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#1
01-26-2004, 03:44 PM
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Confessions of a GARAGE QUEEN
This is a story of my experiences of buying a new used Ferrari and what happens when you buy a 26K mile car that is 18 years old. It has a happy ending.
Prologue: In November of 1988 I bought a new black metallic with tan interior Ferrari Mondial 3.2 88.5 Cabriolet from Los Gatos Ferrari with 26 miles on the ODO. It was a great reliable car, and one of my daily drivers. Unfortunately for me, it was a CHP magnet and it was impossible to not get tickets in that car. Tickets from cruisers, bikes, airplanes, city police, it was agonizing. I was also in my early 20’s which probably had a lot to do with it. By 1992, I had such a bad record that my car insurance cost more than for my twin-engine airplane. Not only that, but I was invited to visit the California DMV driver-safety office which is where excessive offenders go for their license suspension hearing. DMV proposed a one year suspension. I was able to convince the DMV that ALL my tickets were received in my Ferrari and not in my other car and that the F-car was the root of all evil. It was a successful strategy. I got the suspension down to 1 month, during the month of December, when I was going to be overseas so it had no real impact. However, part of the agreed upon settlement was that I sell my F-car. Well, I could have gotten away with maybe storing it for a year, but why punish the poor car for my mistakes, and besides the insurance was still a killer. By the time of the hearing I had driven the car about 26,000 miles and Ferrari of Los Gatos serviced it at factory spec’d intervals. That worked out to be about 6500 miles per year. The car had never had any problem, small or otherwise. I wonder how it's doing now (ZFFXC26A9J0077549)... I decided to give up my car and sell it. I was without a Ferrari for 11 years until … Confessions of a garage queen: It’s now the summer of 2003 and I’m years older  I’m on eBay one night and decide to look at Ferrari Mondials. I can’t believe the value these cars are going for. Well, I guess I can, they’re almost 20 years old now. But, 20K miles, 30K miles, very low mileage for a 20 year old car! Some Ferrari’s have hundreds or a few thousands of miles for being 5-10-15-20 years old. So I’m sitting there thinking about F-car’s and I vaguely try to remember the last time I got a ticket, was it 5 years, 7… Anyway, it was a long time ago. OK, I decide to buy another F-car. And actually I decide to get a few different models that I always wanted. New Ferrari’s don’t click for me, something about the 80’s and 90’s styling that I just love. I love the 0-90 experience, going 150+ isn’t usable anywhere but a track… First I thought I would get another Mondial Convertible and enjoy it and learn to do some work on it. Mostly simple stuff at first and graduating on upwards. After reading a lot of the F-chat users posts leads me to believe I can do more and more of the work which I would really enjoy on such a great car. I start looking for a black with tan interior Mondial Cabriolet to replace the car I once loved. I wanted to confine my search area to California because I didn’t want to deal with any iffy smog passing problems. It needed to be titled in CA and pass the smog check before I handed over my $$$. I looked at Ferrari Market Letter, LA Times, Collector Car Trader, and some of the dealerships between Santa Barbara and San Diego. After looking at four black on tans (most were red which I wasn’t interested in) over the span of 3 months I was surprised to see very few cars on the market in CA. I looked at QV’s and 3.2’s only. Didn’t want to go with the t so it would be easier for me to get into the servicing myself one day. One 1987 3.2 with 26K miles (for $40K) at a Newport dealer looked nice, but you could see daylight through the top (at the front header) once you muscled it close. The shifting was so notchy that it wasn’t any fun (felt like major transmission issues), and the slow-down light flashed so much it was like a light show at any speed from 10 to 50. The tires were as bald as you can get. ABUSED. A 1986 3.2 with 27K miles (for $38K) in San Diego was listed in the ad as “mint and needs nothing”… Well, the right grated intake had several strakes cracked, the pinifarina logo was peeled back partially, the rear seats had leather stretch marks like both seats were once pregnant, the two rear convertible storage bins were covered in black leather when the rest of the car was tan, which was a really bad restoration job or whatever it represented. The car drove ok, but turning on the AC stalled the car every time. The records were complete for the proceeding 4 months only showing a 30K done where the owner said he had spent $9K, he also bought it only 6 months earlier and had some “fishy” reason about a job transfer as why he wanted to sell it. He said that he was unlikely to lower the price. I saw it still listed a few months ago for a new price of $32K. This poor car had ABUSED written all over it. The car I ultimately chose to buy was a black with tan 1985 Mondial QV Convertible (List $37.5K, bought for $34K). It had 26,000 miles, new tires, a new top, good paint, good interior, drove great, shifted great, and top went up and down with ease. It had it’s tool kit, owners manual, warranty book, records since 1991 where it was bought by the owner from Ogner (Autogallery now) in Woodland Hills. Carfax reported 2 owners by registrations. Car was bought new by 1st owner from Ferrari of Denver in 1985. No reported mileage rollback problems, or flood/salvage issues. There were a few things wrong: Glove box wouldn’t open, radiator fan was bridged to always run (not controlled by temp sensor), A/C wasn’t cold, car when warm took about 8 seconds of cranking to fire up (fired up right away when cold), and last major was 7 years ago. Looking at the available service records they showed the following: 6/91 @ 17050 miles – Purchased by 2nd owner (the owner I purchased from) from Ogner. Car went through dealer safety and pre-purchase inspection. Cooling system bled, license plate bulb replaced, fuel sender replaced, climate control repaired, oil temp sender repaired, 1-4 valve cover gasket replaced, 1-4 ignition wires replaced, r/r window lubed, cigarette lighter replaced. Labor $327, Parts $547 12/95-1/96 @ 21231 miles – FOC service – Timing belts changed, rebuild A/C, replace fuel sender (again), oil/fluids changed, realign&lube LH window, replace front tires and align front end, recharge A/C, replace rear sway bushings. Labor $399, Parts $1098 8/00 @ 24271 miles – owner service – Rebuild 5-8 distributor, spark extenders replaced (4). Parts $330 Owner said he replaced the clutch with a mechanic friend and did fluid changes etc. himself and didn’t keep records so no real dealer service from beginning of 1996. Looking at the mileage, the car was driven 17050 miles from its birth in 1985 through 6/91 which is about 2850 miles a year average. I bought the car at 26031 miles so the average from 6/91-7/03 was about 750/year. Garage queen statistics… If you break his ownership down, from 6/91 – 1/96 it was almost 950/year. And then, from 1/96 – 8/00 about 675/year. 8/00-7/03 only 585/year. Very little usage. That’s the double-edged sword of buying a used Ferrari. If you want low mileage, you have to bite the bullet of low miles/year at the expense of deterioration of parts that age with little use like rubber gaskets, hoses, and metal parts subjected to corrosion etc… I understood the numbers, and decided to accept the risk. On 7/03 I bought the car in Manhattan Beach and was driving it back to Santa Barbara on a beautiful sunny day with the top down and the Ferrari sound! About a 1 1/2 drive with light to moderate traffic at a good clip for a weekday afternoon. I had just passed Calabasas on the 101 and was a few miles from Westlake Village. Cruising at about 90. I was driving the car, going up and down in speed and letting the car rev through the gears. Driving it the way it was meant to be. It was a very hot summer day around 90F near LAX. I didn’t like how hot the oil & water temp was getting earlier when on the 405 in the stop and go traffic, but now I was cruising along at a good speed. The temp near Westlake must have been closer or past 100F. All of a sudden, I stabbed the gas pedal at 90 to go a little faster and the car didn’t want to. In fact, it began to slow down… 85…80… OH OH. In aviation lingo: Get ready to declare an emergency, and look for somewhere to land. An exit was coming up, 70… 60…. I got in the slow lane. It wasn’t a great exit, still not at Agoura. The car held at 60 with almost full gas pedal. No temp problems other than mildly on the high side, but it was a very hot day. Oil pressure was good, no warning lights.. I decided to go for the next exit. Next exit at Agoura came up where there were services so I pulled off. I pulled into a large home supply parking lot and stopped. I tried to start the car up again, cranked and cranked and almost lit up, but nothing. Tried again… nothing. It was very hot. I decided to go in the store and get a cold drink and think about the big mistake I might have just made! Hahaha. I called the previous owner, he was a nice guy. Offered me some suggestions as to things to check. I said I was more of a finance and hi-tech geek than gear head but I wanted to learn! You know, I learned the toolkit in Ferrari’s is not just a collectors item, they actually have uses when your stuck in a parking lot somewhere. I found out as I was taking apart a distributor and swapping coils etc.. No go. I messed around for about a half hour and then decided to flatbed it over to the Ferrari dealer I had passed about 10 minutes ago in Woodland Hills. As far as breakdowns, it couldn’t have happened in a more convenient spot. The fact that I again owned a Ferrari, even if sick, still kept me happy as I rode along with the flatbed driver. There are worse ways to spend the day then at the Ferrari shop with 360’s, 550’s, TR’s, 3x8’s etc.. I met some great guys at the shop: Eric, Gary, and Pedro. They would become more than casual acquaintances over the next few months! In about 30 minutes, Eric figured out it was the fuel pump. It was flaking out. The curse of the garage queen. Hot weather and spirited driving was the last straw for the pump that couldn’t. I decided to have them do a bunch of other stuff while it was there and was waiting for the pump to get overnighted. 7/21/03 @ 26073 miles – Replace fuel pump & in-tank filter, change all fluids and filters, recharge A/C, replace spark extenders 1-4, rebuild distributor 1-4, adjust fuel injection to try to get rid of the warm start delay. Do a PPI (In this case, a POST-purchase inspection—I’ve learned from F-chat that it is better to have the first P stand for PRE. Although nothing was found that I didn’t find already except a bottom scrape. Compression OK) Labor $1225 Parts $920. Picked up the car a few days later. It was great for Gary and Eric to get me into service and out so quick. I stayed in LA with a GF for a few days while the pump was getting delivered. After a week of driving the hell out of the car to shake loose any other bugs. I brought the car back for a few things the PPI found that I skipped the first time. New things that came up after 500 miles of hard driving in a week: Car had a minor oil leak, engine oil level sensor not working, car would sometimes stall (and start right back up when cranked) when going to a stop light (maybe 10% of the time), coolant began dumping overboard after a fast run (I pulled the tank and found some hairline fractures that had begun to leak-used JB weld as a temporary fix to last the week until service), windshield washer jets didn’t work, l/f window was too slow (sometimes needed help near the top to get it all the way up), oil and water temp still on high side of normal even when the days weren’t complete scorchers in a lot of stop and go traffic, when lights are on, the yellow “lights“warning light comes on (indicating one of the many exterior bulbs is supposed to be blown), also only when lights are on, the “brake” warning light comes on (not brake pressure) each time the brake pedal is pushed (supposed to indicate a brake light is burned out). The week was out and I returned the car to Autogallery to clear up the remaining issues 7/28/03 @ 26530 miles – Replace rear crank seal to stop oil leak (apparently previous owner re-used and did not replace the seal when he did his home clutch job). While in there the clutch disc was replaced, flywheel was resurfaced, replaced pilot & t/o bearings and a loose nut was noticed, it hadn’t caused any damage so probably had come off recently during my 500 debug miles. Expansion tank replaced, l/f windshield motor replaced, replaced glove-box solenoid, radiator foam strip installed (was missing), some blown bulbs replaced, an extra radiator fan was installed (85QV model year only has 1, 328 and later had 2 but the QV’s have the wiring for it.), bridge clip on radiator fans was de-installed and hooked back up through the thermostat. Brake light switch was wrong type, correct type installed. Replaced engine oil level sender. Replaced rear bonnet strut, replaced spark extenders 5-8, replaced fuel accumulator, and fixed windshield washer. Labor $2288, Parts $3976. After this service, there remained the hot start issue. Fuel injectors were determined to be the culprit and had to be ordered. The yellow warning light was still on, but the brake light warning was fixed. The oil/water temp was now fixed and remained very cool in the nominal range. Left front window was faster (any other car is 4x faster of course) and made it all the way to the top. Occasional stall was fixed, possibly the loose nut is the only theory. It didn’t happen when I first bought the car so I guess it could have been dislodged during the debug running. I continued to drive it, and drive it, to see if I could unearth any other problems and establish a “trust” factor to rely on it for normal every day driving. After a month I had put on another 1200 miles with no problems. I decided to get the hot start issue over and done with, and it had been 7 years and 6000 miles since the belts. 8/28/03 @ 27768 miles – Replace timing belts & tensionner bearings. Replace water, A/C, and alternator belts. Rebuild 5-8 plug wires, replace all fuel injectors, re-calibrate fuel distributor, make some spare keys. Labor $2125, Parts $1200. Total service costs to get it to mechanical perfection: Labor $5638, Parts $6096. Hot start problem fixed. Everything works great. Yellow “lights” warning light still on, but no bulbs blown. I’m going to investigate this more myself one day once I get some time and the wiring diagram. Car runs strong, sounds great, and is a blast to drive in the mountains around Santa Barbara. Love it! It is almost the end of January 2004, and the car is a few miles shy of 31000 miles. In the 6 months I’ve owned it I have driven it 5000 miles almost daily. It has never had a problem except for the first 40 miles after I bought it. If the P had standed for PRE it wouldn’t have discovered the show stopper (the fuel pump), or the nut that came off in the clutch assembly, or the expansion tank. So, surprises lurk no matter what precautions you take. But, Pre-P-I’s are still the thing to do. This was my first used car ever bought, so I learned a few things. One thing was when you first get it drive the hell out of it and see what breaks. 35% of the purchase price of the car was spent curing it of being a garage queen. But, in future used F-cars I have learned from this experience. And, this car was by far the nicest of the other really abused ones I saw. It is a really nice car now. All the rubber and metal is now heavily used and is lubed and flexible, the car is no longer a garage queen. Next, the 400i and TR. 
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#3
01-26-2004, 04:00 PM
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Great story, very well written and with a happy ending. Welcome to Ferrari ownership !
Tony
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#7
01-26-2004, 04:44 PM
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thats a great post and written in a very amusing way I have to say.
Actually, its an intersting point that with increasing use of electronics and driver aids in vehicles, when the modern generation of cars gets older it will cost more in bits than the car. Imagine a 360F1 in 10 years!
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#8
01-26-2004, 05:08 PM
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Quote:
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#9
01-26-2004, 06:20 PM
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great post, good luck!
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#10
01-26-2004, 06:37 PM
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Quote:
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#12
01-26-2004, 07:03 PM
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Thanks for posting - I also bought a car that wasn't driven near enough before I got it. I have all the issues sorted out now & feel like there is one more good Ferrari out there.
Kind of feel like I rescued the little guy. My 328 only has 29k miles on it - I will be changing that!
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#13
01-26-2004, 08:03 PM
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KKSBA, great post and welcome back to the Ferrari world.
I saw a prior post of yours and it had an airplane avatar and you mentioned owning a plane in this thread. Do you know Bob Callahan, also of Santa Barbara? He is an employee (owner?) of an aviation company there. I don't know if the drive is full or not but we are having a big drive on Feb 8th and Bob C will probably be driving down from SB in his 355 spider. Please look up the thread http://ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=6359 and if you can make it send Byron an email events@ferraridrivingclub.com I look forward to meeting you. I am in Ventura County. We have several other F car owners in Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties, Henry (Hanknum), Craig (Beachbum), Rob Garven and quite a few just into LA County. We should form the Northern tier of the Ferrari Driving Club. Let me know. Ron
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#15
01-26-2004, 08:59 PM
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Enjoyed that! Who has bought a used F car that can't relate?
And a Mondial! Love it, great car. The early models look great in black as the bumpers blend right in, so it probably doesn't look way different than your old 3.2. Also, I am just amazed at how many people claim they have a "mint" car that turns out to be anything but. Also agree 100% with your comment about it being fast enough. No matter what you get someone will say you shoulda/ coulda got something faster, but all that matters is if YOU enjoy it. Again, thanks for a great story. Any pics?
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#18
01-27-2004, 04:46 AM
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Great post, great story. I learned a few good lessons...and congrats on the car!
Eric
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#19
01-27-2004, 09:39 AM
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Great story, thanks for sharing!
Ed
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#20
01-27-2004, 09:49 AM
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Very insightful, Karim! Thanks for your post...makes me want to take the day off and just drive!
Glad to hear that you once again have a well sorted out Mondial to enjoy...great feeling isn't it?
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