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This is a 2017 Ferrari GTC4Lusso. If you're thinking that this doesn't look like a traditional Ferrari, well, you're right. That's because this one is a hatchback, just like a Volkswagen Golf, and it has back seats, just like a Mazda 3.
But, there are a few differences between this hatchback and those. Namely, this one costs $347,000. Yes, that's right. You're looking at a $347,000 hatchback from Ferrari. There's a string of words I never thought I would say.
I borrowed this car from Ferrari for a few days. A few weeks ago, they emailed me and they said, "Do you want to drive some of our products? The 812 Superfast, their V12 flagship car, the 488, their daring, awesome, exotic sports car, the California T, a beautiful sports car in its own right." And I said, "Nah, I want the hatchback, cuz who wouldn't?" So, today, I'm going to show you around hatchback made by Ferrari. I'm going to start, as always, by showing you all of its weird quirks and cool features and details, and then I'm going to get it out on the road and drive it. And at the end, I'm going to give it a Doug score. But, first, a brief overview.
The GTC4Lusso is new this year, replacing the controversial FF with a more modern look. It isn't like most Ferraris, it's practical for everyday use with four seats and all-wheel drive, and of course, the hatchback. This one uses a 680 horsepower V12, but there's a version coming with a 600 horsepower turbocharged V8. The V12 version starts around $300,000, and options bring the price up from there. The V8 version will start closer to 250. And now it's time to check out the Lusso's cool features and weird quirks.
I'll start in the back, because I know that everybody wants to know what is going on in the back of this Ferrari hatchback station wagon thing. So, with the seats up and all the cargo covers in place, there's actually a surprisingly large amount of room back there. I'm loading in my two camping chairs. They fit easily and quickly. There's I don't have to twist myself in any weird ways in order to get them in.
But for maximal space, you got to do a little work. Just how much work you're asking? Well, you have to fold down the seats, of course, but you have to start by removing not one, but two separate cargo covers. You start with this one. It comes right out from the window. Interestingly, this particular cargo cover also contains your build list, which is under the hood in the 488. So, if you lose this cargo cover, you also lose your cool list of options that came on your car. reason, I suspect that this cargo cover is probably more valuable and more expensive to replace than any cargo cover in the history of hatchbacks.
Next up, we move on to cargo cover number two, which is located directly behind the seats. Now, this one is a little bit trickier to get out. First, you have to release a couple latches that you can't really see. And then, once that's out, you just have to kind of pull on it, which you don't really want to do in a Ferrari. But now, cargo cover number two has been removed. And now, we can move on to lowering the seats.
Now, getting the seats down is the easy part. You just pull a nicely finished little tab back here. You push, and then the seats are very simply down. And once the seats are down, you have 28.2 cubic feet of cargo space back here. Now, that's not a lot for a regular hatchback or some sort of station wagon, but it's a ton for any passenger car. Consider this, the Toyota Camry has only 15.8 cubic feet of trunk space. This thing has almost double that. And a V12.
But you don't live your life in cubic feet. So, you're probably wondering, well, what can it actually carry that I would know? Well, remember before when I told you I could get my camping chairs in the car? Well, that obviously is still the case. You know what else I can get back here? Me. Take a look. Oh. And Oh, I hope I have the key with me. Oh.
Now, when you close the rear hatch, one of the interesting things that you'll notice back here is that mounted directly on the rear hatch, right above the Ferrari horse, is the Italian flag. Something I haven't really noticed on Ferraris before, so I checked the option list to see if that was an option on this car, and indeed it is. And the option code flag. Seems fitting.
We can't move inside the Lusso yet without discussing its key, which is one of the coolest keys in the entire car industry, in part because it's bright red and it says Ferrari on it. Turn it over, and you'll find all the normal stuff you usually see on a key. Unlock, lock. There's a button to open the tailgate automatically. Brave new world when a Ferrari has a power tailgate. But one thing you don't really see on this key is where the manual traditional old-school key is. Well, it turns out that if you push this little hidden button at the top, you open it up, there it is. There is the old-school key. Which is all fine and good, and now you can get in the car if there's a dead battery, except there's a little bit of a problem when you reach the door handle. Specifically, the problem is this. There is a traditional keyhole hidden inside the door handle here, but Ferrari didn't want to stick it on the door itself where it could be obviously seen, where it wouldn't look as good. So, they stuck it so far in here that you can't actually use the key to open the door. It's always going to be offset, which is hilarious. Instead, you have to actually open the door handle a little bit, and then you can stick the key in there if your fingers are small enough, and you can turn it, and you can open the door. No Ferrari GTC4 Lusso owner is ever going to have this happen to them, and they're never going to even know about this, but I thought it was something interesting you might want to learn about.
All right, now that I'm getting into the Lusso, one of my favorite quirks of this car has to be the seatbelt delivery system. Take a look at this. When I close the door, I go to reach for the seatbelt, and it is really far back there because of the way this car is designed. It's just too far back for normal person to reach. So, you turn on the car, and watch this. The seatbelt is delivered to me automatically by this little arm that comes out of the B-pillar. Then, I take the seatbelt, I put it on. Keep watching. Bye-bye, seatbelt retractor. Now it's gone, and it goes back into its home, and I can drive around in the car until it comes time for me to get in again, and then it will deliver the seatbelt to me again. That is a cool quirk.
Now that I'm inside the car, I have to draw your attention to the gauge cluster, and specifically the screens on either side of the tachometer. If you have any experience with older Ferrari models, and even if you don't, this thing is space age compared to those cars. Here's what I mean. Start the car, and the screens roar to life, ready to provide you with just about any piece of information you might need. The screen on the left is controlled by this little dial and button setup. Use them to scroll through a useful digital speedometer, your tire pressures, various important vehicle numbers, your vehicle dynamic modes, and all sorts of vehicle settings, including my personal favorite, snow chain mode. Ferrari really does want you to use this car every day.
As for the right screen, slide a little wheel behind the steering wheel to reveal a wide range of information, including a full color map from the navigation system, your music, your Bluetooth connected phone, and a speedometer. In a Ferrari, it really is a brave new world. Finally, in the center, there's this neat tachometer. It's not fancy or high-tech, just very cool-looking.
Now, I mentioned that you have a little wheel on the back of the steering wheel to change the mode on that right screen, but that isn't even scratching the surface of all the cool stuff you get from this steering wheel. Obviously, there's the engine start-stop button on the wheel, just like every other Ferrari, and there's the suspension. You can use the steering wheel to flash your lights, and you can use it to put on your wipers and change their setting, and you can use it to answer a phone call, and there's even the dial to change the mode you're in. But the coolest thing on this steering wheel, by far, is the turn signals. The left turn signal is on the left side of the steering wheel, the right turn signal is on the right side. That is getting more and more common in exotic cars, but what isn't common is just how well they've been executed in this one. One little tap of the steering wheel and they'd link three times so that you can make a lane change. Push it a little harder and it stays on until you're ready to turn it off. Push it again, it turns off. And maybe the coolest part, if your hands aren't positioned to touch the steering wheel buttons in the front with your thumb, they've been made exactly perfectly so that you can reach around to the back of the steering wheel and touch them with your middle finger. They have the exact same function back there, just a little tap to turn them on or press it further and they stay on until you're ready to turn them off. I know this kind of sounds a little bit confusing to someone who's always used a turn signal from a stalk coming out of the steering column, but once you get used to this, you never want to go back to a normal boring turn signal situation. This is how all cars should be.
But there are a lot of quirks to this car that go well beyond the driver seat. And next we got to talk air vents. Now, these are some of the coolest air vents in the industry. They're circular and they look like jet engines. You can turn them and twist them and shape them anywhere you want to cater to your whim. But the coolest part is that when you want to stop air from coming out of them, there's a little switch on the top you just flip and they close up so that no more air is coming. It's really a cool design detail. It's like a little secret you have to know in order to stop getting air blown on you.
Now, speaking of interesting air vent quirks in this car, let's talk about the one in the middle right above the Ferrari logo. When the climate control is off or when the car is off, that vent stays closed in order to give the dashboard more of a clean, simple look. But when you turn on the climate control, that vent whirs right open in order to provide more air in the cabin, which otherwise would be served by only those four circular climate vents, which aren't very big.
Another cool feature is over here on the passenger side. It's this screen that sort of gives vital information about the car to the passenger. Now, Ferrari's been using these screens for quite a few years and quite a few models, but they seem to get better with every passing one. And this one has by far the coolest screen of all. Check this out. Of course, it tells you what music is playing, that much is to be expected. It also tells you what direction you're going and you can even see what gear you're in and how fast you're going, and what G-forces you're pulling. But, the coolest part is the last screen where it tells you what mode you're in, and check this out. As the driver turns the little dial on the steering wheel to change the mode, it changes the mode on the screen in real time, so the passenger can follow along. That's one of the coolest features I've ever seen in a modern car.
Another interesting interior feature, you get in the car and you've got your bright red Ferrari key, but you're not really sure what to do with it, except maybe leave it your pocket. Well, don't worry. There's a nice little cubby that fits the key perfectly right in the center console. So, you can stare at it as you drive.
Now, speaking of the keys, the GTC4 Lusso has a bit of an interesting situation with its start-stop button. As I mentioned before, it's on the steering wheel, but just in case that one breaks and you have to use the traditional old-school key, you'd look down on the steering column, and there is a little icon there with a key on it. And it's a lid, so you pull the lid off expecting to find a traditional key ignition, and instead you find a second start-stop button. So, just in case the first start-stop button breaks, you have a backup, the other start-stop button.
Another interesting quirk in the front here is the center console lid. Now, I've been in a million cars, a million center console lids, and they all open in their own special way. Sometimes you push a button and it pops open. Sometimes you push it down and it pops back up. Sometimes you got to just tug it really hard. In this car, the center console lid, when you open it up, you discover that it's being held down there by a magnet. That's a pretty simple solution, and you kind of wonder after you look at it for a minute, why didn't anybody else think of that?
All right, now that I've covered all of the quirks in the front, I'm going to jump into the back. Now, this is usually a part with two-door cars where I make fun of how hard it is to get in the back seat, because these things are usually really tight, and I'm really tall, and we all have a laugh about it. But, I tested it before I filmed this segment, and it's actually pretty easy to get back here. Take a look. You pull up on the latch, the seat rolls forward automatically, and then you just step inside. I've gotten in four-door cars that were harder to get in than this one. And check this out. When I pull the seat back, it's going to go back to where I had it, a 6'3" person. Now, it's tight back here. There's no question about that, but this is actually sittable. I don't feel incredibly comfortable back here, but I could do this for a reasonable amount of time, which is not true in any other two door car. This feels nice.
You know what else is nice? The fact that they have two individual climate vents for the rear seats that are identical to the ones in front. There are also two cup holders back here. They're pretty small, but you can use them. And there's another one of those magnetized center console lids. The coolest part about being in the back though is the panoramic view you get above. You can see the whole world up there. Look at this. There's so much.
So, those are all the interesting features and quirks and details of the GTC4Lusso. And now it's time to get it out on the road. Click the link below to go to autotrader.com/oversteer for more of my thoughts on the GTC4Lusso experience.
All right, driving the Lusso around town here. I'm driving it around center city here in Philadelphia. Which is interesting cuz it's very compact and crowded here. It's a lot like New York. And it's supposed to be the daily drivable Ferrari. So, we'll see if it is. One thing I personally love about this car, nobody notices it. Nobody notices it. So, you get the Ferrari performance and excitement, and you don't have to put up with the "Hey man, you want to trade? Hey, what do you do for a living?" You can just enjoy this car by yourself. Until someone notices it, some crazy car enthusiast. "Oh, Lusso." And then you have a fun conversation. Ooh, this sound is so nice. And I love how good it sounds even low in the range. I got up to 30 there, which isn't even violating the speed limit here in the city. And it just sounds so good. It sounds like I'm going 200. Oh, that sound is so nice. I got to put the window down just a little bit. Sometimes screws with the audio, but I don't care if you have a worse experience so I can hear that noise. Nobody looks at you. Nobody looks at you. It's so cool. And I just love love how under the radar this is. You get the enjoyment to yourself and everybody else they hasn't have no idea.
This interior is so well put together. Everything just looks and feels and touches so good. There's nothing jiggling, nothing shaking, nothing feels loose. It is so so nice. As a city car, it actually is pretty good. It's reasonably usable. AC blows nice. I got the navigation system right here in my in my center display screen. It is a little bit wide for city use in all honesty. It's a little bit wider than you'd want it to be if you were driving in narrow big city streets a lot. Uh I think it's wider than my Range Rover. It feels certainly feels it. It also has a long hood which can make it a little bit hard to judge distances. It's quite smooth. I I've noticed I've been driving this car around actually for a couple days. And I've noticed that if you put it in auto mode and comfort mode, the ride beats you up a little but not really all that much. The transmission gets quite smooth when it's in auto mode. I've noticed the seats are a little too firm for me personally. I I drove the car about 2 and 1/2 hours yesterday in one sitting. And it felt a little a little firm. I love how zippy it is. Just darting between taxis. Even it it's size starts to feel minimized when you actually start getting it into traffic and you you make some lane changes and stuff and you realize it's just so quick. And the transmission is so quick and it's so responsive and that you can make you can change your situation so quickly that the size of the car almost doesn't really matter all that much. I've always wanted one of these. Even when the FF first came out, I thought it was just the coolest thing because it was like a Ferrari that was practical. Here's a Ferrari that's all-wheel drive with back seats and some cargo room and I always thought it was just the coolest thing in the world. And so that's the GTC4Lusso.
Now, I know some people don't like how this car looks. They think the front is too long and the back is a little bit weird-looking and it's not as traditionally beautiful as a real Ferrari. And I know that some purists also don't accept this as a real Ferrari because it's all-wheel drive, because it has four seats, because it's a hatchback. But, this is the Ferrari that I would get. I love the fact that nobody stares at you when you drive around in traffic, but you still get all that performance. And I love how practical this thing is with its back seats and its hatchback. I would buy this car. anybody ever tried to make fun of me, I would just do this. And since I'm trapped in here, it's time for the Doug score.
Beginning with the weekend or enthusiast categories, I'll start with styling. I like how this car looks, but I recognize and understand the complaints. It isn't beautiful, but you can't convince me to call it below average. Still, it gets the worst score yet, a five out of 10. Acceleration is impressive. 0 to 60 is 3.4 seconds, which earns it a nine out of 10. Handling is amazing, but of course not up there with the best sports cars in account of its size and weight. It earns a seven out of 10. Cool factor is high. To me, it's way cooler than a regular 458 or an Audi R8 because you just never see these. It earns an eight out of 10. Finally, importance. Basically, would you put it in a museum? All Ferrari models are important, but this one isn't particularly special or unique, and the four-seat models are known to age rapidly. It gets a seven out of 10, giving it a total weekend score of 36, better than everything I've scored so far except the true sports cars.
Next up, the daily categories. Features and equipment is a strong suit. It's got a lot of cool stuff and fun toys, though it misses out on some of the latest features like radar cruise control and automatic braking since Ferrari doesn't bother with those things. That gives it a seven out of 10. Luxury measures comfort and smoothness. It doesn't feel as harsh as a sports car, but sporty suspension and firm seats secured only a six out of 10. Quality measures reliability and materials. Materials are top-notch, but running costs are high, giving it only an eight out of 10. For practicality, I already mentioned more than 28 cubic feet of cargo space. That and four seats earns it a strong six out of 10, even despite weak fuel economy. Finally, value. $350,000 is a huge amount of money, and while this car is amazing, it's going to lose a lot of value. A five-year-old FF can be had for around $150,000. That means it's lost in five years what many people pay for a house. It's simply hard to call a car like that a good value, but it's got so much stuff and so much performance that it isn't too bad, so it gets a four out of 10. That brings its total daily score to 31, an impressive number that ties it for second place. It also means the total Doug score is 67, just one behind the all-time leader. The GTC4Lusso deserves the high score, since it's a great combination of performance, practicality, and quality. If only it was a little more affordable.