A closer look at the GT that divides opinion

There’s a version of this story where the Ferrari GTC4Lusso is an unqualified triumph. A grand tourer with a naturally aspirated V12, all-wheel drive, four seats, and a shooting brake silhouette that turns heads even in a supercar-saturated world. On paper, it sounds like Ferrari finally built the practical dream — the car you could theoretically live with every day without sacrificing the soul of the brand.

In practice, the story is more complicated.

The Promise

Ferrari positioned the Lusso as the mature choice. Not a track weapon. Not a weekend toy for the truly committed. This was the Ferrari for people who occasionally needed to carry a passenger in the back, who valued comfort alongside performance, and who wanted something that wouldn’t destroy their spine on a two-hour motorway run.

That pitch worked. Sales were solid. The design, penned at Pininfarina, aged gracefully. And the engine — a 6.3-litre naturally aspirated V12 producing 680 horsepower — remains one of the last of a dying breed.

Where It Falls Short

But spend time in owner forums, read through long-term reviews, and a pattern emerges. The Lusso, for all its charm, carries a handful of frustrations that feel difficult to justify at this price point.

The rear seats are close to unusable for anyone over average height. What Ferrari marketed as a four-seater functions, in reality, as a very expensive two-seater with a parcel shelf. Passengers in the back report discomfort on anything longer than a short trip, and the limited headroom makes the whole proposition feel slightly dishonest.

The infotainment system, even in later models, lagged behind the competition by a generation. At a price where buyers could also consider a Bentley Continental GT or an Aston Martin DB11, the interior technology felt like an afterthought. Touchscreens that required multiple inputs, navigation that struggled with basic routing, and a general sense that the digital side of the car was never really a priority.

Visibility, particularly rearward, is challenging. The rakish roofline that makes the Lusso so distinctive from the outside becomes a liability when manoeuvring in tight spaces. Parking sensors help, but they don’t fully compensate.

Reliability Concerns

This is where some owners have expressed the sharpest frustration. While Ferrari’s overall build quality improved significantly during the Lusso’s production run, isolated reports of electrical gremlins and cooling system issues surfaced in enough numbers to raise eyebrows. For a car that costs the better part of three hundred thousand euros new, the tolerance for unexpected workshop visits is understandably low.

Maintenance costs, as with all Ferraris, are substantial. But with the Lusso’s complexity — four-wheel drive, four-wheel steering on some variants, the V12 with its tight packaging — service intervals demand both time and significant budget.

The Verdict

None of this makes the GTC4Lusso a bad car. It doesn’t. The driving experience, particularly on a flowing road with the V12 singing at high revs, remains genuinely special. There are moments behind the wheel where everything else fades and you remember exactly why people buy Ferraris in the first place.

But it is a compromised car that doesn’t fully deliver on its own promises. The grand tourer brief was only half-fulfilled. The practicality never materialised at a usable level, and the technology dated quickly.

If you’re considering one today on the used market, prices have softened considerably — which makes the value proposition more interesting. Just go in with clear eyes. The V12 is worth it. The rest requires patience.