They’re one of the most expensive and luxurious brands of car, but do Ferraris come with air conditioning?
Almost every Ferrari comes with air conditioning as standard. This has been the case since Ferrari launched its first ‘road car’ in 1950: the 166 Inter. The V12 grand tourer was short-lived but came equipped with air conditioning, which was invented just ten years before.
Read on to learn more about the impressive history of Ferrari, and how their cars are equipped.
Stay Cool, Man
Ferrari has long been a staple product for the super-rich. They’re sleek, high-powered, and dramatically expensive cars that dominate the supercar category.
While Ferrari might not boast such an illustrious history as other car companies, they’ve certainly got some achievements. Founded by Enzo Ferrari in 1939, the company has grown to be a multi-billion dollar organization today.
They were originally an offshoot of the Italian car manufacturer, Alfa Romeo. They were borne out of the vision of super-powered, high-speed automobiles.
Although their first-ever motor vehicle was constructed in 1940, it wouldn’t be until 1947 that the Ferrari brand was established. The ‘prancing horse’ emblem that we all know so well was first attached to a car in the latter year.
Ferrari’s first ‘mass-produced’ road car was the 166 Inter, a grand tourer. In essence, it had the engine of a sports car, but the body of a street car.
In the earlier days, Ferrari didn’t build many vehicles – the 166 Inter had just thirty-eight made. Its successor was the 195 Inter, and again, only twenty-eight were made.
It may have been a very early production vehicle, but the 166 Inter came with air conditioning. The feature had only started being used in vehicles ten years before, in 1940.
Originally, a 166 Inter would have cost around nine thousand dollars, brand new. However, that was in 1949, and it was a staggering amount of money.
In 2014, a 166 Inter sold at auction for almost nine hundred thousand dollars.
Modern Day Motor
Ferrari continued to wow the motor world, and introduce innovation after innovation. Their brand remained almost exuberant, and opulent, with million-dollar cars becoming the norm.
In 2020, the cheapest brand-new Ferrari would still cost you more than two hundred thousand dollars.
In fact, the million-dollar figure may be considered an affordable sum when compared to the highest-priced Ferrari.
In 2018, a 1963 Ferrari GTO was sold for an eye-watering sum: over seventy million dollars. It was alleged to be the highest price ever paid for a single car.
And one of the features built into the car? Air conditioning.
Reportedly, the modern Ferrari has deeply complex and highly advanced air conditioning systems. They’re second only to the engine management system in terms of calibration procedures.
In 2017, an article was published in Overdrive, explaining at length the staggering ability of a Ferrari’s air conditioning system.
It explains that the systems are built to be extremely intelligent, taking into consideration countless factors when optimizing airflow.
They’re built with millisecond-accurate timing cycles, to ensure the utmost levels of comfort. After all, when the driver has spent – at minimum – tens of thousands of dollars on their car, it’s what they’ve paid for.
A Costly Affair
Of course, such high-performance parts leave the door wide open for massive maintenance costs. The air conditioning system in a Ferrari might be intelligent, but it won’t run forever.
As standard, air conditioning systems will need to be ‘re-gassed’ regularly. This ensures that the refrigerant that cools the air is refreshed, and working efficiently.
But if any part of that air conditioning system was to break down, the cost to repair or replace it would be extortionate.
That’s not all – general ownership of a Ferrari is dramatically expensive. It can cost as much as two thousand dollars for new tires, or three thousand for new brakes.
The cost of these replacements on a run-of-the-mill road car could be as little as ten percent of those numbers.
So, while they may look incredible on the road, they’re going to cost a little more than the ticket price to buy. You’re making an investment, and it’s going to be more than a few bucks every year to maintain it.
There was an article published in Autotrader in 2017 that discussed the most affordable used Ferraris on the market. However, the cheapest – a 1988 Mondial – was still thirty-three thousand dollars.
Time to start saving up.