CAVEAT EMPTOR

If you tuned in to “Miami Vice” for the season opener, you saw Sonny Crockett’s beloved black roadster blown to shards. Before we let the car--which was widely reported to a be a Ferrari, and sometimes, a Maserati--R.I.P., we thought we’d clarify its origins.

NBC press releases aside, the car was actually a Chevrolet Corvette topped and chopped by a California company to look like a classic 1969 Ferrari Daytona Spyder.

Now-defunct Trend Imports of Newport Beach was behind the conversion, according to a studio spokesman. Subsequently, about a half-dozen companies began manufacturing the replicars (for about $45,000).

The new season of “Miami Vice” will have Crockett and Tubbs aboard a Ferrari Testarossa. A real Ferrari Testarossa, worth $135,000 the network claims (the sticker price is about $103,000, so read those press releases accordingly).

How does a Florida cop earning $27,896-a-year afford such wheels?

“He gets residuals,” said a production spokesman.