Still looking for the right TR after 9 months

Just buy mine and be done with it!

 

have a local FChat person with mechanical aptitude who also owns a TR go with you to evaluate. then get a PPI. these cars are pretty easy to evaluate.

do the major right away, have another 5k in reserve that you expect to spend & then enjoy.

you sound far to astute to be seriously burned.

enjoy,
Vince

 

I know what you mean. I've been looking for a vintage Ferrari and I have seen many that advertise a rebuilt motor and even if they have a receipt showing the rebuild, there is still no guarantee. I've looked at cars that have had a rebuild twice within 5 or 10,000 miles. What gives with that? And then all the disconnected speedos I have run up against. And then you hear all of the horror stories where the guy who did the major didn't really do it all or did a poor job. I even heard of reputable mechanics that screwed it up. Or the guy that did a crappy PPI for you. I mean the possibilities are endless. If it was just Honda, oh well. But we're spending $60K to $150K here. It's very hard to sift through all of this crap. I am just doing the best job I can to buy the best car possible. All I can do is just weigh everything & follow all the proper protective measures and try and make the best decision possible.

 

in reality: a used engine is about 20K, a busted diff is (guessing here) about 12K. Frame/ body damage can be spotted by most anybody with a flashlight...

the 'at risk' money is not 60 to 150K.

yes, of course diligence is called for, but these cars are actually pretty basic.

just do it.

rgds,
vince

 

OMG the sky is falling, price of gas will cause us all to walk, I'm blinded by the light. Grow up, your not buying some poodle. Look at the car, do a ppi, and live with it.

 

Mine found me and it wasn't perfect. I weighed the positives and negatives of the car and chose to buy the car and correct the negatives.

There are no guarantees

No guarantees that the odometer hasn't been unplugged for a while on ANY car, that's what inspections are supposed to turn up, ...........like recovered seats on a supposedly 20k mile car........., shot ball joints, toasted rotors, cracked suspension bushings, the list goes on....................................

Weigh the pro's and the con's, cover your bets and your ass the best you can with some knowledgable help and buy the best one you can AND ACCEPT THAT THE CAR WILL NOT BE PERFECT.

 

I was referring to my search for a "Vintage Ferrari" and a $150K is probably a bottom feeder number in the Vintage car category. $60K is what I figure a Testa will cost. Your estimates are conservative for an engine or a diff for the Testas.

 

A PPI is not going to tell you whether the belts have been changed. And so our maturity level is based on a free wheeling style of spending money with a who cares attitude? You might want to take a good look in the mirror when discussing maturity levels.

 

I think that's precisely what the PPI is supposed to tell you...

Peter

 

where do you live? What exactly are you looking for, there are tons for sale!

 

Peter-Are you saying that the cover can be removed while in the car to inspect the belts, seals and waterpump?

 

a ppi won't inspect belts or pump on a tr
paperwork is the only indicator.

best you'll get is:
~ a compression and perhaps a leakdown test
~ ex gas check
~ pull all wheels and inspect brakes & suspension
~ check front circuit board condition
~ verify function of all electrical devices
~ confirm AC & heater function
~ check for past body damage
~ overall visual for leaks etc

unless u r bottom fishing some obviously dog cars, tr compression related issues are rare. these engines are stout.

if u have some basic aptitude, you can spot indicators on these issues in a road test (smoke? sounds? pulls? hot start? cold start? hesitation? AC? heater? wipers? etc etc). If it passes here - buy the car, do the belts and plan on an extra 5 to fix the 'discovery' issues.

if the car is dog enough that u consider a compression test - blow off the car and walk away.

rgds,
vince

 

CRAP - my apologies - I forgot which section I was in... carry on -

Peter

 

Well it appears with your skepticism the only thing you could trust is doing it yourself, so get after it! PPI, records, and in God we trust. My mirror is fine in all my cars.
John

 

hey redtrman, you said you live in the burbs of DC, so do i. have you been to ferrari of washington? bob McElwee is my contact there; he found me two red testarossas pretty quickly. if you prefer not to go to the dealer, try competizione & sports cars in gaithersburg, md. talk to richard capoccia or fernando torres. hope you find a good one, i drove mine today and, i tell ya, i had me a blast!!

john

 

a PPI is only going to be part of the investigation period of these cars. I would not totally rely on a PPI to be the deciding factor of whether to buy the car or not. Yes you do have people out there that have a relationship with the dealership and can be shady. I have seen it happen more than I would like. But if the car you want is really what you want you may want to go drive it and see it for yourself. One thing is have a leak down test done. Forget the compression test, it will only tell you a small amount of what is going on in the car.

 

It appears that you failed to read my entire post, more specifically the last sentence. For some reason you chose to put your own sarcastic twist on it. Not sure why you are so smug with others that are only trying to learn and not make a mistake on a sizeable investment. You might want to give some positive imput to others that lack your self proclaimed knowledge and vast experience rather than belittling them. It's not skepticism, but more like reality.

 

hold on... we're deciding to buy or not, with minimal investment time & $.

who gives a rip if it is the rings vs an intake vs an exhaust. compression is a go, no-go decision maker that will better assess the overall 'condition' of the engine. if the compression is even, but too low, walk away. if the compression is variable between cyls - walk away.

in my mind, leadown is a diagnosis tool for a cylinder or two that was found to have significantly lower compression than the others.

rgds,
Vince

 

Hang in there because I've looked for longer than you and then yesterday I found one lwss that 10 miles from home in a private collection.
1991 Black/Black,2nd to last made off the line by original owner.All books records, luggage,2 sets of wheelswith a tubi(he has the original exhaust in a box).I swear to Enzo when I saw it well I almost ....

He also had a Dino,308,355,456,Diablo,Carrera Turbo,Maserati.

Hang in there !!!!

 

Dear Ferraristi,

Sit on the fence...life passes you by.

Look, no matter what TR you buy....it will be like the hottest blonde.....she will still have issues.

Trying for perfection is near impossible in a car that the newest model (91 ) is 17 years old! Even if the owner did everything he/she could think of, they could always miss the odd hose here or there. After you buy it, that's when it will leak.

Sure do the PPI or if you buy a good looking no records car, get the discount for the major, have it done yourself and you'll know where your new baseline start is. I would agree with most comments here, have a good reserve back up built in to the money you want to spend and EXPECT to spend that reserve.

Personally, I prefer a higher mileage car with records to back it up. When I bought my TR (many years ago) it was a F dealer car with 8K ( now have 47k) on it and I spent 20K in the first year ( major was already done) doing everything else but including personal taste items like chaging the carpet color for black and things like that. Taking a garage queen to a daily driver is very expensive. Taking a daily driver to a daily driver is waaay cheaper. Don't let the low miles fool you.

TR's are a very solid car mechanically. Yes, parts do cost alot and interior parts are getting hard to find. BUT....here is where the higher production numbers come to help. There are a few dismatlers with TR's. You would be able to still get stuff for it. My 91 is a daily driver and finding parts is no real problem. Between Ricambi and my local Fpimp ( Central Florida Ferrari ) I don't have any problems....well, alway have a problem for what they charge....but that's another story.

Buy a TR soon and enjoy ! Each day you wait, you will realize it was a day wasted.


Shamile

Freeze...Miami Vice !
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I think that's good advise. So, the pics you provided us must have been in the days of the garage queen, no?

 

The red 87 Euro car on ebay, has raw exposed leather on the driver's seat - 13,000 miles and it can be seen with a poor pic. With 13K miles, the seat should probably not have some of the dye already worn off.