Ferrari Purosangue review: The V12 SUV that thinks it’s a supercar

What’s good

• Amazing performance
• Operatic engine note
• More playful than other sporty SUVs

What’s not so good

• Far more expensive than Urus or DBX
• Infotainment is a mess
• Rear seats and boot not as practical as alternatives

Wowscore: 9/10

Is the Ferrari Purosangue a good car?

This is the Ferrari Purosangue, and it’s a bit like a Jaffa Cake. Wars have been waged over whether the mighty Jaffa is a cake or a biscuit, and similar battles take place when trying to decide whether the Purosangue is an SUV or not.

The fact is, while Ferrari swears that the Purosangue isn’t an SUV, it does share many hallmarks with them - four-wheel drive, a raised ride height, a practical five-door body and even some nods to off-roading such as adjustable suspension. On the other hand, not many SUVs pack a 6.5-litre V12 engine under their bonnet…

For our purposes, we reckon the Purosangue counts as an SUV, and goes against alternatives such as the Lamborghini Urus, BMW X6 M, Aston Martin DBX and Alfa Romeo Stelvio Quadrifoglio.

The Purosangue is immediately recognisable as a Ferrari - not least because of the pair of prancing horse badges on the front. It has an interesting silhouette - less boxy than some SUVs, and more similar to a coupe-SUV like the BMW X6. It’s packed with cool details, too. You’ll find no fake vents or false exhaust pipes here - everything is functional, and the bodywork’s cool cuts and creases are designed for optimal airflow.

The wheels are 22-inches at the front and 23-inches at the rear, and cover standard carbon-ceramic brakes for maximum fade-free stopping power. Of course, being a Ferrari, you can tweak the external looks to your liking - the model we tested had almost £40,000 worth of optional carbon-fibre trim across the exterior and interior, for example.

Inside, the Purosangue is like a sheet of Ferrari design has been stretched across a practical skeleton. The design is very cool and the materials are all luxurious, but it’s surprisingly practical with big door bins, a useful glovebox and even a couple of large cupholders.

The driver and passenger both get their own displays, though it has to be said the software and interfaces don’t feel quite as thoroughly engineered as the rest of the car. All four passengers sit in an electrically-adjustable sports seat that’s very comfortable and hugely supportive - ideal for fast cornering. There’s even a reasonable amount of space inside, with a usable boot and space in the back seats for adults.

But the real highlight of the Purosangue is the way it drives. It makes most other sporty SUVs feel a bit dead and unresponsive - the Ferrari hides its weight better than any alternative and the response from that 6.5-litre V12 engine is astonishing. So too is the noise, which is ballistic especially in comparison to the rather muted engine note you get from turbocharged alternatives.

Being a Ferrari, you’ve got to have your wits about you a little more than you do in those cars, though - it’s rather playful in the wet, and when the stability control is turned off it’s really off, so there’s no safety net. But this all adds to the feeling of pure driving pleasure.

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How much is the Ferrari Purosangue?

Prices start from £313,000, which is quite a lot more than you’ll need for an Aston Martin DBX or Lamborghini Urus. And being a Ferrari, the price only goes one way - you won’t find discounts, but you will find a long list of optional extras on which to spend your hard-earned money. The model we tested on the video above cost more than £430,000.

Performance and drive comfort

Livable with day-to-day, but the Purosangue comes alive on a twisty road

In town

Moreso than any other Ferrari, the Purosangue is likely to find itself pressed into duty as a daily driver, and so it has to be more than just tolerable around town. The good news is that it’s perfectly passable. You do feel larger bumps in the cabin - alternatives with air suspension, like the Bentley Bentayga, are more comfortable - but the Purosangue is perfectly tolerable and you don’t need to panic that it won’t make it over the heftiest speed bumps.

The turning circle is quite large but four-wheel steering fitted as standard means it’s no worse than any other large SUV, and the response from the engine and gearbox is linear enough that you don’t find yourself bunny-hopping along at low speeds either.

On the motorway

It takes some real self-control not to floor the Purosangue as soon as you hit a sliproad - if nothing else, simply for the engine note produced by that huge 6.5-litre V12 engine. With 765hp and 716Nm of torque on tap, you obviously won’t be struggling for pace when it comes to joining fast traffic or making a decisive overtake - in fact, the difficulty may come in trying to keep yourself below the legal limit.

Faster roads like this do show off once again that alternatives on air suspension are more comfortable, but the Purosangue really isn’t too bad a place to sit back, with the suspension in its softest setting and an extremely comfortable sports seat wrapped around you. As long as you’re okay with filling up every 200 or so miles, that is…

On a twisty road

This is where the Ferrari Purosangue comes to life. It has the racy feel you expect from a Ferrari, with steering that’s hugely communicative and all the performance of that amazing engine. Unlike turbocharged alternatives, where the engine’s power comes in one great wallop, the Purosangue delivers it smoothly across the rev range, encouraging you to chase the highest revs for the most power - and the best noise.

Though it’s heavy - over two tonnes - and has the higher centre of gravity associated with an SUV, it still corners extremely well, staying totally flat. Physics only take hold if you really hoof it into a corner, whereupon the nose will start to run wide.

Ferrari’s four-wheel drive system is different to other manufacturers, and for the most part the Purosangue is a rear-wheel drive car. In anything above fifth gear, it’s exclusively rear-drive. This along with pretty slick tyres as standard does mean that you have to have your wits about you, especially if you’re driving in the wet, because the Purosangue is more than happy to get its tail out.

You can of course, do that on purpose too - and that’s helped by a stability control system which, when it says it’s turned off, is actually fully turned off.

Space and practicality

The most spacious Ferrari - but sporty alternatives still have more room

The Ferrari Purosangue is Ferrari’s first-ever four-door car, and by some measure it’s the most practical one. The front seats may be very sporty, sculpted and supportive, but it’s easy to get comfortable with multiple degrees of electric adjustment. You can even sit high up like you would in a traditional SUV, which does feel very strange in a Ferrari.

There’s even a good degree of storage up front. The glovebox is large, the cupholders capacious, and the door bins can hold a large bottle of water. There’s also a space under the armrest with a couple of USB-C ports and a 12V socket, ideal for keeping your phone out of harm’s way.

Space in the back seats

The rear of the Purosangue is strictly for two, as there’s a large centre console in the middle. Those passengers get a surprisingly reasonable amount of room for their knees and their feet, though tall passengers will find headroom restricting. These seats adjust electrically too, though you can’t recline them all the way like you can in some luxury SUVs.

There are a couple of cupholders in the middle, plus another under-armrest cubby with USB-C ports ready to take a phone. You even get rear windows that wind down all the way and, shockingly, ISOFIX points to securely mount a child seat.

Boot space

The Purosangue’s hatchback boot conceals a 470-litre space, which is very roomy compared to most Ferraris. It’s still, however, down on capacity compared to the 616-litre Lamborghini Urus and 632-litre Aston Martin DBX.

The rear seats even fold down to carry longer items, though you first need to remove a divider - which can’t then be stored in the car - and wait an absolute age for the backrests to fold electrically. Even then, the rear centre console stays in place, so you don’t have a totally flat floor.

Interior style, infotainment and accessories

High-tech interior looks great - but it’s spoiled by awful infotainment, fussy design and some odd material choices

The Purosangue’s interior looks very cool - driver and passenger have their own distinct ‘zones’ and even get a display each. For the driver, that screen acts as instruments, trip computer and infotainment, while the passenger can use their display to control the car’s climate, stereo, or simply mirror the driver’s dials so they can see what’s happening.

The fully digital instrument cluster is good-looking and shows a digital rev counter in standard mode, which is how it works best. Ferrari’s included Apple Carplay and, for the first time, Android Auto, but these display right in the middle of the screen and look seriously ugly. Plus, they override the rev counter. How disappointing.

What’s more annoying is the steering wheel. It’s loaded with controls, and they don’t all work very well. By now, we’re used to Ferrari putting the indicators, lights and wiper controls on the wheel rather than on column stalks - it’s still awkward to use and makes the wheel very crowded. But the Purosangue goes one further with nasty touch-sensitive pads used to control the infotainment - they’re difficult to use, especially on the move.

It would be nicer if more of the interior controls were modelled after the climate controls in the centre, which are part physical, part touch-sensitive and use a really rather lovely hidden dial to make adjustments.

Interior build quality, meanwhile, is lovely, with luxurious materials used everywhere - though a few dodgy bits of stitching remind you of the car’s hand-finished status. There’s rather a lot of piano-black plastic, though, which doesn’t take long to get very fingerprint and even scratched, quickly spoiling the look of the car’s interior.

MPG, emissions and tax

Fuel consumption and CO2 emissions for the Ferrari Purosangue are definitely in supercar territory. Officially, it’ll do 16.3mpg, though we found that figure to be in the single digits more often than not. That means that even with a massive 100-litre fuel tank you’ll be filling up every couple of hundred miles.

CO2 emissions, meanwhile, are a mammoth 393g/km - though the Purosangue was never going to make a realistic company car. The truth is that if you can afford the £300,000+ price tag, running costs don’t really matter much.

Ferrari Purosangue FAQs

How many Ferrari Purosangue will be made?

Ferrari is keen not to make the Purosangue a mass-market car, keeping it to a similar level of exclusivity as its supercars. As a result it will only be building a few thousand each year, leading to long waiting lists for some buyers.

Is the Ferrari Purosangue electric?

No. Unlike many fast SUVs, which use EV or hybrid powertrains, the Purosangue has a naturally-aspirated V12 engine with no electric assistance at all.

How fast does the Ferrari Purosangue go?

The number you’re interested in are 0-60mph in 3.3 seconds and a top speed of 193mph.

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