360 - can i afford it?

- insurance? How old/record/location


- maintenance costs over lets say 3-5 years of ownership? how many does car have/will you put on?


- resale value? What options/color/trans


- major mechanical issues? (engine failure??) nothing common.

 

I think the answers to all of your questions vary widely.

 

Ask Suzi Orman.

 

Can you make the payment easily or are you paying cash? What if you need to pay for a $5000 belt service in four months? Can you pay that in cash or will it go on a credit card and be paid over the next 24 months? What if your clutch fails six months after that and is another $4000? Will you be in deep **** financially? This is obviously a worse case scenario that is not likely to happen but what if it does?

The potential downside in owing any Ferrari out of warranty is maintenace costs. However, the upside to owning a Ferrari is that they hold their value better than any other make out there. If you find the right car for the right price you could potentially own it for a year or two and not realize too great of a depreciation. It's a better buy than any other car that might cost $100,000+. Imagine buying a $100,000 Aston Martin or Maserati QP. They'll both be worth 30% less in a couple years (or less).

 

The rule of thumb is, if you have to ask you can't afford it.

 

Try putting "360 ownership cost" into the search function. There will be some bad hits, but there are also numerous relevant threads in the archive. If you still have unanswered questions, then post again.

 

Don't sweep it too fast. Every new Fcar-would-be owner will be asking these questions.

+1

& ferrari-guy, u need to get your credentials to the dealer or so & work out your insurance, credit rating etc. Once those are worked out, you'll know how much u have left for maintenance etc/month & start saving cos you'll also want to mod etc.

 

Jeffrey asked some good questions about your circumstance. Basically, if you can buy the car well, can afford a hefty service bill once in a while but are worried about the huge and scary bill that is urban legend around Ferrari ownership, relax and go for it. The new cars, and especially the v8's are very reliable and are relatively inexpensive to maintain and the catastrophic service bills just don't happen anymore or rarely.

 

If these are questions in your mind, you probably can't afford a Ferrari comfortably. When I bought my first Ferrari, I was making over $300,000 a month from my business. The 355 was paid for out of less than 2 week's worth of profits.

Insurance? Cost of service? If you have to ask those questions, you are probably a bit out of your comfort zone as far as Ferrari ownership goes.

To answer your questions:

On my 360, I think I pay about $400 every six months for full coverage. Maintenance costs can vary, but it's not uncommon to have to spend $2K to $5K on the car. Nothing on a Ferrari is cheap. I personally do all my own work on the car, so cost isn't a factor. But if you have to pay someone else to do it, then something like a new clutch or belts can cost several thousand. A tubi (installed) can set you back between $4500 and $5000. A good rule of thumb for Ferrari is take the price of something on a normal car, then multiply by a factor 10 - that almost always comes very close to the cost on a Ferrari.

Resale value falls with the miles. On my 355, I think I calculated once that (with gas), it cost something like $3/mile to drive it! :-o Each year and 10K miles drops the price around $10K or so.

If your engine fails, you are probably looking at $20K or $40K, depending on whether you rebuild or buy a new motor, etc. Of course, if you can rebuild the motor yourself, then maybe only $10K in parts and a lot of labor

Again, not trying to come off flip or be disrespectful, but the simple fact is that owning a Ferrari (just like owning a boat, a home, a plane, etc.) can be very costly. It's not a poor man's hobby. So, if you are worried about the cost of the insurance on the car, or changing the belts, or how much the car will be worth after you drive it for a few years or X miles, then realistically, you are probably not financially well off enough to be buying one in the first place.

With that said, the Ferrari is a very fun car. And, life is short - so I certainly wouldn't fault anyone for buying a Ferrari, even if they had to penny pinch a bit to do it

Ray

 

In Sweden with 2500 miles/year it will cost you about $7k per year over a 3 year period. That´s excluding depreciation or any technical failures as well as gas or garage costs.

If you have to even bother of depreciation or a 5k bill, don´t buy it.

As they say, any1 can afford to buy a Ferrari, few can afford to drive it.

 

Was asked a month ago actually . Her response - YOU WANT TO SPEND $120,000 ON A CAR?! DENIED! (well actually she did give some reasons such as what happens if he had a family emergency or if he was to lose his job)

 

just buy it! its so much fun!

 

You don't have to ask this question at all - if you do a bit of research, you can calculate it for yourself - there is a wealth of information out there. Use common sense, and be thorough.

You don't need $300,000 a year, let alone a month, to buy your first Ferrari. This kind of comparison is meaningless. The thing is: what will you need in YOUR situation? What priorities do you have? We all have a different view on these things so don't let others tell you what you should do. Instead, make sure you do the following steps:

1. Make sure you got your priorities sorted out (wife? kids? collegefunds? house? yacht? etc) in your head. If Ferrari is no 1. right now, move over to step 2.
2. Gather as much information as possible about costs: maintenance, road tax, insurance (just get a quote: send them an advert of a car you like and give them your correct (!) details and you'll get a quote), fuel, tyres, brake pads, clutch, labour rate. You can find all this information on forums like these.
3. Make an estimate of the mileage you will do each year, and when you will sell the car on.
4. Make an estimate of the resale value (doesn't have to be that exact)
5. Insert a contingency of $10,000 in unexpected breakdowns every 3 years.
6. Scour the internet for cars for sale and put the ones you like in the spreadsheet.
7. Compare the various cars in mileage for total cost per month.

In the end, this exercise will give you a) a lot of insight into cost ownership, and b) you'll start to spot a decent car for good money so you can feel secure you've selected a good one.

I did this exercise before I bought my 550 (6 weeks ago), and my predicted total cost per month is 1,200 euros (includes EVERYTHING, so also assumed depreciation, but NOT car financing!). Just to give you an idea, I imagine the 360 to be a little cheaper but not more than 20%, and this value is greatly variable depending on depreciation and the mileage you cover (and also how you drive i...). The country you're in also has an influence - Holland is expensive.

Over the next year or so I'll find out how accurate I was....but so far, I've been right on the mark.



Onno

 

I always laugh when people (such as my brother-in-law) says stuff like "That's crazy to spend $120K on a car" - like the money is gone or something. With my 355, I purchased it for $117K, drove it for two years, then sold it for $110K. That works out to about $290 per month - probably a lot less than your average lease on something like a Honda or Toyota.

Look at buying an F40. I almost bought one 7 or 8 years back when they were selling around $250K to $300K. Of course, I wish I had. I could have driven the car 10K miles a year and probably still sold it at a profit today!

Ray

 

Another thing to keep in mind is this: if you buy it right (i.e. getting a good price from a dealer or private party motivated to sell), this can offset much of the loss in re-sale value down the road.

Ray

 

On the other hand, your running costs are a lot higher, and you have no guarantees on resale value - when you need to sell the car can be worth a lot less than you were hoping.

But Harry Metcalfe, editor of EVO magazine ran his 550 for 30,000 miles in 18 months and calculated 1 GBP per mile. That was, according to the table the British motoring press generates, the same cost per mile as a new BMW 535, and half the cost of running a BMW M6, and that proves you have a valid point, Ray.

See this link for the End Of Term review: http://www.evo.co.uk/carreviews/evolongtermtests/201227/ferrari_550.html

There are more reports on the website - I found them very helpful. I know they're not about the 360 but you should still get a good idea about owning a Ferrari that was built around the turn of the century.


Onno

 

Un...f*cking...........believeable!

 

Oh come on Pappy don't be modest. The coal mine brings in the big bucks!

 

I'm probably the poorest guy on here actually considering buying one of these (I'll tell you my income if you need to know, but the $300k/mth guy will be laughing so hard he'll ruin his computer monitor and keyboard spewing his champagne on it). I feel like the purchase price plus a $10k maintenance budget (with an addition rate of $1/mile) would cover me sufficiently. Insurance isn't a big deal if you have other cars.

 

I was having fun thinking about what the monthly income looks like NOW, considering that was 'back when', lol... I love it. Nothing like success stories to get me motivated.

 

"If these are questions in your mind, you probably can't afford a Ferrari comfortably. When I bought my first Ferrari, I was making over $300,000 a month from my business. The 355 was paid for out of less than 2 week's worth of profits."

Ray, no offense, but why would you put that kind of info out in a public forum in response to someone trying to figure out if they can afford a $120k 360??? Not only is it foolish, its totally irrelevant. This guy does not even need to make $300k per year to be able to afford his car and thats clear to anyone.

 

My 1st 360 was a 01 F1 coupe, and the cost of service and insurance was not that different from the 01 996tt that I had at the time. In fact since the 360 held its value more than the Porsche the Ferrari was chaeper to own in the long run.