My First Post - Looking at 1997 F355 GTS. Advice?

Hi,

This is my first post.

Great forum.

I have searched the forum for info for first time F355 buyers.

I have read most of them and the have been a great help.

I have a few questions.

I am looking at a 1997 Ferrari F355 GTS. Link below. (I am based in Dublin, Ireland btw )

http://www.driving.ie/usedcars/index.cfm?fuseaction=Car&carID=1198625&message=You%20searched%20for%3A%20Ferrari%20F355%2C%20Year%3A%201997%2E%20Your%20search%20returned%20one%20vehicle%2C%20which%20is%20shown%20below%2E&CFID=1859271&CFTOKEN=36904230

The car has 15K miles. I looked at the car on Saturday and it looks amazing. It had one or two chips on the bonnet which I am not worried about. The gear nob was a little worn which I was suprised to see given that it had only 15K miles.

It had 2 owners. One in the UK. And one here.

Q1 : If the car has had the valves and headers problem resolved already that everyone mentions here in the buyers guide will I be better off as they will go eventually and will save me $ later in the cars life? Can they go again? And maybe manifold problem resolved also? These 3 things seem to be the biggest issues?

Q2 : Also, it has 15K miles. Most I see have low mileage. When I buy it I intend to drive it alot. Should I be more conscious like others and drive maybe a few times a week to keep mileage down and hence hold the cars value. I will probably average 10K miles a year on it. What average mileage do you guys put on yours?

Q3 : Servicing - there is only one place where I can service it here and it costs too much. People say servicing is very expensive. Yet, I found a company in the UK called Verdi and their prices are very reasonable (http://www.verdi-ferrari.com/servicing.htm)

Any info or replies appreciated.

Thanks in Advance.

 

My thoughts on milage are:

You payed to buy it, now enjoy it!!! ofcourse keep it in best health possible. Why buy a car to park in the garage and just drool over or have as a show piece? Generally, you should always do preventative maintance on every car, but most importantly on a ferrari or an exotic to prevent worst imaginable events from occuring and reduce those chances. Service history on a ferrari is mostly prioritized by timing not by milage so in that sense,you will pay to garage it or pay to drive it. so you might as well drive it and enjoy every moment of it! Most people will say that a ferrari is a pure bread, a car that demands to be driven; when driven frequently enough you may avoid many problems that claimed garage queens incounter but also, the more you drive it the more chances you will take of something going wrong sooo.... so what would i do...I would drive my Ferrari everytime I feel like it, when it is nice out and I want to drive. I would not drive it to run errands, go shopping, etc...

 

Car looks great! I have never seen a red on cream. very interesting inside. I would prefer black carpeting but that's just me. Did the lights pop down?

 

Welcome to FerrariChat mate.

That is a nice looking car.

That engine bay doesnt look like it has been well cared for though??

Late 98 onwards had the valve guide issues sorted out mate. That car is a 97, so unless the previous 2 owners had them done......you WILL have to do them one day. Its the way life goes.

If they have been done, then you should be right. Shouldnt happen again man, as long as they did the job properly.

Headers can go again, if the stock Ferrari headers are used again. But........if you go with an aftermarket header, like Fabspeed.....they should last a lot longer and probably never give you any trouble.

15K miles is average on most 355's now days. Many Fchatters have A LOT more miles on their cars than that too btw.

Buy it.......drive it and dont worry too much about resale man. Ferraris are not good investments, trust me.

You have to be careful when buying cars like these man.

They are NOT cheap to service and repair. Well they are, if you want to do the work yourself.

This may be a good car and will probably be trouble free. Service costs are acceptable annually.

Major engine out cam belt service is the killer. Every 3 or 5 years needs to be done (whichever you prefer).

I just looked at Verdi's website! VERY VERY reasonable for the 355 cam belt major service.

Around US $1200!! How cheap is that?

Looks like the major service WONT be a killer for you eh? I wouldnt even bother doing that myself for that price!!

Have fun and I hope this info helped you out.

The other experts will chime in and help you some more.

Also, please fill out your profile when you can.

 

I thought the price was a bit steep - tha's like $150K US or so and that's 360 territory. Mielage is low but should be fine as long as the car was driven and not stored most of the time. Valve guides might be an issue and on a low mileage car, it seems more likely than not. Headers will continously fail unless they have been replaced with a redesign of after market - check out QV London for their fix of the stock pipes. GTS' are more valuable here in the states; not sure what the status is in the UK. Maintenance can bankrupt you for an ignored car, however, regular services are far less in the UK than for us in the US. Make sure you get a PPI from a reputable and independent party; have them check the compresison and do a leak down test properly.

 

How about you buy this gem from me and I'll ship it too you . The weak dollar could save you some money http://www.sportscarcompany.com/detail-1999-ferrari-f355-berlinetta-3373069.html

 

There's lots of points but start by looking at all the other 355 buying threads and at www.the355.com

There's a really good buyers checklist somewhere here too - found it in this thread http://ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=91241

I think you might be better off also looking in the Uk so as to get a wider selection of cars (which begin at about UK£ 35000 for a decent one)

If you plan to use it there's no reason to get so low a mileage and you may be destroying value by significantly increasing a low mileage

I believe there's some servicing experience in the north too

Preventing manifolds going is helped by replacing with those form QV but only as soon as the originals begin to go

Valve guides in Europe seems to be less of a problem possibly due to different fuel characteristics

Gearknobs do wear quite quickly and can be cheaply replaced from Hills Engineering but it could be a sign that you should check the mileage history very thoroughly

 

VIN?

 

Looks like a nice one but a bit on the expensive side. A big bit. I have recently bought a 97 GTS with 24k miles. The one you are looking at works out at £63k, mine was approx 20k cheaper than that.

 

We have VRT here.

If I buy a F355 car in the UK, I have to pay VRT on the car when I import it here to Ireland. VRT can be 30 - 40 % of the book value on top of what I paid for it in the UK

 

Not sure. That was just for the pic. When I went to look at it in the showroom I did'nt try the lights.

 

It just needs a good cleaning? I can do that myself?

Just looks a little dusty.

I presume it is easy enough to clean?

 

Is it dusty??

Fair enough. The rest of the car looks really CLEAN and I doubt they would have left that engine bay dusty, which is why I commented on it.

 

Maybe I am wrong?

You have to excuse me cos I am not an experienced F355 guy.

What u think of the engine bay?

 

Sh*t, I dont know man.

Could be dusty and they NEVER cleaned it before taking pics.

Or, it could be that it has never been clean/washed for a long time and there is a lot of crap built up in there.

You will have to see for yourself when you have it in your garage.

 

OK. Cool.

 

Gorgeous interior. Add a challenge grill and you're set!