Used supercars guide: buying a Ferrari 575M

 

 

Ferrari's 575 Maranello offers you thoroughbred 200mph performance in a truly usable everyday package – and it's now yours for £45k. CAR's spec and buying guide tells you what to watch out for if you're eyeing up a 575M of your very own.

What's so special about the Ferrari 575M?

Building on the much-loved 550M, Ferrari’s mid-life facelift of its muscly V12-powererd two-seat GT arrived in 2002, adding projector headlamps, and an extra quarter litre of swept volume, pushing power up 23bhp to 508bhp.

This one for sale at Avro Motor Cars, was originally a dealer car, and it’s absolutely loaded. It’s got the Scuderia shields sunk into special matching wings, Daytona-style leather and the Fiorano handling pack. The last bit is worth looking out for – when launched, the 575 felt soft compared to the 550M, and the Fiorano pack was Ferrari’s answer, adding stiffer springs, and recalibrated dampers and steering maps.

Does the 575 perform like a modern supercar?

It's no slouch, 11 years on from its launch. Compared to the yowling V8s, Ferrari’s big V12s sound soulful if slightly muted, but there’s no question marks over the performance. Sixty-two is in the rear window in 4.2sec and the top speed is a claimed 202mph, but the significant factor is just how useable that performance is. This is a proper everyday supercar.

Every 550 came with a six-speed manual, but the 575M introduced Ferrari’s F1 paddle-shift option, as fitted to this car. It’s ponderous by modern DSG standards, particularly in auto mode, but you learn to modulate the throttle to compensate, and you can see why city based hotshots made it the default choice when new. Today you’re looking at £45k+ for a leggy 575M, while late-model low-mileage cars like ours will set you back over £60k.

Here are our top Ferrari 575M buying tips

No V12 Ferrari is going to be cheap to run, and you could pour thousands into sorting niggles on a tired car, so buy carefully:

Belts – Unusually, the big V12 is belt, not chain driven, and that belt needs changing every three years or 31k miles at a cost of around £1000. The belt on Club GT’s 575M snapped, resulting in a valve/piston tête-a-tête. If that happens to you, you could be looking at an £8k bill.

Mileage – High mileage (by Ferrari standards) needn’t be a reason to walk away if the car has been scrupulously maintained. You’ll get into a much cheaper car, and most exotics benefit from regular use as long periods of inactivity breeds gremlins.

Wing badges – Like those Scudiera shields on the wings? The wings are actually recessed to accommodate the badges, so doing a proper retro-fit on a car without them is expensive.

Servicing – Services alternate between major and minor. First is the normal minor annual service for around £850 at an independent specialist; the second more involved bit of tinkering could set you back £1500.

Spares – Essex-based Eurospares (Eurospares.co.uk) is a great source of new and used parts for Ferrari, Lambo and Maserati, and the UK is home to dozens of specialists who can help maintain your 575M.

Sourcing – Specialists are also probably the best source for locating cars, as Ferrari dealers concentrate on retailing the newer cars. When buying, insist on a water-tight service history including itemised receipts, not just stamps in the book.