The Ultimate Daily Driver?

[Gotta-Qik-C7]

Small dings on a Ferrari are no more expensive to repair than small dings on a Chevy.

What it comes down to is that I want to keep the "nice" car nice, so regardless of cost, normal wear and tear is more disconcerting.

C7 in "Plastic" so it won't dent as easily as metal!

[Onslaught]

Small dings on a Ferrari are no more expensive to repair than small dings on a Chevy.

That's not 100% true. It cost more to get aluminum stuff repaired then sheet metal. Even small little stuff.

[GoCougs]

That's not 100% true. It cost more to get aluminum stuff repaired then sheet metal. Even small little stuff.

And you're not taking a Ferrari to the local auto shop to get painted either.

I wouldn't be surprised that owing to the bespoke nature of a modern Ferrari (each car's color is logged, which is to say it's uniquely different, as there is slight variation in paint batches) that a damaged body panel demands a full-car respray.

[Soup DeVille]

And you're not taking a Ferrari to the local auto shop to get painted either.

I wouldn't be surprised that owing to the bespoke nature of a modern Ferrari (each car's color is logged, which is to say it's uniquely different, as there is slight variation in paint batches) that a damaged body panel demands a full-car respray.

Only the most blindly diehard Tifosi would believe any of that.

[veeman]

to believe the cost to "fix a small ding" in a ferrari is equivalent to that of a mainstreamer car is naive.  it is far more expensive to fix almost anything in a ferrari compared with even a mercedes.

http://ferraris-online.com/Articles/SCM_200008_SS.shtml

http://www.ferraris-online.com/Articles/SCM_0006.html

sure you can try to fix it yourself or take it to a local guy who uses a tool he got off of QVC or the home shopping network.  And it "might" look back to original.  That's a big "might".  Very few people who have the means and interest to buy a new ferrari would do that. 

[Soup DeVille]

No, believing the Ferrari hype is naive. You think 99% of Ferrari dealerships actually man and support thir own exclusive body shop in this country?

No, most of them are not only owned by the Chevy or the Lexus dealer down the street, they use the exact same body shop folks, they just charge more.

Sure, most Ferrari owners gladly pay the extra money because they think they're getting something special. That's marketing, not reality.

[Soup DeVille]

And no, small dings ( the kind one might expect from careless for openers in a parking lot) do not require parts to be flown in from Italy, or for the frame to be racked, or body panels to be pulled.

[12,000 RPM]

And no, small dings ( the kind one might expect from careless for openers in a parking lot) do not require parts to be flown in from Italy, or for the frame to be racked, or body panels to be pulled.

Yea Im gonna go with Cougs' first hand expertise on this one sorry.

[Soup DeVille]

Yea Im gonna go with Cougs' first hand expertise on this one sorry.

What first hand experience?

I have no doubt that Ferrari dealers charge exbortitant fees. The implication that there's nothing between that and some dude with a QVC suction popper is risable.

[SVT666]

What first hand experience?

Sarcasm detector broken?

I have no doubt that Ferrari dealers charge exbortitant fees. The implication that there's nothing between that and some dude with a QVC suction popper is risable.

Ferraris will be more expensive to repair just because of the bodyshell materials and the paint.  I will go with Onslaught's first hand experience on this one.

[Soup DeVille]

Sarcasm detector broken?
Ferraris will be more expensive to repair just because of the bodyshell materials and the paint.  I will go with Onslaught's first hand experience on this one.

You're not replacing body panels for minor dents. Ferrari aluminum works the same as aluminum on anything else, and these days Fords have more exotic paint jobs.

[MrH]

You're not replacing body panels for minor dents. Ferrari aluminum works the same as aluminum on anything else, and these days Fords have more exotic paint jobs.

That's not true at all.

[Soup DeVille]

That's not true at all.

Tell me more

[SVT666]

You're not replacing body panels for minor dents. Ferrari aluminum works the same as aluminum on anything else, and these days Fords have more exotic paint jobs.

When I drove the GT-R earlier this year, the driving school was showing a video on how Ferraris are built.  The paint jobs are scrutinized to a level I have never seen before.  If the owner wants his Ferrari's paint job to be like factory spec, it's gonna cost more.  Also, Ferraris aren't all made of aluminum.  Carbon Fiber is their new preferred material.  Dents are now depressions.

[Soup DeVille]

When I drove the GT-R earlier this year, the driving school was showing a video on how Ferraris are built.  The paint jobs are scrutinized to a level I have never seen before.  If the owner wants his Ferrari's paint job to be like factory spec, it's gonna cost more.  Also, Ferraris aren't all made of aluminum.  Carbon Fiber is their new preferred material.  Dents are now depressions.

That's easier then: they don't dent.

And your confusing paint ( as in the material) with the paint job, which to be honest, has never been that impressive. High quality by OEM standards, but lower than show quality.

[MrH]

When I drove the GT-R earlier this year, the driving school was showing a video on how Ferraris are built.  The paint jobs are scrutinized to a level I have never seen before.  If the owner wants his Ferrari's paint job to be like factory spec, it's gonna cost more.  Also, Ferraris aren't all made of aluminum.  Carbon Fiber is their new preferred material.  Dents are now depressions.

I'm pretty sure the only Ferrari with carbon fiber body panels is the LaFerrari.  Everything else is aluminum I believe.

[NomisR]

I wouldn't want to drive a super car around as a daily driver because for one, it'd get old real fast.  My car isn't even a supercar but the type of attention that it attracts gets annoying after a while.  Waving from kids is cool.. but people simply driving next to you just so they can snap a picture of your car with their cellphone and ending up swirving at you, people asking about how much does it cost.. and an assortment of other questions... like is it fast?  Does it have a V8?  And so on and so forth... 

And of course the poor line of sight especially when you're trying to backup is pretty much the same for majority of super cars. 

Not for me..

personally, at least right now.. I want to get myself a 328d wagon.. it fits the bill of what I want in a car.. semi luxury, somewhat sporty, space, and good fuel economy.  335d wagon would fit the bill better but this would do. 

[SVT666]

Unthusiast.

[GoCougs]

Even being generous and forgetting about the more cost in removing a space-frame body panel or the repair work in non-steel body panels, not only does each body panel have custom work both before and after paint the trim pieces and ancillary things like mirrors and fender badges will be a PITA to remove/replace. For example, look how the the mirror and fender badge are mounted on a 458. Not only are they are PITA to get on and off paint application will have to be very careful (strip and repaint?) to prevent buildup on the chamfers to prevent crack/flaking when the pieces are reinstalled.

Yes, you can fix an F458 ding or dent like you would in a Camry or Malibu but it ain't really fixing it - it's in effect a hack job which many in the enthusiast world are prone to be doing but which the typical Ferrari owner isn't likely to tolerate. It's not magic to be able understand the basic materials, structure and processes of how a product is built - doubly so if a person has hand-on experience with all of those things, both personally and professionally. If an owner wants a ding or dent in an F458 repaired to factory specification it's going to cost a heckuva lot more than an average car.

[Soup DeVille]

There's. serious lack of reading comprehension going on here. Minor dings, such as those that represent the annoying reality of a daily driver are what I'm taking about, not major collision repair or anything that removes a body panel. And if you think that such repairs don't happen in the factory, you're deluding yourself.

Anyway, I love Ferraris, but lets not swallow the factory propaganda whole. For years they used Fiat switchgear and window motors; and to buy them from Ferrari as replacements you paid four times as much. There's a lot of special equipment in them, but it's not the paint or the body panels.

[GoCougs]

No, no lack of reading comprehension by anyone here that I see. Minor ding repair (no body panel removal) is going to be a LOT more expensive on a F458 or the like simply owning to a lot more time in removing trim pieces/hardware and getting as-factory paint match, finish and panel contour.

[Soup DeVille]

Yes, Ferraris are just festooned with chrome these days, and no other car ever has to have its paint matched, or the dings raised to match the already existing fender contour.

[12,000 RPM]

A body panel is a body panel Cougs. Unless you can provide something besides convenient speculation stating otherwise

Plus how would an owner be able to tell whether or not a body shop painted to "OEM standards"? Are Ferrari owners all body work forensic scientists? If the paint is a visual match and everything fits right I highly doubt owners look much further.

[SVT666]

A body panel is a body panel Cougs. Unless you can provide something besides convenient speculation stating otherwise

Plus how would an owner be able to tell whether or not a body shop painted to "OEM standards"? Are Ferrari owners all body work forensic scientists? If the paint is a visual match and everything fits right I highly doubt owners look much further.

You don't know Ferrari owners do you?

[Raza]

A body panel is a body panel Cougs. Unless you can provide something besides convenient speculation stating otherwise

Plus how would an owner be able to tell whether or not a body shop painted to "OEM standards"? Are Ferrari owners all body work forensic scientists? If the paint is a visual match and everything fits right I highly doubt owners look much further.

What, you don't have one of those paint thickness measuring devices?  You don't fly in a short Italian man to inspect the workmanship on your car?

[Soup DeVille]

What, you don't have one of those paint thickness measuring devices?  You don't fly in a short Italian man to inspect the workmanship on your car?

People can choose to spend all sorts of money in all kinds of silly ways. That was never a concern of mine.

[GoCougs]

People can choose to spend all sorts of money in all kinds of silly ways. That was never a concern of mine.

People who choose to spend a bunch of money on a late-model Ferrari and going to choose to spend a bunch of money in repairing it properly.

[Soup DeVille]

People who choose to spend a bunch of money on a late-model Ferrari and going to choose to spend a bunch of money in repairing it properly.

More power to them; just don't delude yourself into thinking you're getting something from the Ferrari dealership that you won't from a decent collision shop other than a higher bill. Half the time, that work is being jobbed out anyways.

[GoCougs]

Uh, why are mentioning a Ferrari dealer?

()

[Soup DeVille]

Because you are talking a out factory pecs and typical Ferrari owners, that's why. Guess where the typical Ferrari owner gets his late model Ferrari repaired.