Ferrari 348tb - should I get it?

[atchaa]

Hi people,

my first post here!

Right here's the deal, I currently drive a 330Ci BMW and am looking for something more exotic.

I've been offered a lovely yellow Ferrari 348tb:

Ferrari 348TB. 1990(G) in Yellow. 33k miles, New mot, full Ferrari service history. Over £4000 spent in servicing since 2002 including belts. Rollcage & racing seats professionally fitted at a cost of over £5000. Challenge exhaust, Toad cat1 alarm, Sony CD player, electric windows/central locking. Sparco steering wheel, momo chrome gear shift knob.

I've been offered it for £20k dead.

What do you think, will I be in for big bills (presuming I get it inspected first)? When would the next cambelt change be due (I do about 6k miles per year)?

Does it look a good deal to you. It's a private sale, and is at least £5000 less than any others for sale in the country (am i right?). I live just round the corner from Verdi's, so should I go and check some out there too?

Any help would be much appreciated.

PS: It's going to be either this or a 3200GT Maserati.

[Ade]

Originally Posted by atchaa

Hi people,

my first post here!

Right here's the deal, I currently drive a 330Ci BMW and am looking for something more exotic.

I've been offered a lovely yellow Ferrari 348tb:

Ferrari 348TB. 1990(G) in Yellow. 33k miles, New mot, full Ferrari service history. Over £4000 spent in servicing since 2002 including belts. Rollcage & racing seats professionally fitted at a cost of over £5000. Challenge exhaust, Toad cat1 alarm, Sony CD player, electric windows/central locking. Sparco steering wheel, momo chrome gear shift knob.

I've been offered it for £20k dead.

What do you think, will I be in for big bills (presuming I get it inspected first)? When would the next cambelt change be due (I do about 6k miles per year)?

Does it look a good deal to you. It's a private sale, and is at least £5000 less than any others for sale in the country (am i right?). I live just round the corner from Verdi's, so should I go and check some out there too?

Any help would be much appreciated.

PS: It's going to be either this or a 3200GT Maserati.

Is it LHD or RHD? Get a compression test on it before you consider any car. This one sounds like its a track car and therefore driven harder than most. An engine rebuild can cost 20K+++ so you wanna make sure it passes a full inspection..
good luck
Ade

[Robertb]

Sounds like a very reasonable price if it is RHD. You'l have lots of fun in it...

Ferraris have a habit of costing a fair bit to keep going, but an inspection should give an indication of likely probs. If you're keen, I'd suggest popping the car round to Verdis, and getting it properly PPI'd there.

As Ade says, if has been frequently tracked, then exercise special care.

I think 348 belts are due every three years/18k miles (?), so you need to know exactly when the last one was done.

Budget on at least £1500 per year average for maintenance.

One final thing- if this is to replace the 330Ci as your daily driver, considerthe sort of places you need to park and whether a yellow 348 would survive in tact...

Good luck!

Robert.

[sletti]

It's a good price for LHD let alone RHD. But if you are near Verdi, then get Karl to check it out. He's as sound a Ferrari pro as they get.

Welcome to Fchat, by the way.

[RAY430RED]

Originally Posted by atchaa

Hi people,

my first post here!

Right here's the deal, I currently drive a 330Ci BMW and am looking for something more exotic.

I've been offered a lovely yellow Ferrari 348tb:

Ferrari 348TB. 1990(G) in Yellow. 33k miles, New mot, full Ferrari service history. Over £4000 spent in servicing since 2002 including belts. Rollcage & racing seats professionally fitted at a cost of over £5000. Challenge exhaust, Toad cat1 alarm, Sony CD player, electric windows/central locking. Sparco steering wheel, momo chrome gear shift knob.

I've been offered it for £20k dead.

What do you think, will I be in for big bills (presuming I get it inspected first)? When would the next cambelt change be due (I do about 6k miles per year)?

Does it look a good deal to you. It's a private sale, and is at least £5000 less than any others for sale in the country (am i right?). I live just round the corner from Verdi's, so should I go and check some out there too?

Any help would be much appreciated.

PS: It's going to be either this or a 3200GT Maserati.

Atchaa you have a pm contact me as soon as RAY360M

[Rod]

The car has been on the market for ages.. is LHD and used to be Blue in colour.... repainted Yellow... I don't think it has full history and the chap has only owned it for 9 months? It's probably a good car but I would only offer 17k-18k with an ok inspection...(its LHD has had a colour change & without the original interior)

You can buy a good LHD 348 gts for 22k on the continent....

[dasadrew]

Originally Posted by Rod

You can buy a good LHD 348 gts for 22k on the continent....

A GTS? a 1994 348GTS?? For €33000? A GOOD one too?

Either:

a) admit the typo and say you meant 'ts'
or
b) come over here and shoot me before I jump off a bridge

signed:

recent new owner of the best deal GTS I could find after 9 months of searching in Germany and France

[EK3R]

That sounds as dodgy as you could possibly get - dubious history, colour change, new interior - surely a salvage car rebuilt? OK might be cheap, but not worth it if it doesn't drive straight, or will cost a fortune with stuff going wrong (as maybe the current owner has discovered and decided to jump ship). Of course a good inspection will tell all.

[andrewg]

its been offered through the trade / ebay / autotrader for over 18 months.
Jumping from a 330 to an old LHD 348 may be a bit of a culture shock, especialy as this car seems to have been kitted out for tracked days, and as such will have led a very hard life.

Caveat Emptour

[RAY430RED]

Originally Posted by andrewg

its been offered through the trade / ebay / autotrader for over 18 months.
Jumping from a 330 to an old LHD 348 may be a bit of a culture shock, especialy as this car seems to have been kitted out for tracked days, and as such will have led a very hard life.

Caveat Emptour

You are all half right I have contacted Zia I have all the history on that car it was mine Raced and won Auto itaila afew years ago i bought it from Germany it was blue Sera i had it painted after i finished racing it and used it on the road for a year or so. Low mls when i bought it. Never had any bad hits just a few pushes and scrapes I took the racing seats out and fitted Ferrari Sports seats .Like you guys have seen it for sale a few times and once i tried a cheeky offer to buy it back It was well looked after and had a fortune spent on it when i owned it It needs to go to Karls or somewhere to make sure its still ok Got me thinking again !! RAY360M

[tonyh]

Originally Posted by RAY360M

You are all half right I have contacted Zia I have all the history on that car it was mine Raced and won Auto itaila afew years ago i bought it from Germany it was blue Sera i had it painted after i finished racing it and used it on the road for a year or so. Low mls when i bought it. Never had any bad hits just a few pushes and scrapes I took the racing seats out and fitted Ferrari Sports seats .Like you guys have seen it for sale a few times and once i tried a cheeky offer to buy it back It was well looked after and had a fortune spent on it when i owned it It needs to go to Karls or somewhere to make sure its still ok Got me thinking again !! RAY360M

Quality, Ray. How much to bring it back to a good spec?

[RAY430RED]

Originally Posted by tonyh

Quality, Ray. How much to bring it back to a good spec?

Tony somebody has already spent some more cash on it It never had a cd player and cat one alarm when i sold it So long as its still more or less still like when i owned it not much Its the roll cage that frightens people I had all the oil pump upgades done ecu s sorted umpteen sevices cambelt changes ect you could not afford to take a chance on the engine going wrong or worse still blowing up Could be a good car for the right price

RAY360M

[Rod]

Oops.. I meant TS.... Sorry!

Originally Posted by dasadrew

A GTS? a 1994 348GTS?? For €33000? A GOOD one too?

Either:

a) admit the typo and say you meant 'ts'
or
b) come over here and shoot me before I jump off a bridge

signed:

recent new owner of the best deal GTS I could find after 9 months of searching in Germany and France

[atchaa]

UPDATE:

I went up to Coventry today to view the car, and my word it was stunning. Ray told me the paintjob cost £4000 and it looks like it has just rolled off the factorylune. It puts my 2003 330Ci to shame. Mirror-like surface with not a single blemish. EVne the wheels were as new, no kerbing at all. Remarkable for a 1990 car (must have been refurbished recently.

Interior was a bit of a shock coming from a BMW with leather and satnav, tv etc, but the seats (recaro with ferrari emblems were comfy enough. The stereo sounded good but the noise the Challenge exhausts made was incredible. Awe-inpiring stuff.

So anyways, due to the distance, an inspection at Verdi's was not practicable, so I took along my mechanic friend (I know this is definitely inferior to a full on inspection, but better than nothing. He said he could see nothing wrong with the car (though obviously doesn't mean there isn't)and it passed its Mot last month.

The guy is selling because he's a property developer (very believable from the state the (very large) house was in), and needed the cash for a new project, thus he was selling his assets - "toys".

So I had a choice to make. No inspection was possible, but the last service was the killer one, (cambelts, engine out etc) and cost £4k at Maranello's.

He has every receipt and bill for everything that was done to the car, huge wads of paper, clearly nothing to hide. The paintjob was one of the most incredible I have ever seen (in official Ferrari yellow), Ray said the car was completely gutted to do the work, and the receipt is there. The Ferrari paintcode is even stamped on a silver plate under the bonnet.

I have always been one for risks, and after some hard negotiating, we agreed on a figure of £18750.

That's a bargain in my book (so long as there are no gremlins to emerge). I thought, even if there are I reckon I can get more than that in London.

If there are no problems, I'll run it for a few (terrific fun) months, take out the rollcage (which Ray said scared people) and sell it for a healthy profit hopefully.

[LittleBro]

Just not to an F-chatter

Are you able to post a couple of photo's? Good luck and enjoy.

[Badapple]

What was the score with the paintjob then, was it a different colour originally?
Sounds like a bigtime bargain mate! Hope you enjoy it

[RAY430RED]

[QUOTE=atchaa]UPDATE:

I went up to Coventry today to view the car, and my word it was stunning. Ray told me the paintjob cost £4000 and it looks like it has just rolled off the factorylune. It puts my 2003 330Ci to shame. Mirror-like surface with not a single blemish. EVne the wheels were as new, no kerbing at all. Remarkable for a 1990 car (must have been refurbished recently.

Looks like it all went well M8 hope you enjoy glad to hear he kept it nice after the money i spent on it Enjoy Zia here are a few more pics The original paint was Blue sera thats why the blue grey trim goes so well with the Galio Fly Yellow

RAY360M

[burriana]

ATCHAA - well done, fingers crossed, it looks fantastic... though do us a favour mate and give us a few more details, like where in the country are you? ... I'd love to get a pick of my Giallo 348 Spider next to yours... I've never seen a Berlinetta in yellow.

RAY - are those the big enamel wing shields in your pic or the acrylic ones? I was discussing this with Leyton when I bought the car and we both concluded that the yellow shields wouldn't look much good on a yellow car... but yours seem to go really well.

[andy74bruce]

car looks like absolute bargain. welcome to ferrari ownership and hope not too many gremlims with car

[Ade]

Congratulations, even though you have already bought it, it might be still wise to get a compression test done, unless your mechanic said he would carry the responsibility of anything going wrong :-)