Alfonso Larriva

Review of Ferrari North America

They sure do make great cars, but on the 458 and u...

They sure do make great cars, but on the 458 and up do make friends with your dealer. The only way to clear the service engine light on a Ferrari 458 and up is to "pay" your dealer a visit or to go to an independent dealer with a $25,000 aftermarket Leonardo Diagnostic tool. In my market, the Phoenix market, neither of the independent Ferrari shops have these, so the dealer is the only option.

My Mercedes clears "Service A" and "Service B" reminders just fine without a computer, but if you're going to buy a newer Ferrari, your car has to go to the dealer annually to get those service reminders cleared. I hope the revenue is worth it because I find them a major negative -- one which I have avoided BMW's for years because of.

The 458 is a pretty cool car admittedly, but I should have kept the 599. At least I didn't have to pay $165 to have the light cleared on it and waste the hour there and hour back to get the light cleared. Just seems like an annoying revenue source for the dealer. Though if you get a new one, you get 7 years of oil change reminders cleared for free. New is good, old is good -- in the middle seems to be a hassle.

I'm sure someone other than the dealer likes these reminders, but I would appreciate it if there were a way to disable them or clear them manually.