I would. Would you?

Hey Guys. Here is a good example of a 360 Spyder at a great price for someone looking for a first Ferrari. Only one thing. It has a salvage title.
It looks good so I would consider it. Would you?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Cars-Trucks___2004-Ferrari-360-Spider-F1-Red-REBUILT-TITLE-LO-RESERVE_W0QQitemZ130235654810QQddnZCarsQ20Q26Q20TrucksQQddiZ2282QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item130235654810&_trksid=p3756.m14.l1318

 

Don't walk - run! The seller didn't even post a VIN so you could check against CarFax (not that I'm advocating CarFax). No tiki, no laundry.

 

$110K for a flood soaked car with a salvage title that needs a clutch? Um, no I don't think so. (assuming flood damage based on posted details in the listing.)

vin: ZFFYT53A540139611 according to the listing!!

Nah, no dice. There are other cars out there for maybe $10-15K more that don't have shaky history or a rebuilt/salvage title. Just asking for trouble with this one.

DM

 

Where do you see that...?

 

This car will end up in a rental fleet, probably in Vegas

 

Under ''Vehicle Information''.

 

I don't see that either. It must be text in an image format because whenever I do CTRL+F, and type in "ZFF" or the serial number or even the words "vehicle information", nothing comes up.

 

The VIN is right at the top of the listing.

Jedi
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Aha, well here's a screen shot -

http://s294.photobucket.com/albums/mm81/NYCSpotter/?action=view&current=Untitled-35.jpg

 

Dammit.

 

Okay, now we're getting somewhere. I can't see those tabs on the auction page. Perhaps because I'm not an eBay user, I don't know. Thank you for the screen shot - I thought I was going nuts!

 

No problem.

 

Regardless of VIN.. I'd still run. If I was looking for the first Ferrari I'd be checking out 348's or 355's.

 

I wouldn't buy it... I can get Euro Spec 360s all day here for $75K, I'm still waiting on one to come in around $45K... and I've seen two... both with minor front end damage... The right one will come along.

Mike in Kuwait

 

Yeah, no joke. I've heard of some bad stories. Don't know if they are true or not, but some had some pretty brutal sounding damages.

 

If you've got enough to buy a Ferrari, why go for a salvage? You'd need a good 20-30K on Salvages, and for that price, just buy a decent 360.

 

True! But I don't own a Ferrari yet but do plan to drive it a bit. At least on the weekends. Most people don't even buy high milage Ferraris. As long as the ppi checks out, why not. We all know that some owners get fender benderrs on the track. Does this means they are no longer worthy to keep and own. I don't. It all depends on how bad the damage is.

My 2 cents.
ron

 

salvage title cars arent all bad...especially when you KNOW the exact damage done to the car..when theres no docs/pics showing such its a real gamble.. besides..for 25-30 grand more you can get a very nice 360 spider ..maybe not an 04 but one with books and records and no stories...i get them offered to me on an almost daily basis!!

 

Isn't it hard to insure salvage cars? That'd be the one thing stopping me.

 

Unless you plan on keeping it forever, As far as I know from reading some peoples posts here in other threads, that if you do not care about resale then your fine, but I have read that resale is another factor stopping others.

 

For the insurance company to total the car it must have been pretty extensive damage. IF the car was worth $150K prior to the claim, it would have to be over $100K worth of potential repairs.

If, as the listing implies, the car had water damage, the only thing you DON'T need to worry about is the body or frame rusting. Beyond that, who knows, which is why, I'm sure, the Ins. Co. totaled the car.

Water is insidious. It gets EVERYWHERE and does lots of damage. Ok, maybe they swapped some but not all of the computer systems, after all, if I was doing it, I'd check them one at a time and only replace the ones that failed. Doesn't mean that corrosion from water might not fry an electrical connection down the line, or toast a circuit board, and they are not cheap.

Carpets may have been cleaned, not replaced, same with seats, and the foam innards along with the leather undersides of those seats could be a ticking time bomb.

There's just too much potential for down the road issues to want to tangle with this particular salvage car.

Keep looking. Buy an older car, or a higher mileage car. Less potential for disasters not of your own making. and, heaven forbid you want to sell the car someday. Look at where the car is now, and it's not exactly jumping out of ebay and into someone's driveway is it?

With the number of 360s on the market, there has to be a better choice than this one out there.

DM

 

If the PPI checks out, sure. But for a salvage titled car, I highly highly doubt it will. Its not worth the trouble.

Dave put it well, its kind of an abyss of money going into it...

 

I would buy it only for a massive discount. IMO the discount is not enough compared to the cost of the problems you may have down the road. Flood cars are like a hand gernade with the pin pulled.

I use to be the part owner of a body shop and we did wrecked repairables. The only way to make money selling them is to replace or repair less items on the car then were originally were written by the ins. agent. So if you buy a tainted history car keep that in mind. Also we never bought flood cars except to cut up and use body panel parts.

 

Looks very nice, but I wouldn't buy a car with a salvage title.

 

The fact that the title is branded does not necessarily make a car bad, You have to know whey it was salvaged. I bought an almost brand new Nissan Xterra from a salvage acution, The truck did not have a single scratch. It didnt have a key either. But it was a theft recovery, funny thing it had to be an inside job, because they used a key and it wasn't hot wired. Long story short. I got a key cut with the VIN from Nissan for $30. Jumped the battery and drove off in the truck. Not a single thing wrong with the truck.


But this car what makes it REALLY BAD is that it was flooded. You will have a life long problems with the electronics and or transmission in that car. Like they said before don't walk runnnnnnnnnnnnnn.

There is another salvaged 03 Spider in Houston. I emailed the owner back and forth. And he claims he bought a salvaged Ferrari and that he has no idea what the previous damage was or why the car was salvaged. I called him out on it and I told him what other salvaged cars supposedly sold on ebay for a Blue/tan 03 spider when for like $84k and an 02 Modena whet for $79k and the seller backed out too. Needless to say the owner did not reply to my email after that. And it looks to me like he is bidding on his own car to get it up to $110k so far. Because I know there is noway anyone in their right mind would pay that much for that car.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=200237087163&ru=http%3A%2F%2Fmotors.shop.ebay.com%3A80%2F__%3F_from%3DR40%26_trksid%3Dm39%26_nkw%3D200237087163%26_nd1%3D%26submit.x%3D718%26submit.y%3D81%26_fvi%3D1