F40 prices sinking fast? Asking below $499k and no takers

Great post, from an owner, no less...

 

For what it worth , I had a Cash buyer offer me $500K cash for my 92 last week. He was very aware of all the cars that were on the market but wanted a clean Low mile "no stories" car and was willing to pay for it. So yes buyers are still willing to pay $500K or more for the clean cars in these bad economic times.

 

ROLMAO.....sounds like the entire ferrari line up

ruff/dead Trs...35K.....clean proofed cars and serviced with history 80K

ruff/dead 308s...20K...clean proofed cars and serviced with history 40K and over.

ruff/dead 355s..45K....clean proofed cars and serviced with history 85K

driving a ferrari until the wheels fall off.......and selling it to the next guy without paper work .."PRICELESS"

 

Art, when I drive my F40 I can feel the steering column rubbing on my left foot when the clutch is in and I turn the wheel. And I have a size 8 foot. You're more than welcome to give it a try, lets just find a very big parking lot with no cars first We can practice first in my exige, believe it or not it actually has more room in the toebox even though the car is half the size. But harder to get in and out of.

 

The one Joe was offering for somewhat less than 500K hardly seemed ruff. The photo's in the offering email looked rather nice. 12K miles over 18 years may seem like high mileage to some but it doesn't seem excessive to me.

"This 1991 Ferrari F40 is completely original, unmodified, and has a Tubi sport exhaust fitted.

The 76th of 211 USA cars built.

11,760 miles.

Chassis no. ZFFMN34A8L0087031, assembly no. 03992.

This F40 has resided in a premier private USA collection.

A very special offer at $395,000 USD, plus commission."

 

Mr. G,
Are you thinking of adding an F40 to the stable? You are sure keeping a very active eye on the market .
Erik
PS I would like to see Roy's Orange GT in your fleet!

 

The difference between a 12k mile F40 and a 5k mile F40 might as well be the continental divide. While $75k to $100k might seem significant for a mere 7k miles you of all people should know that MILES DO MATTER in a Ferrari more so than any other marque. Heck there's at least a $20k to $30k difference between Stradales with this kind of mileage variance. A F40 - being a supercar/collectible - is a whole different ball of wax where $10k in depreciation per thousand miles is probably dead on accurate.

 

Roy's GT isn't fully US Street Legal so that doesn't interest me, if it was it would. I'm kind of thinking of a euro F 40 that I would keep and drive over there to replace our 208 GTB Turbo when that one is legal to bring back to the US.

Cheers

 

What do clean, 15,000 mile Euro F40s go for ? How do you find them? I am thinking it would be a great track car for a few years.

 

While I understand that some covet very low mileage cars I don't understand why I "of all people should know that MILES DO MATTER in a Ferrari more so than any other marque". I drive my cars and could care less about what miles they accumulate or had on them when I bought them. Four of them don't even have odometers. I've driven a 275 GTB 65K miles and sold it for twice what I payed for it so mileage didn't seem to hurt me there. I put more miles on Dino Competizione in five days than it was driven in it's first 40 years. I've driven P 4/5 600 miles in one day. It now has over 6K miles including 1K hard track miles. Not sure that the miles I've put on
P 4/5 or my Dino have diminished their value. I've put over 40K street miles on my Ford and it's likely worth a bit more than the 600K I payed for it in 1992 even in this meltdown. Miles matter to some. Not to me. What matters to me is condition and service history. The guy who bought my 308 GTB for about what I payed for it new with 85K miles got a pretty good car as it was maintained properly.

 

I agree...and what fun is having one of best cars in the world rot away undriven....kinda like have a beautiful woman and not making love to her!

 

With your history of ownership and knowledge of Ferraris - whether you're in agreement with it or not - the fact of the matter is that miles DO matter to most when it comes to Ferraris. Again - you may not suscribe to this in theory but you're well aware that it exists. Knowing what you know why would it seem ludicrous to imagine a $400k F40 w/12k miles and a $500k F40 with 5k miles? Just because there's a clean 12k miles car for sale at $400k does not make a market. Clean low mileage no story cars are likely $450k to $500k cars (as further evidenced by DM's post).

 

The material difference, IMO, is partially that of production vs special cars (or cars of particular interest, history, importance, etc) and then secondarily that of service.

I would rather buy a higher mileage vehicle that has a proper service history than a lower mileage vehicle that hasn't. They are cars, meaning they were designed and meant to be run. They were not engineered to work as static - and keeping cars in a state of "low mileage" will only do the car considerable disservice. Like anything else, they need to be operated in order to maintain operational functionality.

 

I have 3900 miles on my car.

 

Hey Dan, you know I have first right of refusal on my car
Don't sell it. I regretted it and I'd like to save you from the mental agony.

 

Offer him $550k so we can "market adjust" the market!

 

$550K will not buy the car!

 

Prices on almost all classes of assets are falling due to the deleveraging process going on all over the world...ferraris are not immune, and even collectables are not immune....in fact, i will be suprised if prices dont fall significantly lower in the next several years...of course if someone can buy at close to the bottom of the market, the collector exotic car should do every well, esp as a hedge against future inflation and devaluation of the greenback.......

 

And they're not worth a penny more or a penny less than any other Dino Competizione or P4/5.

 

Agree! If I had the money, I would buy a well maintained car that is driven (5k miles is too less, 15k miles is about right). Mainly because I would love to drive it and not flat bed it to shows. Why buy a low mile car that will cost you tons of depreciation.

 

It's not depreciation that I'd worry about. To me a car is a fixed sunk cost - if you get 10% back when you sell then that's fantastic. The point is more to deal with running costs and issues.

 

I bought a low miles garage queen that averaged about 200 miles per year over her 16 years. Since then I've put another 15% back in just to get her right from lack of use. Connectors, hoses, fuel pumps, injectors, radiators, all those things don't like to sit. Probably still have some other issues to work out. So what napolis & bobafett said is right, better to get one that has been used/driven and well maintained than one that has been sealed up in a plastic bubble. I realize its natural to be concerned about the potential future costs of a high miles car, but you must also consider the same for a very low miles car. the premium you pay for a very low miles car is not justified if you are thinking to avoid costs associated with service issues, as I have found out you will still have them anyway.

 

Jeffery

I agree that it exists and I agree that some are willing to pay up for it. I do think it's silly but so what? If owning a low mileage car makes one happy God Bless. It's a Wide Wide World. I have a friend with 60+ Ferrari's many of which he's never driven including an F 40 that has delivery miles and it's original paper mats from the dealer. Some of them haven't been started for five years. Every once and a while the cars are flat bedded to the dealer and then returned his garage. When he does try to start them they won't and the flatbed comes again. He also has a huge store of parts including spare engines. Everyone sleeps in their own bed. I know another guy who has over 200 Cars most of which he's never driven. He has three guys on staff who clean them full time. He's quite happy and a nice guy. Getting zero mileage cars up and running after 40 years is not a minor undertaking. It took us over 1000 man hours to get Dino Competizione up and about. Think about getting 200 cars that haven't been run for years going. When these cars come up for sale and eventually they will I wonder how people will value them.

Best

 

If the recent Bonham's auction Bugatti is any indication people will value them, and pay through the roof!! (if they are historically significant cars). People especially american's have always like low mileage (time capsule) cars. I think it is because it is the only way to get as close to a "new" one as possible. If the trend continues with the preservation class at Pebble and originality being stressed more and more. Mr. G, I think these LOW MILEAGE original cars could go through the roof. Similar to the patina craze in classic furniture IMO.
Erik

 

Participants on this thread can be summed up into 2 basic groups:

The group of people who own F40s.

The group of people who dont.

The group of people who own F40s think they are much more valuable than the people who dont. Thats because the group of people who don't own F40s are desperately talking the market down by any means possible fair or foul as they have plans to buy one at some point. Unfortunately for them they have to deal with the group of people that own the F40s...