The first owner of this Ferrari 296 lost €270 for every kilometer he drove... the second believes he got the best deal of his life.

Buy a Ferrari For some wealthy owners, the purchase of a new car can be seen as an almost “risk-free” operation. For years, many of the Italian brand's models saw their value rise rapidly after delivery, sometimes enabling the first owners to resell their cars without losing money, or even with a handsome capital gain. But this era seems to be becoming more complicated, even for the most exclusive Ferraris.

Proof with this Ferrari 296 GTS, recently presented by American youtuber Rob Ferretti. A hybrid supercar priced at over $540,000... and which has already lost over $150,000 with just 3,000 miles on the clock.

A Ferrari for half a million dollars

It doesn't get much more demonstrative than this Ferrari 296 GTS Spider equipped with the Assetto Fiorano package. From the very first glance, the configuration impresses: omnipresent carbon, carbon fiber bucket seats, expensive racing stripes, specific track-oriented suspension, not to mention a complete protective film. The problem is that all this equipment is extremely expensive. The central decorative strip alone would cost around $30,000. All in all, this Ferrari boasts over $140,000 worth of options. This brings the final price to around $542,000. Yet the Youtuber claims to have bought the car for around $375,000. A spectacular drop in value in a very short space of time.

500 dollars lost... for every mile driven

The math quickly adds up. With a discount of over $150,000 for just 3,000 miles (5,000 km) driven, the first owner would have lost around $500 per mile driven, or around 270 euros per km. To put it more concretely, this would be the equivalent of spending several thousand dollars, or euros, just to run a few errands in a Ferrari.

And this calculation doesn't even take into account insurance, maintenance or interest on financing. So the true cost of ownership is probably even higher.

This Ferrari 296 GTS also shows that the supercar market is beginning to regain a certain logic after several years of euphoria. According to the youtuber, some modern Ferraris have probably reached their discount “floor”, while others are still losing value. For him, the Ferrari 296 GTS is still worth around $375,000.

But his biggest concern is that nobody really knows yet how these hybrid Ferraris will age in ten or fifteen years' time. The cost of batteries and electrical systems could become a determining factor in their future value.