FASTCASH

Sl55 Hands Down. My Current Driver Is 03 Sl55 With 52k , Cars Runs Like An Absolute New Car, No Rattles, No Problems...car Starts Every Time And Absolutely Hauls Ass.. Great Size Trunk, Easy Daily Driver With A Ton Of Image.

KiloKat

I would have to agree with you FastCash. I realize that Ferrari has an awesome image but when it comes to performance vs. reliability & comfort, I think there is only one answer here. I have had a CL55 AMG and several SL55 AMGs. Just took delivery of an '07 SL65 and also have a CL65. Incredible performance that lasts for years accompanied by thousands of trouble free miles.

Sea-Dated

Ferrari. The name, heritage and reputation says it all. As far as service, if you have the money to buy one of these for $250,000 or so, are you really worried about an extra grand per year for maintenance? If it is in the shop for a couple of days then drive another car. With this kind of coin I highly doubt this would be your only vehicle. You pull up to the yacht club in SL55 and everyone will look and then turn away, another SL. Park it by the other 40 or so in the lot. In a 575 people will stop, look and stare and give you instant respect for the fine thoroughbred you are driving. Just my opinion and I can't afford either one.

ctconsulting

I just sold my 575 while awaiting the new 430 Spider that comes in next year. If you want to compare the 575, try comparing to the 65AMG. Much closer comparison. While the Benz is awesome, nothing compares to a Ferrari. They are not the maintenance problem described. Just like our boats, keep up with the maintenance on the schedules and it's not too bad. The 575 is a touring car much like the Benz. It is comfortable to drive and ever so smooth especially with the F1 package.

Zudnic

When I was in the car biz my partners son owned the local Lambo dealer and carried a few other exotics, that I would borrow for my showroom. Every time I would have a Ferrari of any model a service customer either had one or was friends with someone with a service bad story about Ferrari....

My neighbor just traded his 550 because it was a "lemon". A 1998 with 1,200 plus or minus miles on the od. The drivers window would not roll up on his last outing! Any time someone would say something negative about Ferrari and service nightmare was because the car had low miles, only saw a repair shop after some ghost from sitting problem popped up on the cars once a year outing. Our customers and a couple friends that used their cars regularly and serviced them regardless of miles had no trouble at all.

The only clutchless car I've driven and liked was in a 98' 550.......

Hydrocruiser

Ever notice how the German cars look way out of date and style 5-10 years later?

A Ferrari is never outdated...they retain resale value like crazy while you can get a Benz SL500 1990 for about $5,000 or less.


End of story...money talks BS walks..

dhlaw

The money you lose in depreciation on the Benz over 15 years is far less than the maintenance costs of a Ferrari. Been there, done that. My 15k service on my spider was $26k, yeah thats right.... 26 thousand!! That is because the car was out of warranty and the header had a crack (known issue), the upper cats were bad and triggering a fault light and slow down sensor, the clutch was out of spec, the belts needed to be replaced which required removal of the engine as well as new tensioners and bearings, on and on.... I picked the car up and drove less than 1300 miles before one of the "new" tensioners failed and lunched the motor. While Ferraris are great to look at they do not respond well to daily use and the value plummets when you get more than 15k miles on them. I get Ferrari Market letter and they state that acceptable mileage on used F cars is about 1500- 2000 miles per year. If you want a garage quenn get the F car, if you want to drive alot get the Benzo.

This is my current ride, 2006 CLS55 AMG with a Kleeman K3 package. She is putting 511hp to the rear wheels and is turn key.

Hydrocruiser

Ferrari's are costly to maintain?

Nah...just take 'em to Tune Up and go..

PhantomChaos

Wow....this thread is old! Here's the barn now.

LubeJobs42

Hi Dave, You finally got it!! Congrats! You need to add some Renntech stuff to it. You can't imagine the differance. My Cl65 was very fast when I got it BUT, once I added the headers, pulleys and ECM upgrade, it turned into an animal. I can smoke the tires an entire block! For what it will cost to add the Renntech stuff to your car, you couldn't by 3 blades on one of your forged props!!