With the McLaren MP4-12C now in the wild, and some of the first cars getting towards their first service, we thought we ought to have a look at what the new McLaren will cost to maintain.
For a variety of reasons, today has been about chatting to a number of McLaren MP4-12C owners (more on that another day) and one chap who’s bought a 458 Italia instead of McLaren because the servicing is free.
Yes, in case you didn’t know, Ferrari now throw in free, unlimited mileage servicing for 7 years on the 458 (and all new Ferraris), and it’s transferable to subsequent owners too. This particular chap said he didn’t even consider the MP4-12C because the McLaren F1 cost so much to maintain he wasn’t willing to go the McLaren route.
And he was right, certainly as far as the F1 goes, as a standard service will cost you in the region of £30k – and that’s every 9 months if you do as McLaren wants – and when you need a big service with fuel tanks replacing (which happens every four years) you can easily end up spending £100k.
We don’t think our 458 owner thought the 12C would come close to that, but he had decided McLaren would be trying to make a killing on the maintenance costs on the 12C, so he steered clear. But was he right?
It turns out that the MP4-12C needs a service once a year – or 10,000 miles – and McLaren charge around £1000 for the whole thing. Which, by any standards, is not excessive. True, it’s a chunk more than the free servicing Ferrari offers, but hardly enough to dismiss the MP4-12C because of it.
And it’s certainly a lot more affordable than a service on the McLaren F1.
McLaren MP4-12C Photo Gallery
(51 photos – click any thumbnail for full gallery)
Phil Taylor says
How much ???????? FFS I’d call that day light robbery even for the rich.
Ron L. Gallite says
Who was it that said “A fool and his money are soon separated” One can be rich and a fool at the same time! That doesn’t mean that all rich folks are fools, only that some are.