550 Buying Advice

Sounds like used car salesman answers, for sure.

 

I don't see any of those statements unreasonable regarding condition. Mine car is perfect like that because many of us do things like replace the sticky interior and recover the shrinking dash that are known issues. I have owned 2 550s and still own 1. I have been through these cars from front to back never using a pro mechanic since my 1st Ferrari over 30 years ago. That said...some clarifications need to be made as you do research. For example there are no 550 motor mounts. They are all 575 mounts. It is as unlikely you will find a 550 motor mount as you would the original mag wheel with the cracking wheel inserts. The tensioner was never a failure problem but the HE one is better like all his stuff is. Radiator plugs don't get damaged. Any damage to one would destroy the radiator and it would be obvious. Like the 575 mounts you will be hard pressed to find a 550 some near 20 years old with the original gaskets that caused the manifold to leak. Those gaskets just don't exist. Shocks were never an issue and unlike the 575 shocks are rebuildable by any bilstein rebuilder to any valving you want if you change spring rates. There is no transmission weakness. Reverse is fine in the fleet. A maintained car has no issues with hoses. The valley hoses get hot in the valley and need to be mainatined. Often they are not and you get failures. That's not a car problem that's a who's your mechanic problem. There are better SRI hoses if you want to skip maintenance but if you just do your 30k service every 5 years there is no issue. Fuel tank vapor leaks are known but obvious and randomly effect the fleet. You may never have an issue with a 1997 but might with a 2001 or vice versa. It is totally random. I have had 2 550's and neither had the problem.

 

Milage is in my opinion not very important. The storage is very importat (as these cars usually aren't driven much after all). And service is important. How you use it is also important of course. I have seen cars look like "new" with 200.000kms. And "neglected" (can have been neglected for only a few months of its life many years back) with low milage. A car that is frequently used, washed, polished, serviced over and over again is your best car!

 

See if you can get the Service Documents for the past 3 years.
Most private sellers will have these, not sure about a dealer car for sale.

There should be at least an oil change every 12 months on these cars.
Most shops put the current odometer reading on their service document.
You can see how much the car has been driven over the past 3 years by reading these docs.

Also, look for fixing things along the way.
A well-maintained car will have a few either small or big repair items thrown in when they take the car in for an oil change.
Your chances of the car being easy to live with go up if an enthusiast owned it before you and didn't defer maintenance on everything.

If no Service Docs, then see if the CarFax says anything about services recently.
.

 

In my view get one that has been used. When you use them like mine at 76k kms you eventually sort out all the problems. Main problems. Fuel pumps are submerged and eventually the rubber in them fails AC units eventually fail Steering racks wear out. And suspension actuators break. That's it. They are strong cars buy one. I've had mine 10 years and will never sell. Simply pass on to my son along with a 1965 330 GT that i also have had for 8 years

 

+1

Actually (lack of) recent mileage would be more worrying to me...if it's done very few miles in last 2 years I'd be more tentative.

 

So true. Mine has 48K miles on it and runs beautifully. It's really laughable how mileage becomes such a big issue with Ferrari. A car that's 16 years old at 3K miles per year is considered high mileage in Ferrari world. Aren't these cars supposed to be driven? 🙄

 

+1 it's ridiculous. There's a high mileage 550 for sale in EU at the moment, 170 kms (~110k miles), grigio titanio with bordeaux. I may put a cheeky offer in by the end of the year if it's still there, would make a great daily especially if it's been maintained as well as they claim...

Like the 260K+ miles Murcielago, I think once it reaches such high mileage you kind of take it anywhere, really. Blast across Europe, putting 5000km on in 2 week? Go ahead.