Ferrari PCP

A Ferrari PCP defers a final payment in the same way lease purchase does, with one difference that changes everything about it: the lender guarantees the closing figure rather than estimating it. Personal contract purchase is the full name, and PCP is what everyone actually says.

If the Ferrari is worth less than the guaranteed figure at the end of the term, the shortfall belongs to the lender and not to you. You hand the vehicle back and walk away from it. If it is worth more, the equity is yours to take as the deposit on the next car.

The arithmetic looks like lease purchase. On a Ferrari 296 GTB at £241,560, a deposit of £48,312 and a deferred final payment of £132,858 over 48 months at an indicative nominal rate of 8.9 per cent give monthly payments of £2,485, against £4,800 on hire purchase. The rate on a real Ferrari PCP is usually a little higher than the equivalent lease purchase, because someone has to pay for the guarantee and it is not the lender.

We arrange this alongside the other Ferrari finance options on this site, with our commercial lending starting at £25,000. Where an agreement is regulated consumer credit, it is arranged through an FCA-authorised firm we work with. We are a broker rather than a lender, we are not a dealer, and we do not sell cars.

Worked example

PCP on a Ferrari 296 GTB

Car: Ferrari 296 GTB
List price: £241,560
Deposit at 20%: £48,312
Term: 48 months
Indicative nominal rate: 8.9%
Deferred final payment: £132,858
Monthly payment: £2,485

Arithmetic, not an offer, and no lender has seen your case. Computed from the list price using the same calculation as every other figure on this site. Change the deposit, the term or the rate and the payment changes with them.

What a Ferrari PCP personal contract purchase agreement contains

A deposit, a term, a rate, an annual mileage, a guaranteed final payment and a condition standard for the return of the vehicle. That last pair is what separates this type of car finance from every other type of finance on this site. Under hire purchase or lease purchase nobody inspects anything, because the car is yours. Under a personal contract purchase the lender has guaranteed a value and therefore has an interest in the state the vehicle comes back in. Read the mileage figure and the condition wording before the rate, because on a Ferrari PCP those two clauses carry more money than a point on the rate ever will. They are also the two clauses that make this finance different from the finance on the rest of this site.

What the guaranteed value on a Ferrari PCP actually costs

It is priced into the rate and it is never free. A lender carrying the risk on the closing value of a £241,560 car charges for that risk, so a Ferrari PCP is rarely the cheapest of the finance deals on the table. Whether it is worth paying for depends entirely on how confident you are about the model. On a Ferrari with a settled used market you are often buying protection you will never use, and the same money spent on a lease purchase would have bought you the equity instead. On a car you are genuinely unsure about, the guarantee is the cheapest insurance available anywhere in car finance, and it is the one financial protection in a PCP that is worth what it costs.

How mileage and condition affect a Ferrari PCP

The guarantee assumes an agreed annual mileage and fair condition on return, and both are enforceable. Go over the mileage and there is a pence per mile charge that no amount of good finance can offset. Return the vehicle with damage beyond fair wear and tear and there is a bill for that too. On these cars the mileage allowances are usually generous, because no lender expects a Ferrari to cover 20,000 miles a year, but generous is not unlimited and the figure sits in the agreement rather than in the conversation. A personal contract purchase is the one type of finance here where how you use the car changes what it costs you.

Ferrari PCP compared with lease purchase

Same shape, different owner of the risk. Under lease purchase the deferred figure is an estimate and you carry it. Under a personal contract purchase it is a guarantee and the lender carries it. That is the only structural difference, and it produces two consequences: the PCP rate is higher, and the PCP gives you a walk-away option that lease purchase does not. If you know you are keeping the Ferrari, hire purchase or lease purchase will cost less. If you want the choice, the guarantee is what you are paying for. Compare the two on the total cost of the finance rather than on the monthly payments, because on the monthly payments they look almost the same.

Which lenders write PCP on a Ferrari, and which will not

Fewer lenders than you would expect. A personal contract purchase needs a lender willing to publish a guaranteed value four years out on a car worth a quarter of a million pounds, and most lenders financing cars at this level would rather not take that position at all. The lenders who do write finance PCP agreements on these cars tend to restrict them to the latest models with strong trading data behind them. On anything older, on limited build cars and on most classic Ferrari models, a PCP will simply not be offered, and any broker telling you otherwise is describing lease purchase finance and calling it something else. That is worth knowing before you spend a fortnight chasing finance that was never available on the car.

What deposit a Ferrari PCP needs

The same range as the other car finance options here, normally 10 to 20 per cent, and every worked figure on this site assumes 20 per cent. On a Ferrari Roma at £199,355 that is £39,871. On a Ferrari Purosangue at £398,000 it is £79,600. A larger deposit reduces the monthly payments and the total finance advanced, but it does not change the guaranteed final figure, which is set against the car rather than against your equity in it. That is worth understanding before you decide how much to put down, because on a PCP a very large deposit is money placed into an asset you may hand back at the end.

The three ways a Ferrari PCP ends

Pay the final figure and keep the Ferrari. Hand the vehicle back, subject to mileage and condition, and owe nothing further. Or take the equity, where the car is worth more than the guaranteed figure, and roll it into the deposit on the next agreement. That third route is how most personal contract purchase agreements on cars like these actually finish, it rolls one agreement straight into the next piece of finance, and it is the reason the guarantee so often goes unused. The equity belongs to you either way and the lender has no claim on it. What the lender sold you with the guarantee was the right to walk away, not a share of your upside.

PCP on coupe, spider and Portofino style models

Body style moves the residual and therefore the monthly payments. A coupe and its open equivalent do not hold value identically, and a lender setting a guaranteed figure will price the difference in. Across the current range that means a Ferrari Roma coupe, a Ferrari 296 GTB and a Ferrari 12Cilindri are each assessed on their own trading evidence rather than on one Ferrari average, and the spider versions are assessed separately again. The same was true of the Ferrari Portofino and its folding hardtop when it was current. It is one reason two quotes on two Ferrari models at similar list prices come back hundreds of pounds a month apart.

Financing a Ferrari through a limited company

Most of what we place is written to a limited company rather than to an individual, because that is how directors buying cars at this value normally want it structured. The company is the hirer, the directors usually give personal guarantees, and the accounting treatment of a personal contract purchase differs from hire purchase in ways that matter at this value. Where an agreement is regulated consumer credit, it is arranged through an FCA-authorised firm we work with, so a personal agreement is not a dead end. That is a question for your accountant and not for us, and we would rather say so than guess at your circumstances. What we can tell you is which lenders are comfortable with your company shape, because financing a car of this value fails on the company far more often than it fails on the car, and financing it through the wrong lender wastes a search on your credit file for nothing.

Ferrari car finance options beyond a PCP

There are four other types of finance on this site and each is worth a look before you commit. Hire purchase is the same car finance without the guarantee, and it costs more each month and leaves you owning the car. Lease purchase costs about the same as a Ferrari PCP and leaves the residual risk with you. Business contract hire is a lease, so no finance is ever repaid against ownership. Equity release against a Ferrari you already own is car finance running in the other direction, and that finance funds deposits more often than people expect. Set the finance deals side by side on total cost. A Ferrari car finance decision made on the monthly payment alone is a decision made on the least informative number in the quote, and the financial difference between two quotes usually sits somewhere else entirely.

Comparing Ferrari finance PCP quotes from more than one lender

Ask three lenders for finance on the same car and you will get three different answers, because each one is pricing a different view of the same residual. That is the argument for putting Ferrari car finance through a broker rather than taking the first finance deals you are offered. We put the same case to the lenders whose appetite fits, compare the finance options on total cost rather than on the monthly payment, and tell you which we would take. The comparison is simple once the guarantee has been priced. Our tips are the same on every Ferrari car finance enquiry: ask for the deferred figure before you ask for the rate, ask what the fees are, and ask what changes if you settle early.

When a personal contract purchase PCP agreement is the wrong answer

When you already know you are keeping the car, which is most of the time. Financing a Ferrari you intend to own through a PCP means paying for a walk-away option you will never exercise, and hire purchase or lease purchase will cost less over the same term. It is also the wrong answer on any car you expect to appreciate, because the guarantee is worthless when the market is above it. And it is the wrong answer where the money would be better raised another way: financing the purchase partly through a refinance of a car you already own frequently beats every set of car finance deals a lender will quote on the new one. We would rather say that than place the finance.

What a broker does on a Ferrari PCP that you cannot do alone

Car finance applications at this level are argued rather than processed. A lender pricing a guaranteed value on a £241,560 car is making a judgement, and judgements move when the case is put properly, which is why the same application can come back at different rates from different desks. We put the case to the lenders whose appetite fits, compare the finance offers on total cost, and tell you which of the finance options we would take with the reason attached. If the answer is that none of the finance on offer is worth taking, we will say that instead. Going direct to a single lender gets you one view of the residual, one finance offer, and no way of knowing whether either was a good one. Comparing three sets of finance is the only way that question gets answered.