aston. I was quoted about Â51,000 if I kept the  mileage under 20K. 
Over 
that they wouldnât want it. So much for the good trade  in value then.

I repeatedly called to find out what was happening  regarding the engine 
noise & other issues. My first trip was getting close  & I was getting somewhat 
concerned. Eventually, I was asked to bring in the  car again on Monday 11th 
June for a few days. I left the list of outstanding  items with the car & was 
loaned a lovely Honda Accord, and it only cost a  Â18 admin fee to Admiral to 
add 
it to my insurance.

What then went on  that week was a comedy of errors resulting in very little 
work being carried  out. Apparently the service department had to ask the 
sales department before  they could do the work & service can never get hold of 
sales as they are  either in meetings, visiting customers or attending Ferrari 
events. To top it, I  was told that the brake pads & discs were badly worn & 
the exhaust  needed replacing. At my cost!

Iâd worn out the brake pads & exhaust?  That would take some doing under most 
driving conditions in that time!  Especially since 50% of the distance Iâd 
covered in it so far had been on the  motorway visiting the Aston Martin 
Factory 
& attending the Ferrari 60th  Birthday convoy to Castle Donington. 10% of the 
miles covered were to the dealer  & back!
You see, these are wear & tear items not covered under  warrantee! Wear & 
tear it might be (from the previous owners!) They were on  there last legs when 
I 
got them. What sort of life should one expect from an  exhaust before it 
starts spitting white powder into the engine bay anyway?  

At this time I asked for the pre sale report I had never been shown. By  
Friday I was told the car wouldnât be ready this week or in time for my long  
planed trip next week. I was beginning to get annoyed. After several phone  
calls, 
the last of which was quite heated, thinking my holiday had been ruined,  I 
told them that if the car isnât ready, they can keep it! I also decided I  
would never buy another car from this dealership/group and cancelled my order  
for 
the Aston & asked for my deposit back. At this point Service came up  with a 
way to get round it by next week by borrowing parts from another car  
apparently. A test drive couldnât be made however, as the rear tyres were  
illegal!

The report that I had repeatedly asked for (it had been  archived, filled 
away, kept in a locked room, stored on Dâs laptop that he  forgot to take 
home) 
finally arrived on Saturday 16th June. It made no mention  of the condition of 
the brakes, tyres or the fact that it had been fitted with  an unapproved 
exhaust. In fact, it looked like it had just been written. I noted  Spider was 
spelt incorrectly. But it did come with some words of advice from  D.
âRunning costs of a Ferrari are not free and I donât have an open cheque  
book, at some point costs have to be taken up by the owner of the car. A 
Ferrari 
 is simply not cheap to run I know but you are one of the lucky few that has 
this  pleasure and as you know when you drive it and simply look at it you 
know why  you bought it in the first place, the badge and everything that goes 
with it is  superior to anything else.â
Iâm one of the lucky few? Iâd better shut the  f**k up then & stop 
complaining about having to pay for things twice.  Perhaps itâs perfectly 
normal to 
make one wait for weeks so that it can be  claimed âit wasnât like that 
when you 
picked it upâ!

I extended the  insurance on the loan Honda to cover another unexpected week 
& was charged  another Â18-handling fee by Admiral. The fact I was paying them 
Â30 a week  already to insure the Ferrari that was locked away in the dealers 
off the road  somehow didnât count.

On collection of my car on the 20th June I was  presented with a bill for 
Â1079 to cover the brakes, that I paid with the warm  satisfaction of knowing 
I 
was one of the lucky few. I asked if they would like  to inspect the brakes on 
the loan Honda to make sure that I had not worn them  out in the last 
fortnight.

I decided not to have the exhaust replaced  yet. Â2,066 +VAT felt a little 
expensive when Iâd noticed they could be  purchased almost new on ebay for 
Â250.

On the morning of the 21st June I  had all the tyres replaced at a cost of 
Â780 (Incidentally I had to wait until  the end of August for the cheque for 
the 
rear Tyres). That afternoon I headed to  Newcastle to catch the ferry to 
Norway. Where it rains a lot.

By the time  I got to Newcastle it was obvious the ticking problem with the 
engine still  hadnât been fixed after all that, or perhaps it had developed a 
new ticking  fault? Also, during the following week I had the pleasure of 
finding out how bad  the roof was with water pouring into the car & it was not 
opening &  closing without a fight sometimes. To further cheer me up, by the 
time 
I got to  Sweden I was now having to drive with one eye on the dash, watching 
the Slow  Down warning light flicker on & off caused by a faulty heat sensor 
right by  the Exhaust! I did call service about this whilst in Sweden, but as 
they didnât  get back to me until I was in Denmark, a friend with a faultless 
360 Spider  called his independent Ferrari dealer who told me, it was more than 
likely a  faulty sensor & unless the light stayed on it wasnât serious. 

Whilst  in Sweden at the Koenigsegg factory an engineer had noticed me having 
trouble  getting the roof to close. I was quite pleased when he fished a 
rubber bung out  of the mechanism. I had noticed there was a bung missing from 
an 
open hole where  the roof drops. The roof worked much better after that. Just 
as well as it  rained quit a lot that week.

On my return to the UK, I took the car back  again to the dealer first thing 
Monday morning (I was half way through my two  trips) to have it looked at 
again. Once again I was told it wouldnât be ready  for the weekend. I would 
have 
to have the exhaust & roof gasket replaced at  a cost of Â3,202.76 +VAT. (At 
this time I gave a call to a nice chap at Customer  services, Ferrari UK). I don
ât know what he must have done, but in no time I  received a call from the 
dealer promising that it would be ready by the weekend  with the faulty sensor 
fixed & a new exhaust fitted. At no cost. The leaking  roof & engine would also 
be done but would have to wait until I returned.  The car was delivered to my 
house just in time for my second  trip.

Luckily, it didnât rain much for the next 8 days as I headed to the  south of 
France, Monaco, Italy & Switzerland & I was able to have the  top down where 
I could fully enjoy the sound of the 3.6 Lt, V6 400bhp engine  tapping away 
like a demented sewing machine.

On my return I started  calling the dealer every week (from the 16th July) to 
find out when they were  going to finish the work. By early August I was told 
the parts had now arrived  & the car was booked in at the first available 
date, the 21st August. It  would take three days to do. Apparently.

The car had now clocked up  23,000 odd miles & by my reckoning was still 
about 3,500 off the next  service, but just to be sure I asked when it was due 
& 
at what cost. Oh,  itâs due now I was told & it could do with the 30,000-mile 
service really,  oh, & the cam belts. That will be Â3,600

I have no problem paying for  parts & servicing when they are required. What 
I do have a problem with is  paying out for things that shouldnât need doing. 
This car was clearly not up to  Ferrari approved standards in the first place. 
Or perhaps all Ferraris fall  apart & ware out at a greatly accelerated rate. 

I had had enough. Do  you know the first thing sold on ebay was a Ferrari?

The car sold on Ebay  Friday the 24th August. And I only gotÂ12,500 less than 
I paid for it in  March.

Perfect. The car would be back on the Thursday just in time for  the August 
Summer bank Holiday weekend, giving me the chance to have one last  weekend in 
the car & for once I would get to hear the engine as it should  sound, instead 
of a Diesel van on steroids. And if it rained, I wouldnât get  wet. Then I 
could hand it over to the new owner.

Guess what? The car was  taking longer than expected. 

Friday. Still not finished. So much for the  weekend then! The weekend turned 
out nice & sunny as well. Perfect for open  top cars. Shame I hadnât got one.

Itâs now the 6th September thatâs 17  days since it went in & Guess where 
it 
still is. Waiting for  parts.

That brings the total to about 30 days now itâs been off the road.  Or, to 
put it another way, one month out of six, or 1/6th or 16.66%. Based on  the 
costs of insurance, Tax, depreciation etc. I estimate it cost about Â2,500  to 
have the car just sitting in the dealers. My time wasted  Priceless.

Strangely enough I got rather a lot of grief from the chap  that bought it of 
me over two weeks back. He wants to know why he has  transferred a large 
amount of cash into my account for a car that doesnât appear  to exist. 
As nobody had any idea when the parts will turn up, if they ever  will, the 
dealer put the car back together for me so the new owner can have it  It will 
be ready tomorrow afternoon the nice girl in service has told me.  Apparently. 
And the warrantee book no doubt will turn up one day.

It kind  of put me off getting another Ferrari.

Colin.

Ex Ferrari  Owner." 
(Dealer  was Stratstones!)
 
BR in the  UK
1986 328GTS (LHD 89,940km) Died August 19, 2006 Shrewsbury UK
1980 400i  (RHD 74,000 miles)
Searching for the right 512TR
2003 BMW 530d
1991  Alfa Spider S4 LHD
1993 Alfa Spider S4 LHD