Aus Delivered vs Private Imports (F355)

All made in the same place my friend if having a C on the compliance plate instead of a D would'nt stop me from buying it pending on condition etc. Good luck and enjoy you're new ride.

 

You will soon get lots of very different opinions.

Here is my opinion.

My 355 is an import. When I was looking for a 355 I saw a few Aussie compliance cars and they were in pretty poor condition. I kept looking then the one I own came up. I ended up buying it. It comes from England.

So what is the difference between my import and the Aussie compliance car???

Not much really. They were both born in the same factory in Italy. They both have the same body and engine again from the same factory.

Really no difference at all. But people will say that you cannot resell them for a good price compred to the Aus compliance car. Actually that is crap. My car is as clean as they come and would be one of the best 355's around at the moment. Motor wise it is a strong car.

The 355 not to buy is the import that has come over left hand drive and been converted here in Australia. Stay away from those cars.

In the end, if you find a 355 out there whether private import or Aus compliance you have to look at the engine condition. Forget the exterior and interior. Make sure the engine is checked out becuase it is here where you will end up spending lots of money if it is not right regardless of the compliance plate.

Hope this helps.

P.S. I don't really care if my car is a private import. I am not selling it for a very longggggggggggggg time if at all. It is well loved!!!

 

the only problem that i've experienced with these cars is that a LOT of people won't buy one...at any price...no matter how good.

is that logical? maybe not...but that's how it is. i've been through it before and THAT in itself is enough reason for me never to never buy one again.

this only applies to cars like 355s/360s etc...cars that are readily available at any time with full orig aussie compliance and history.

older cars are a different story.

 

Are you sure???

There are quite a few around and they do sell from what I have seen. Even some of the Aussie compliance cars have poor history. Been there done that with those cars as well and there not as good as people think regardless of the complinace plate.

I think it is personal preference and what you are comfortable with.

 

yes....quite sure.

 

the great thing about an aussie delivered car is that someone you know off or your friend's know off would know something about the car's history, due to the fact that the exotic car circle is very very small.

but an import, its hard to know its true history while it was overseas.

 

Two of our ferrari's are imports - one has significantly more history and documentation than our other locally delivered example - so as always it's a matter of looking around to get what you want.

What I've found when looking around is that the purchase price, whether private or via a dealer is not that much less if the car is an import, as they'll focus (quite reasonably) on the condition of the vehicle, the market in general and the available history. Sometimes if you are looking for something specific then an import may have all the 'bits' that would otherwise cost a fortune to buy. Our 355 wouldn't be to everyone's taste, but it came with alcantara, carbon seats, carbon centre console, gruppe m intakes, aftermarket headers etc and was a good match to what we would have ended up doing to a 'clean' car anyway.

The biggest difference is if you trade/sell in future to a dealer - expect to get SMASHED on the offered price. That doesn't reflect the market, that's just what dealers do to get a better outcome for themselves. I've been in the position of trying to trade an import for another import - and the dealer didn't blink when telling me that *my* trade price would be about 50% lower than expected because my car was an import, yet *his* import was still pretty much at market price.

Import or not - get a PPI, have a long test drive, ask lots of questions, be patient finding answers.

 

and when you sell.


all very valid points, however.

that said, there are lots of people who would probably refer to your car as a hot rod and an "import"...like i said...forget logic....it's just how it is...some people wouldn't buy that car at any price. what %age that is, i can't tell you...but it's significant enough to make a difference when you sell.

a BIG difference.

 

Funny, I've had the car out at a heap of events (along with our other import and our Oz delivered 360) and no-one has called it a hot rod yet (not that I'd be particularly insulted by that). Perhaps I need to try and meet more negative people.

If concours floats your boat then that's super, maybe the OP can confirm whether that's his goal. If the aim is for him to get into a good example of a 355, which he may not be about to flip in the very near future then there's probably no reason to be scaremongering about the resale as everyone seems to agree you might take a hit (and certainly will if it's at a dealer). Buy it for less, sell it for less - still all good if you manage to have fun in the middle.

 

ok...you have a non aussie delivered car....so you don't want to hear what i'm saying. fine. is that negative? no...the question was asked...i'm answering it with the experience i've had with 30 years of "exotic" ownership.

take it or leave it...doesn't worry me.

 

Import or Aussie complied the fact is there are some really good/well looked after imports WITH ALL HISTORY FROM FERRARI dealerships overseas. Mine is one such example hence the strength of the engine.

I will give you an example. Everyone always posts issues with there CEL's etc etc. I don't have those issues after three years.

On the other hand the car has been good to me and on a recent drive day we did you could not tell the difference between my car and the Aussie car in terms of condition.

So, it really depends on what you want to do with the car in the future?

If you want to sell it in a few years and are afraid that you may take a 'hit' then by an Aussie one and see how you go.

If you don't care like me then get a good one(Aussie or import) and enjoy and don't worry about the money or anything.

Al's car as he said came with a lot of extra's and if he had bought an Aussie car to put those extras on it would have cost him a fortune but he is able to have it at a fraction of the cost and he is able to drive a great car.

These are just my thoughts but I will be keeping the car for a very long time.

Incidently, 1 year ago a certain mechanic in Sydney offered me $5K more than I bought the car purely on the condition of the engine as he said it was one of the best conditioned engines he had worked on.

 

if that isn't what you thought i said, then i didn't say it well.

if you don't want to sell it...then it doesn't matter.

 

I bet you made more money on you're import when you sold it than you have selling any of you're aussie delivered cars.

 

Well, I've got both Aussie delivered, and a non-aussie delivered ferrari's - so it's not about being sensitive. Amazing as it may be some of us have still owned an traded a few cars in less than 30 years of ownership too so have also experienced ups and downs.

Perhaps it's when you make blanket statements like '...some people wouldn't buy that car at any price' that I think you are needlessly negative. This is a generalisation from your experience not shared by all others here (in another thread seemed there were plenty of people people keen on the busted up, LHD convert, imported 355 when it hit $80K).

You're obviously entitled to an opinion, but it's far from the last word and I think it's fair the OP hears positives as well on owning an import.

 

far out!!

no...it's just a fact of life......some people wouldn't buy one at any price. it's a fact of life....and isn't negative....and it doesn't mean a non aussie car is any more or less a car...that's got nothing to do with it.

anyway....i don't care if you agree or not...them's the facts...too bad.

 

you'd lose that bet.

 

Im wrong thats a first.

 

works the same on wife/gf too??

 

had to happen sooner or later, hey?

i reckon it'll happen to me one day too.

 

I hope not im devastated.

 

My 308 GTB is a UK car. Bad point, single exhaust, fixable. Good point, dry sump, great for track days.

Cars been fully stripped and very little rust.

To be honest I didn't even think of where it was originally registered. The most important thing at the time is that it was within my budget.

After 5 years of ownership it is being restored in Australia, so perhaps I can call it an Aussie car

Its still a 308 GTB at the end of the day and always will be.

 

well done to everyone for missing the point