Clearly you don’t buy one of these cars in a bid to save money on running costs. Any car that costs north of £150,000 is likely to have some sizable bills associated with ownership, and so it is with the Ferrari 458 Italia or 458 Speciale.

Regardless which you choose, CO2 emissions are over 255g/km, so you’ll pay top whack for annual VED car tax. But then that hefty annual payment is a drop in the ocean compared to the near £180,000 asking price for a 458 Italia or £210,000 list for the 458 Speciale.

Without the optional HELE system the 458 Italia manages just 20.6mpg but with it officially returns 23.9mpg – as does the HELE-equipped 458 Speciale. Of course, driven in any way close to the way they are intended to be you’ll burn through a lot more fuel than that. At least it’ll be fun doing so.

The good news is that the car comes with carbon ceramic brakes as standard. Often a costly option, the major benefit these bring after increased braking ability is longevity, with many manufacturers expecting them to last the reasonable life of the car. That’s dependant on use obviously, but even a car as powerful as the Ferrari 458 Italia shouldn’t require new brake discs for at least five years.

You will quickly wear through tyres – the rears especially – if you drive your Ferrari 458 Italia in the manner its engineers built it to be. With wide 20-inch rubber all round you’ll easily be into four figure sums to replace all four corners with the premium sports tyres required for such a performance machine.

At least servicing is, mainly, covered by Ferrari’s Genuine Maintenance programme, which lasts for seven years or, if you cover more than 12,500 miles a year, seven services. This means all routine consumables are covered, and you’re only left to fork out for non-expected items. It’s transferrable between owners too, thus improving resale values.

Depending on which model you choose, Ferrari 458 Italia emissions range from 275g/km to 307g/km. The former number is achieved thanks to the firm’s High Emotion Low Emission (HELE) system which is in effect a stop/start system specially designed to reduce CO2 output by shutting off the engine when idling at traffic lights for example.

At time of writing, adding the system to your 458 Italia or 458 Speciale at time of build costs £984.

You won’t find much detail in independent lists when it comes to Ferrari 458 Italia reliability – the firm simply hasn’t produced enough vehicles for it to feature in the mainstream surveys.

A quick check on the VOSA website reveals two recalls for the Ferrari 458 Italia however – one for engines that may seize, and one for a possible engine fire. The latter was dealt with efficiently and swiftly by the firm, and it’s telling that the total number of cars possibly affected by these defects is just 69. Many manufacturers have to deal with recalls numbering in the tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands.

And the firm clearly believes in its cars, and their longevity, thanks to the provision of its 12-year warranty, which comes complete with UK and European breakdown cover should your 458 fail to proceed.