Advice on 355s

If you ask me, i would only buy another 95. 2.7 is the only way to go. Lots of reasons but i am no pro to answer them. I know there is more HP in 95s then the others from what I heard.

 

Welcome to the board. There is a ton of info here in this section. You can use the search feature or scroll thru a few of the latest pages of threads and alot of your questions will be answered...Good luck in your car search!! 355 RULES!!!

 

I thought you already owned one.

 

Doh!!!

Dont add it to your profile till you get it....

 

wishful thinking

 

What color is the 355 spider you are selling??

 

355 are based on the proper maintenance. For example, I bought a perfect looking 355 and 2 weeks later it craped on me. I just finished paying close to 30K$ fixing it. All because I was not sure and did not understand what I was looking for in a 355. Do your homework. All are great, some were just abused. And worst of all some a Garage Queens. This is the worst thing you can do to the car.
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xavior im curious what happened to your car when it broke down.did you have a ppi before purchase?

 

Unfortunately I did not know what a PPI was at the time. When I asked about it afterwards, the car dealer would not do it. Low and behold they closed down 4 months later. So to answer your question, no I did not. And the more i ask about it here in Japan, they have never heard of doing this. I found something else out last night also. Most 355's in Japan have the odometer turned back. This may be a crime in America but it happens so much here in Japan, no one cares anymore I guess. That may have happened to me, i dont know.

 

This phenomenon may be a contributing reason the 355 has a reputation for having reliability problems with such "low miles"......

If owners and buyers would put a premium on the "condition" of the car and drivetrain rather than put so much value on "low miles", we may have more consistent wear paterns to miles ratios across the f-car spectrum.

 

i love the 355 but i would buy a 6-speed over the f1 anyday. the f1 in the 355 is just not my liking.

 

Advice is to pay close attention to the carfax results - there's usually a good record of mileage during inspections, when it changes hands, etc.

 

Gasp! I thought Japan was a modern sophisticated industrialized nation.

OMIGOD! Fraud is fraud, even in Japan. Oh wait, I just remembered that Japanese officials will not cooperate with the investigation or recovery of stolen vehicles exported to Japan from the US. I guess they have different priorities over there.

 

Well looks like I'll be selling my, um, 3k mile '99 in Japan for top Yen!!!

 

I'll give ya 5,000,000 Yen for it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! CASH!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

LOL ........ wait a minute........... I think I have been misreading my mileage all this time............I thought it had 37000 miles and it really only has 3700 miles ....... I wonder how much I could get for a 3700 mile F355 in japan ???

 

My goal when I was looking for a 355 was to find as late of a production date as I could find on a car; I ended up with a March 99 build and couldn't be happier. I just figured that with such a (relatively) low production, hand built, car they'd only get better at producing the car as time went on.

As for the garage queen deal, I pretty much disregarded everything everyone said on here about them because I was planning on doing the major service as soon as I got the car. Again, I ended up finding one with 3.9k miles and haven't had a problem since (3k miles in the year since I've bought it). I just wanted to get a car with as few miles as I could because I wanted to be the one to put the miles on it myself.

If you take that approach however you find yourself on the edge of early model 360's price wise and have to make a decision between a pristine 355 or a, most likely, higher mileage 360. For me that decision was easy; tough to beat the classic, yet not dated, lines of the 355, not to mention the sound.

 

Great minds think alike.

That was exactly what I did for the same reasons.

Searched for a late production car (mine was March'99 also) with very low miles and specifically wanted a car WITHOUT major service done so I can make sure that it was done correctly and put on the miles myself.

Now, Major was done, Capristo + Hyperflows in place, car runs smooth, life is good.

 

The main things (for me):

2.7 cars (twin throttle) are slightly more powerful and sound louder (engine air intake in corner of rear quarter windows, in 5.2 cars its pointing down in the top of the door vents - so intake noise "shouts" at the floor rather than being broadcast to your ears).

Late 98 & 99 cars had steel valve guides instead of bronze which have been known for high wear rates (bronze that is - the debate rages on).

Red with crema hide is the prefered colour, red with black interior 2nd (people like other colours, but certainly in the UK, the red ones are at a price premium and easier to sell than any other colour).

Early cars tend not to have airbags = MUCH nicer steering wheel and also prettier indentation in your head during an accident

I think the engine bay on a 5.2 is better looking than a 2.7 - buts thats just my opinion (single throttle pipework rather than a "hole" etc) - although I would prefer the sound of a 2.7.

p.s. First models were actually 1994 but not all markets.

 

Don't buy an F1 edition, stick to the normal gearbox,
potentially alot less problems and not so difficult to change the clutch
on the 6 speeds, F1 clutches need re-computerising
after installation.

Look for oil leaks under any car and when I say look I mean look
hard, also watch as some people put cardboard underneath
then remove it when viewers come !!! It's a bad bad world out there !

 

Also the 355's F1 being 1st generation dosnt have a fly-by-wire throttle so the downshift blips are done by adjusting the idle speed control valve which isnt ideal, if you go F1 then drive one plenty to check you like it - remember to lift slightly as you would in a manual to smooth the changes, it aint an auto.

I agree re: oil leeks there should be none, "All Ferrari's leak a bit of oil" isn't the case with 355's so dont believe someone who says it.