Faults:

Driver's electric window switch sometimes does not work.

Slight water leak between NSF door glass and roof.

General Comments:

I recently bought my first Ferrari. She's a 360 Spider in silver, with red trim. Like most schoolboys, I grew up with a sheer fantasy for these machines. This car is my toy and not used everyday. It's a shame, but just as other owners comment, I have to plan my route, and decide if it's safe to take the Ferrari.

I live in South Birmingham, England, and if I think I have to leave the car out of sight. I won't take it!

However, when the alarm clock goes off and the sun is shining through the bedroom window, my first thought is ALWAYS, can we take the 360?

There fast, very fast, my other car is a 2004 500SL, and although it is a truly beautiful car, for sheer exhilaration, the Ferrari is just stunning.

It's the only car I've ever owned that I won't let anyone else drive, well other than my partner. I'll gladly take you for a spin, but you won't get the keys!

Performance, handling and of course the sound, make the hair on the back of your neck stand up, but treat it with respect... Even with the perfect manners and the technology... It will hurt you if you get it wrong.

So to sum up, I love this car very much. I've never been a biker, but would imagine it's the same as having your pride and joy in the garage to enjoy when you can.

Though unlike a bike, people have to touch it, lean over it to look in, even try the door handles!

Finally, I would not even begin to compare it to my Mercedes. I do 40K a year in that. It's quick, it's quiet, it's fast and very practical. Plus it has a metal roof that folds away at the press of a button.

For every day use the Mercedes is perfect (unless you have kids), but don't try and compare the two, they are very different creatures!

Faults:

Misfire when cold. Came and went - never properly sorted.

General Comments:

For what it did, I enjoyed the car immensely. Lots of power, a noise that can't fail to make you smile, and surprisingly involving and adjustable handling. Quite happy to be thrown about too, although it's not exactly appropriate to play the hooligan in a car which everyone seems to be looking at even when you're driving sensibly. Miss a gear in this, and it's hideously embarassing!

In 14 months and 6,000 miles I was pulled over six times. Two of those times the officers seemed more keen to sit in it and look at/listen to the engine than give me a ticket. Not that I'm complaining of course, but the phrase "abuse of power" does for some reason spring to mind.

Other than that, it's what you'd expect. Beautiful, musical, shatteringly fast, obscenely expensive to run (10-12 mpg hurts regardless of your income), obsecenely expensive to service (£2,000+ a time), obscenely expensive to insure (£don't ask!) and perhaps worst of all, you simply can't leave it anywhere. I returned to it on a busy town centre street in October to find a brick resting on what was left of the windscreen, having bounced it's way up the bonnet. It was also keyed twice before, again both in so called "nice" areas, in broad daylight and with plenty of people about.

Much as I loved the car, British society had rendered it pointless. When a car can't be parked without being vandalised, and speed obsessed cops are attracted to it like flies to excreta, even the most ardent petrolhead and Ferrari nut would eventually start to ask the simple question. Why. This I did one crisp autumn morning back in October 03, and among the tears (literally) when her new owner drove her away, there came a certain sense of relief too. She went to a good home, and I wouldn't have to worry about her any more. But neither would I enjoy the wail of her flat plane crank V8 as it nudged 9,000 RPM!

Buy one, but be prepared for British society to display its disapproval. People will damage it, council estate kids will spit at you and throw cans as you pass, and the police will harrass you. If I said all of this didn't take the shine off owning it, I would be lying.