Ferrari Purosangue review

Ferrari has finally followed its rivals and given us an SUV. Well, sort of. It doesn’t like to use the phrase about the Ferrari Purosangue, arguing that it’s very different to, say, a Lamborghini Urus, and that at heart it’s still a sports car.

And maybe you can see where the argument’s coming from. The Purosangue – unlike a Urus, Bentley Bentayga or Porsche Cayenne – isn’t built on underpinnings shared with any other more humdrum model. It has a bespoke aluminium structure and there are only four seats inside what is Ferrari's first five-door car.

It also sits lower to the ground than all its rivals. It is, if you like, a more practical and habitable variant of the now-discontinued Ferrari GTC4 Lusso two-door estate. And like that car, the Purosangue (which means pure blood or thoroughbred) has an engine and mechanical layout that really makes a statement.

Under the front clamshell is a 6.5-litre naturally aspirated V12 that's mounted so far back in the engine bay that it practically sits in the driver’s lap. That makes the Purosangue a "front-mid-engined Ferrari" and gives it near-perfect weight distribution (49:51 front to rear). With a whopping 715bhp on tap, this is as exotic as it gets.

So Ferrari might have a point – this is clearly not your typical sports SUV. But that doesn’t mean it won’t be compared with the Bentayga, Urus and Cayenne – plus other models, including the Aston Martin DBX and Lotus Eletre. Read on to find out how we rate the Ferrari Purosangue in all the important areas...

Enzo Ferrari once said “aerodynamics are for people who can't build engines”, and while that quote hasn’t aged particularly well since the advent of the wind tunnel, there’s no doubt that the Purosangue's 6.5-litre V12 is its crown jewel.

Press the touch-sensitive "button" on its flat-bottomed steering wheel and the engine wakes with a sharp bark that settles immediately into a luxurious purr.

As the revs rise, that purr transforms into a full-blooded howl. Total output is 715bhp at 7,750rpm yet the needle can stray beyond 8,000 before a gear change is demanded. It’s a wonderfully charismatic engine that feels old-school in the best way possible.

We wouldn’t, for example, feel particularly aggrieved if Bentley removed the flappy paddles from behind the wheel of the Bentley Bentayga S – such is the effortless nature of its turbocharged V8 engine – but in the Purosangue those paddles allow you to play the engine like a musical instrument. 

In truth, Ferrari could have thrown that V12 into a bus and it would still sell like hot cakes, but the engineers at Maranello still went to great lengths to give the Purosangue handling to match. We’re talking rear-wheel steering, Multimatic active dampers and a four-wheel-drive system that’s so complicated we’ll not even attempt to explain it here. 

All those clever systems work in unison to create a natural sense of agility and balance. Front-end turn-in is sharp, while the rear-biased four-wheel drive allows you to play with the car’s cornering stance at will.

It's exciting, interactive and very un-SUV like. And while the high-tech suspension can’t completely hide the car’s significant mass (it bottomed out a couple of times on our particularly tortuous South Wales test route), the Purosangue soaks up bumps far better than you might expect of a car with such tight body control and large wheels. Dynamically, it rewrites the fast SUV playbook.

It’s also as isolated and refined as we think you’d want a Ferrari SUV to be. Road noise is well contained and while there's more wind noise than you’d find in a Bentayga S or Lamborghini Urus it’s not loud enough to annoy you on a long trip. 

As you sit behind the Ferrari Purosangue’s flat-bottomed steering wheel, you feel like you're in a proper grand tourer. With its long bonnet, low windscreen and yellow rev counter sitting directly in front of you, you are immediately primed for an old-school Ferrari driving experience.

Sounds perfect, right? Well, it’s great until you try to use the infotainment system. 

Like that in the Ferrari 296 GTB sports car, the Purosangue’s infotainment screen is housed within the instrument binnacle itself, with control via touch-sensitive buttons on the steering wheel.

Unfortunately, while the touch-sensitive areas are indented for easier identification (unlike those in the 296), there’s no haptic feedback to confirm presses. With a significant lag before your commands are obeyed, they’re a distracting nuisance while driving.

It’s a shame the infotainment isn’t better because the rest of the Purosangue's interior is top-notch. The 1,420W, 21-speaker Burmester sound system has impressive fidelity and the general level of fit and finish is superb (something that was not always the case with Ferrari).

Our test car came with a rather demure black leather interior, but Ferrari offers a number of personalisation options, allowing you to create your own bespoke blank-cheque specification.

With such a low driving position and high window sills, visibility isn't great, but you do get front and rear parking sensors, and a rear-view camera as standard.

The Ferrari Purosangue's front seats are comfortable and because you sit so low down there's plenty of head room. The front-seat passenger gets their own touchscreen to play with as standard, and while the interface isn’t exactly intuitive it’s easier to get the hang of than the driver’s infotainment system. 

Climbing into the back of the Purosangue is pure theatre. When you give the handle on the back door a gentle tug, the rear-hinged door swings open electrically, presenting you with two individual rear seats separated by a storage compartment.

Bentley would call this kind of seating "executive" but that term would be a stretch for Ferrari. You see, while the back seats can be electrically reclined like those in its rivals, they’re rather thinly padded and the aggressively sloping roof forces taller (6ft and above) occupants into a rather upright seating position.

An adult of average size seated behind someone of similar height will find only a hand’s width of head and leg room – plenty for short trips but far from ideal on long-distance jaunts.

Regarding seating flexibility, the two rear seats and storage box in the Purosangue fold down in a 40/20/40 split, allowing you to carry skis between two rear passengers, which is handy.

Less handy is the relatively small boot. We managed to fit just five carry-on suitcases back there. That’s enough for a weekend away, but if you want to go on a full-blown ski trip we’d recommend flying your entire wardrobe ahead.

The Ferrari Purosangue is very, very expensive – and that’s before you start looking at the options list. Our test car’s six-figure price started with a "4" – and the options alone added up to around the same price as a new Porsche 911. 

So the question of whether you can afford one doesn't really need discussing. It’s also worth noting that at the time of writing the Purosangue – like the Lamborghini Urus – is holding its value remarkably well. If you want to buy one used you’ll have to have nearly half a million pounds at your disposal.

We suspect that's down to the fact that Ferrari is limiting its production numbers of the Purosangue to no more than 20% of its total output. And while there are cheaper performance SUVs available – such as the Audi SQ8, the Bentley Bentayga S and the Porsche Cayenne – they don’t quite match the Ferrari cachet.

Standard equipment is decent and includes matrix LED headlights, four-zone air conditioning, front and rear parking sensors, a reversing camera, adaptive cruise control, carbon-ceramic brakes, a carbon-fibre roof, keyless entry, soft-close doors and laminated acoustic glass. You will, however, want to add options.

The Purosangue emits an awful lot of CO2 – 393g/km officially – and its V12 is not exactly frugal. On our test route taking in town, country and motorway driving it returned less than 13mpg.

Ferraris are too rare to have featured in our 2023 What Car? Reliability Survey but owners will get seven years’ servicing included, with no mileage restrictions. The Purosangue has not been tested for safety by Euro NCAP.

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