Used Ferrari 612 Scaglietti 2004-2011 review

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Maranello's stunning V12-powered GT is now a tempting modern classic - is it time to take plunge on a used example?

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Ferrari’s answer to the Bentley Continental GT and Aston Martin Vanquish in 2004 was a front-engined, long-nosed, rear-drive 540bhp GT that was the closest the firm had ever come to making a 200mph family car.

On which note, let’s start with the practical stuff. With four seats, good visibility, soft leather upholstery and as much space up front as its nearly five-metre length would have you believe, the 612 Scaglietti has almost all the hallmarks of a consummate GT car.

Almost, because its modest 240-litre boot is nearly half the size of the 450-litre Mercedes CL’s and 115 litres smaller than the Continental GT’s.

But do you buy a Ferrari for its boot space? If you look past this shortcoming and regard the 612 as a GT that offers more character and driving engagement than outright utility, then it’s in a class of its own.

It’s powered by a 5.7-litre naturally aspirated petrol V12, which redlines at 7500rpm and pushes the 1840kg car to 62mph in 4.0sec. It’s a fearsome, bulletproof engine (with timely servicing) and is as ready to tackle the demands of high-speed cruising, undulating road surfaces and race tracks as the balletically balanced chassis is.

The car’s underpinnings employ a reinforced aluminium spaceframe, which makes it lighter than most of its contemporary competition. It weighs a whole 545kg less than the Continental GT, 13kg less than the CL and only 5kg more than the Vanquish.

What’s more, 85% of that mass is within its 2950mm wheelbase and the weight is distributed 55% over the front axle and 45% over the rear.

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This translates to handling prowess. The car’s poise, balance and willingness to play in even the most mundane of situations make it wonderful to hustle around bends, both on a track and on the road.

Better still, it combines this with a magnificent V12 that howls and wails with the fortitude of a Vulcan jet on demand, yet at a cruise settles into a relaxed, hushed gait that lets you engage in small talk with your passengers.

You might find that the car’s design arises as a topic of conversation. There were plenty of weirdly proportioned GTs being launched when this car came out in 2004 – the Continental GT, CL and Maserati Coupé are no oil paintings – all pandering to the same design ethos, with concave bodies, small, rounded headlights and swage lines on every available surface.

The Ferrari was much the same, with most contemporary reviewers using words such as “ungainly” and “awkward” to describe it. Whether or not you agree is your prerogative. In your correspondent’s eyes, it has commendable draws, but it’s far from the prettiest Ferrari ever made.

And being a Ferrari, there was only one engine available in a standard trim level, but you could specify it with options such as the HGTS and HGTC trim packs, which cost £7505 and £15,675 respectively.

These brought stiffer anti-roll bars, a gearbox with 10%-faster shifts and a fruitier-sounding exhaust.

All cars came with leather upholstery, climate and cruise control, a Bose stereo and electric front seats. The drivetrain was offered with the option of a six-speed semi-automatic, but a six-speed manual was also available.

Sure, some of the 612’s rivals may be slightly better looking and wear badges that carry a similar degree of car park cachet, but none of them sounds as good, steers as well, feels as lively or has the same split personality as the 612.

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DESIGN & STYLING

Ferrari612Scaglietti rear

In the interests of traction, Ferrari gave its 540bhp front-engined 612 the rearward weight bias of a mid­ engined car. That meant moving its 5.7-litre V12, little modified from the 575M’s, behind the front axle line. 

With a rear-mounted six-speed gearbox transaxle, 55 per cent of the car’s weight was over the back wheels, to give a front-mid-engined layout. 

The mechanical package forced a massive 350mm increase in wheelbase (to 2950mm) to dictate the long-bonnet, cab-rearward proportions. But, for whatever reason, Pininfarina didn’t make the most of this clean-sheet opportunity. 

The exterior styling of the 612 was fussy and unconvincing. 

Despite its great width, the Ferrari looked narrow and tall; the wheels were too small, side scallop too shallow, the tail almost dowdy. 

Only the front end had the beauty, innovation and Ferrari character we expected. If only Maranello had adopted Pininfarina designer Ken Okuyama’s dramatically beautiful early proposals shown to the world solely in a series of sketches. 

The 612’s true magnificence lies under the alloy outer skin. 

The 65-degree quad-cam V12 pumping out 540bhp, a 98bhp increase over the 456 GT, was mounted lower to reduce the centre of gravity by 20mm. 

And a significant 85 percent of the Ferrari’s mass was located within the axles. The 612 was also the first Ferrari to adopt a stability control system (CST) to work in combination with the active damping and a limited-slip differential. 

The forged aluminium double-wishbone suspension remained true to Ferrari’s heritage, but the components were all new at the time. 

Aerodynamics played a huge role in the 612’s development and meant that the entire underbody, apart from the exhaust system, was faired in. 

The air flow (hot and cold) from the nose was managed and controlled to the rear diffuser to reduce drag and increase downforce. 

At 186mph, the 612 produced 115kg of downforce. The aluminium body (developed with Alcoa), with its extruded space­ frame and castings at key structural points and connecting joints, was an impressive 60 per cent more torsionally rigid than the 456 GT’s. 

INTERIOR

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When the 612 first landed in 2004, Ferrari claimed to have built the fastest four-seater in the world, despite the Bentley Continental's apparently higher claimed v-max.

For the record, the cabin was roomy, the dashboard simple in the extreme yet tasteful and beautifully finished. A prominent alloy band separated the dark upper dash from the lighter lower area and incorporated large circular air vents.

The instruments are an incongruous mix of analogue and digital displays. Under the same hooded cover was a central circular rev counter and offset speedo, and a small monitor that housed horizontal digital gauges and a trip computer. 

Small buttons on the back of the steering wheel allowed the driver to scroll through the various functions.

Ferrari certainly knew how to create a sense of drama inside its cars; the rev counter read from one at the bottom to seven at the top in white numbers, before the 7400rpm red line, with eight, nine and 10 in red.

Low down on the dash was a small plaque that payed homaged to Ferrari’s five F1 world constructor championship titles between 1999 and 2003.

The seats were firm, supportive and electrically adjustable, like the steering wheel. Provided you’re prepared to splay your knees, there was enough room for a six-footer to sit behind a six-foot driver in the heavily sculpted, but relatively narrow twin rear seats. So it was a genuine four-seater and a truly sumptuous one at that.

ENGINES & PERFORMANCE

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Tapping into the V12’s performance was easy: the 612 was responsive and eager, effortlessly building a long, linear power delivery. 

There was so much low-end grunt that you were never aware that the peak torque figure of 434lb ft arrived at a high 5250rpm. Maximum power of 540bhp was developed at a smooth 7200rpm, shortly before the gearbox slid into the next ratio, just shy of the 7400rpm red line. 

This was the last development of Ferrari’s Tipo 133 V12 before the Enzo’s engine was tweaked for the 575 M successor, which is surely the best. 

Positioning the engine behind the front axle line and suspension opened up space to allow longer, more direct induction, plus reduced exhaust back-pressure. 

Factor in a higher compression ratio and the 612 made an extra 98bhp over the 5.5-litre 456 GT and was 25bhp above the 575 M. With a combined fuel figure of 13.6mpg, it was no wonder the thing needed a monster 108-litre fuel tank. 

Gun it away from the lights and the real advantage of the 612’s rearward weight bias was obvious. Loss of traction was never an issue, even on wet roads. Feather the throttle momentarily and there was no wheelspin, no squat. It was also massively capable when unleashed on a track. 

When we drove the 612 for the first time around the infamous Fiorano test track, its performance was laid bare. It could hit 60mph in four seconds flat, and we even nudged 120mph before diving on the brakes for the second-gear right-hander. 

The 612 was a magnificently comfortable pan-continental form of transport. Top speed? 

At the time Ferrari claimed a speed of ‘196mph plus’, but the engineers admitted that Bentley’s 198mph Continental GT sent them back to their drawing boards to improve the aerodynamics. 

Having lowered the drag coefficient from the original car’s 0.34 to 0.33, while retaining 115kg downforce at 186mph, they found another 2.5mph, which is probably why Ferrari added a plus' after the 196mph figure. 

The rear-mounted gearbox shifts fluently, without fussy jerkiness. In auto mode, shift quality could match Audi’s slick DSG gearbox, the standard-setter for robotised manuals at the time. 

The transmission was a tad too slow to downshift when left to its own devices, but one pat on the left paddle instantly picks up a lower ratio, always to the accompaniment of a mid-shift blip of the throttle. 

RIDE & HANDLING

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The 612 was a big, comparatively heavy, energetic four-seater, so it was a minor miracle that it arrived with the driving manners of a super-lightweight roadster. 

It felt light on its feet, whether sideways on the opposite lock or crawling through heavy traffic. 

The perception of agility and immediacy in reactions started with the consistency in the weighting of the steering. 

You wouldn’t find any artificial loading up as forces increased, yet because the feedback was so real and the steering accurate, sensitive and quick, the 612 took on an overwhelming aura of nimbleness. 

Then there was the suppleness of the ride and immense body control that meant the 612 could gracefully waltz from apex to apex, no matter how hard it was being driven. 

It was immensely quick and composed across the ground, capable of carrying speed into and out of corners, the handling poise and neutrality straining any old-fashioned concept of under- or over-­ steer, provided you were in a sport mode. 

In the default, ‘normal’ setting, the ride was a tad more settled at low speeds, but we always preferred the extra control and near elimination of pitch and roll of the firmer damper position. 

Only lateral expansion joints and sharp irregularities upset the composure of the ride that mostly suited the 612’s character. 

 

VERDICT

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Forget hard-core Ferrari sports cars, the Scaglietti’s dynamic refinement set it apart from other Maranello machines – and the Mercedes SLR – to position it against rivals like the Bentley Continental GT and Mercedes CL 65 as a near four-seat luxury Grand Tourer.

It didn’t have the raw explosive performance of the Mercedes SLR, the only other mid-front-engined exotic of the early 2000s.

No matter, the 612 was hardly leisurely, and as a usable road car in terms of ride, refinement, roominess, and dynamics, we reckon the Ferrari had the measure of the Mercedes-McLaren. And by no small margin in terms of cabin appeal.

By any assessment it represented a significant departure for Maranello. Some still struggle to position it, and will likely have settled for ‘Ferrari’s four-seater sports car’. 

Regardless, the 612 is a car of immense ability, and 20 years on, still is today. 

Jonathan Bryce

Jonathan Bryce
Title: Social Media Executive

Jonathan is Autocar's social media executive. He has held this position since December 2024, having previously studied at the University of Glasgow before moving to London to become an editorial apprentice and pursue a career in motoring journalism. 

His role at work involves running all of Autocar's social media channels, including X, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Threads, YouTube Shorts, LinkedIn and WhatsApp. 

Sam Phillips

Sam Phillips
Title: Staff Writer

Sam joined the Autocar team in summer 2024 and has been a contributor since 2021. He is tasked with writing used reviews and first drives as well as updating top 10s and evergreen content on the Autocar website. 

He previously led sister-title Move Electric, which covers the entire spectrum of electric vehicles, from cars to boats – and even trucks. He is an expert in new car news, used cars, electric cars, microbility, classic cars and motorsport. 

Sam graduated from Nottingham Trent University in 2021 with a BA in Journalism. In his final year he produced an in-depth feature on the automotive industry’s transition to electric cars and interviewed a number of leading experts to assess our readiness for the impending ban on the sale of petrol and diesel cars.