Ferrari is an automotive company founded in 1939 in Italy by a man named Enzo Ferrari. If the name Enzo Ferrari sounds familiar in recent years, it is probably because Ferrari made a car named after him in 2002. Anyway, starting with the sleek Ferrari 125 S in 1947, Ferrari quickly became known for beautiful car designs and very fast top speeds. The road cars were sleek masterpieces of Italian craftsmanship, and the race cars won basically every raced they entered… until a little car called the Ford GT-40 MKII absolutely destroyed them at Lemans in 1966, but that is a story for another day. So Ferrari began a rise in popularity, a rise that, despite a few rough patches, has never really slowed down.
That isn't to say that Ferrari hasn’t made bad cars though. Some, such as the bland and disgusting 2002 Ferrari Maranello, can be marked as products of their time because, as any car lover worth anything will quickly inform you, almost no cars looked good in the late 1990s and early 2000s. But Ferrari, once again, began to rise in popularity, to the point where the company was voted most powerful brand by Brand Finance, in June of 2018. During this time it seemed like Ferrari could do no wrong, turning out masterpiece after masterpiece. However, for every beautiful car like the 458 Italia (shown on top) we had to get abominations like the 2011 Ferrari FF (shown on bottom)
2012 Ferrari 458 Italia
2016 Ferrari FF
In 2011, someone on Ferrari’s design team probably went home, picked up his shoe and said “I’m drunk.” and apparently the rest of the design team were all drunk as well because, later that year, we got this horrific disaster on wheels.
Not only did the FF look like a deformed shoe, but it handled about as well. The awkward rear-wheel drive system was never perfectly balanced, making the ride as bumpy as a wooden roller coaster. Although an all-wheel drivetrain was eventually made available, this didn’t stop the vehicle from fishtailing around, even in perfect weather conditions. The fuel economy wasn't horrible, averaging 18.3 mpg, but since when does anyone buy a Ferrari for good gas mileage. The car did boast a fast top speed of 208.5 mph, presumably so that people behind it wouldn’t have to look at its oversized ass for that long. All this added up to a price tag of $295,000 during its six-year run that finally ended in 2016.
The world had several months of celebrations, until a chilling announcement at the 2016 Geneva Motor Show. Word had leaked that Ferrari would be announcing a new car. People all around the world were excited to find out what beautiful Italian car would soon be put into production. But then Ferrari announced that it would be the successor to the FF and hopes took a sharp drop. expected something that was even worse than the FF. Instead, Ferrari unveiled the GTC4 Lusso Concept, a beautiful and sleek wagon-style Ferrari that was enjoyed by almost everyone who saw it. However, there was one keyword that nobody seemed to notice until it was too late–”Concept.”
In the four months between the unveiling and it’s first sale, probably to someone as vision impaired as Mr. Magoo, Ferrari changed everything that people liked about the car. They brought back the lumpy rear end from the FF. The gas mileage dropped down to 13.4mpg. And the interior was scaled back as well. While the material on the inside of the vehicle was definitely beautiful and added a sense of luxury to the car, there were certain drawbacks. The basic model of the car only came with a single phone charging port, and the car was known to short-out any plug-splitter attachments. But don’t worry, Ferrari was willing to install up to four more charging ports in the car–but only if you wanted to pay $150 for each one.
Speaking of money, you might be wondering how much one of these cars actually costs. Well first off, if you are actually considering purchasing one of these cars you might just want to check yourself into the closest mental institution first. But, as this is a proper car review, I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t tell you the price. So, you can purchase a Ferrari Lusso for around $310,000. Or you can buy the slightly nicer Lusso T for $350,000. But there is also a third, much more expensive, option. If you are someone with cash to burn, go over to Ferrari’s website and customize your own Lusso or Lusso T. The custom car creator on the official Ferrari website lets you customize almost every single detail of the vehicle. When you are done, your bill should be around $1.2 million dollars. And to put into perspective how much of a waste of money this is, if you are looking for luxury cars, you can buy a 2014 Rolls-Royce Phantom for just $167,000. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to look at pictures of a Honda Civic hatchback to remind myself what a good hatchback actually looks like.
2019 Ferrari Lusso T
2019 Honda Civic Type R Hatchback
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