Ferrari Roma Spider review

Even in this stratospheric sector, buying a Ferrari demands deeper-than-usual pockets. The Roma Spider costs £210,838 – before options – a £28k chunk more than the coupe. Perhaps these sorts of figures don’t register with the customer base, but very rich people didn’t get that way by flinging their money around willy-nilly.

An Aston Vantage Roadster (from £185k), Porsche 911 Turbo cabrio (from £190,600) and Bentley Conti GTC all ask for slightly less money, before digging into the options. Which is always worth doing, particularly on a Ferrari.

Some examples, if you don’t mind.

A ‘special colour’ is £8,316. The cracking multilayer Rosso Portofino red paint you see in the pictures above? £23,976. It gets juicier: go completely off-piste and choose an ‘on demand special colour’ and it’ll cost £39,624.

Watch those big kerbs: 20in forged diamond wheels are £4,141. Red brake calipers, £1,512. The carbon fibre spoiler on the back deck £3,919, the carbon rear diffuser £7,838. You’re looking at £3,214 for the front radar, and £3,695 for the well worth considering Magneride dampers.

Step inside and Daytona style seats are £3,303. The neck warmer £2,239. Want two-tone leather? That’ll be £3,598 please. The passenger display is £3,919, the premium hi-fi £4,142, or the Bowers and Wilkins unit £6,900. Neither is good enough to justify the money asked there. Even the floor mats with embroidered logo are £895.

This takes us into the world of personalisation, territory that all the heavy hitters have successfully scoped out and charge accordingly for. A Roma Spider costing half a million quid is surely possible. We’d sure like to see it.

What about running costs?

Fuel consumption is 24.9mpg combined, emissions 258g/km, we actually saw slightly better than that on a long haul, returning 26.9mpg. But if you’re driving it on the limit everywhere you likely won’t get out the teens.

Given then that it won’t be cheap to run, it’s good news that like other Ferraris, this one comes with a four-year warranty (in the UK, three years elsewhere), and a seven-year Genuine Maintenance package that covers all routine servicing.

Ferrari’s front-engined GTs are not depreciation-proof, unlike some of their siblings. Nearly new Roma Spiders that haven’t been driven much beyond the forecourt are listing at around £220k – meaning you can wipe off any options you’ve specced pretty much immediately. Which could be an instant £100k hit. You’ve been warned.