Ownership vs. Membership
In 2005 I decided to buy my first Ferrari. I’d been looking at different models for years and fell in love with the 550 Maranello, the model I saw in the movie “Bad Boys II.” I finally mentally committed to buying the car and found a Lamborghini dealer in Scottsdale, Arizona that carried high end stuff around Halloween. By November the dealer called me and had found the car. He was ready and puckered up and pulled the trigger on it. It cost me $140,000 for a shiny slightly used (16,700 miles) 2000 Titanium Maranello. Boy was I excited! (The over inflated price I paid at XXXX dealership is for another blog…) So I signed my papers and had this thing at a hundred grand below the new sticker price.
My naive thought was that the car had already taken the majority of its depreciation hit so I’d be in good shape. Wrong….
It took about 2 days for an indicator light to turn on, less than 100 miles into my Ferrari experience. I called XXXX dealership and told them the problem and the car was dropped off at the local Ferrari dealership to have the sensor diagnosed. The problem was fixed and didn’t cost me anything other than a week without my wheels. No biggie I was happy.
So I started driving it and having fun, that is until I went out for breakfast one late HOT spring day in Arizona. After breakfast I got back in the car, turned the key and BOOM there was an explosion! I thought a tire had blown but when I got out to check they were fine. Jumped back in the car and tried to turn it on but nothing. It wouldn’t even turn over, not clicking, no hum hum rat a tat, not a sound. Fortunately I had contacted Van Horssen Group a couple weeks earlier and had inquired about becoming a member with a preview that Saturday afternoon. I called the guy to tell him I couldn’t make it due to my Ferrari exploding. He told me he would be more than happy to come help me so he drove a new 575 Maranello up to my explosion location and helped me push the heap of Italian metal to the side of the parking lot so it could be hauled off to be repaired.
I really liked what I saw at the club and decided that I wanted to be a member. It seemed like a lot of cash to throw out on a club but I figured it would be fun, I had no idea at the time how much of a bargain it was! So I signed up within a couple weeks and was a member. I used a few cars and in the meantime had my Ferrari in the shop being worked on. Turns out XXXX dealership had lied to me and told me all the service was up to date. When the Ferrari dealer called me to discuss the explosion he asked the last time I’d changed the fluids. I said I hadn’t but that they should have been in good shape since XXXX dealership assured me everything was current. The service guy said, “sorry to tell you this but these fluids are original from Italy, we can tell by their coloring…this car has not been serviced, perhaps EVER.” I couldn’t believe it! Of course I told him to bring it up to speed. He replaced all the fluids and fixed the gasket that had exploded, for a cool 9 grand. I accepted that I’d been duped and this was a cost of owning an Italian racing machine.
I got the car back and used it here and there, driving about 200-300 miles a month. Every month I had the bullet in my garage it cost me $2500 to have it sitting there for my payment and insurance. A few months later there was an incident of vandalism with a cut in the bumper. I thought, a grand, maybe two. Wrong again…$10,000 to repaint the hood, replace the bumper and put new side lights in. Oh yeah, I’d just had the bumper redone after hitting the curb a few times with my giant hood sticking out, but that was cheap, only $400 for that. In December I had to leave Arizona and left the car until I got back. I had it stored which added another $300 a month in expenses. After a few months I decided it made more sense to sell it than have a giant paper weight sitting around draining almost $3000 from me a month.
My friend at Van Horssen Group did some inquiries and found that I was looking at $75-90,000 if I wanted to sell it. Obviously I thought that seemed crazy, could the car have dropped another $40,000 with only 5000 new miles driven? I went back to my friends at XXXX dealership and asked what they thought. They said, we can sell this for $119,000, in fact we have someone right now. AWESOME! I gave them the keys and waited for a call. The guy didn’t pan out but they told me not to worry. I waited and waited, week after week, month after month and nothing. They had good reasons why it hadn’t sold but no buyers. Finally I went direct to Scottsdale Ferrari and asked them what they could pay for it. They offered $90,000 and with a big gulp I agreed. At least it wasn’t $75,000 right? I took the car down to their lot and on their inspection they noted a scratch on the hood, the BRAND NEW hood I had on it when I delivered it to XXXX dealership. He told me he’d have to take another $1500 off of the price because of it. I even went back to XXXX dealership and asked them to fix the car. They were adamant it did not happen there when I said it did in fact happen there and I’d told them before I even left the lot he jumped up and told me to get the Fu#%k out of the dealership. Wow, that’s customer service!
So there I was licking my wounds assessing the overall situation and adding up my costs of my first Ferrari.
Sales Tax/Tags - $11,000
Maintenance - $9,400
Repairs -$10,000
Fuel - $1,500
Insurance - $5,000
Interest on loan - $14,000
Sale vs. Purchase Price - $41,500
Storage - $600
Total cost for owning the car 19 months: $93,000 REAL DOLLARS.
Now take this and divide by the 5500 miles I drove the car and we get $16.90 I paid for every mile I drove this bad boy ride. All of a sudden I realized how much of a killer deal the Van Horssen Group was and is. The newer 575 Maranello they had ran around $500 a day for up to 100 miles. I had access to that and a ton of other brand new cars for between $1.50 a mile and $5.00 a mile compared to my car. This in and of itself is a massive difference, the cost being more than triple. But that’s just the beginning. I had to deal with the maintenance issues, keeping it secured, worrying about it getting dented (which it did at American Valet one night-they also refused to cover anything!) and it was only one car so I had all my eggs in one basket. With the club I could use cars when I wanted and then give them back when I was done. I didn’t pay for down time and I didn’t have any worries or concerns EVER.
Going through the whole experience of owning and being a member of VHG made it clear as day that the only choice was VHG and owning one of the cars for a guy that was going to drive 200-300 miles a month was pretty much insane. Needless to say I’m a huge fan of VHG and plan to be a member for years to come!
Damion
Van Horssen Group Member
Thank you very much for spending the time to tell this story. Ever since I was a kid and saw Cannonball Run I have always wanted a Lambo. For the past year I have been considering getting one but have been concerned about the hidden costs.
You have basically confirmed my concerns and helped justify why membership with this organization is a sound investment.