No one likes getting their car serviced. It usually involves an inconvenient time followed by a pushy service advisor who tries to up-charge you on every single thing you have. If you're not careful, a simple $60 oil change can easily turn into a $500 sell that handedly goes into the advisor's pocket. Now while the dealership rolls in dough, you feel confused on what in the world they just charged you for. Now, how much do you pay for a tire change? $600? $700? If you're going all in with Pilot Sports, we can assume north of a grand.
However, for the McLaren F1, a run-of-the-mill service doesn't come so cheap. A single routine tire change will run you upwards of $50,000. Yes. That's 50 with three zeroes after it. Safe to say the McLaren F1 isn't a frugal individual's dream car. Costing $800,000 at the time of sale in the late 90's, McLaren made you really commit to the car... with your bank account of course.
McLaren F1 Tire Change Requires A Racetrack
It might seem hard to rationalize such a huge cost for something as trivial as a flat tire. But one must understand that this isn't a trivial vehicle. It's a Mecca of modern day supercars. The individuals purchasing McLaren F1s don't take their car to the local dealership, instead they expect a top-notch experience. That's why in order to change a tire on the F1, the company and the car must go through a rigorous process to make sure that the work of art, stays just that-- a work of art.
In order to change the wheel of an F1, McLaren requires the driver to rent out a private track, presumably to test after the change has been finished. Then, the company obligates you to hire a professional driver, not just any Joe Schmo from down the street who drives at the demolition derby every Saturday night, and for them to work with a set of McLaren sanctioned engineers to make sure the tire change went through properly.
The Special Kind Of Tire The McLaren F1 Uses
The McLaren F1 doesn't just use any ole Bridgestone tires. These tires have to be able to support and withstand speeds of over 240 miles an hour, that's something Discount Tire can't help you with. In addition to that, the McLaren F1 uses 235/45ZR17 front tires and 315/45ZR17 rear tires. These are specially designed and developed solely for the McLaren F1 by Goodyear and Michelin. The tires are proprietary, meaning no other company can manufacture or sell the same kind of tire the F1 uses.
This gives McLaren an uncontested market share over the special kind of tire. The F1 is a very niche vehicle, with owners in the upper echelon of social classes. This means they are more than willing to pay %509,000 to keep their prized possession from having a nail in their rubber-- so, McLaren charges that much as part of a "luxury tax". Simple economics really. The F1 also needs complementing parts to be tuned up during that tire change, thus the reason for the professional driver and the racetrack. The suspension needs to be set up and adjusted every single time the tire gets replaced or fixed, accounting for slight imbalances in air distribution and tire age. The brakes also need to be altered for grip, tread wear, and other factors relating to stopping power. All in all, the tire change affects more than just the tire, meaning many different facets of the F1 must be changed or checked up upon. And those facets aren't exactly coming from the dollar store.
The McLaren F1 Requires A $20,000 Service Every Year
If you thought the lack of penny-pinching for McLaren and their owners ends there, you're dead wrong. Nearly every part of the car has an expiration date. The fuel cell needs to be replaced every five years-- whether you drive the car or not. Take a shot in the dark on how much that part costs... $100,000. That's right, every five years you're spending $100,000 on the fuel cell, coming out to at least a $20,000 a year maintenance cost regardless of miles driven.
"Nearly every significant part on the car has an expiration date", Donut Media's James Pumphery says.
A routine oil change service costs about $8,000, and annual maintenance costs are estimated by McLaren to be about $30,000 per year. On top of that, McLaren insists you send the car to one of their "F1" shops every year to get serviced, located in select locations across the world. That's not very convenient. Ralph Lauren is rumored to send his three F1s to Woking, Surrey every year. Add in the fact that the engine must come out every five years like the fuel cell, and you get an extreme couponer's worst nightmare.