What “starter” Ferrari should I purchase?

Knock-on-wood, I'll complete the deal on Tuesday and will have the car here at the end of June. The waiting is killing me. I've driven them quite a bit, both S and B models and there is definitely more headroom in a B compared to the S with the roof on. I'm not sure but I think the B also has a little more seat travel since there's no need to store a top behind the seats. Little bit of a slouch driving position and you learn to drive the bottom of the steering wheel since it has the "classic" Italian driving position. That's another difference, starting with the 355 they have a much more modern driving position. 348s and earlier have the bus-angle steering wheels, designed for shuffle-steering the bottom. I like it, but it takes a little getting used to.

 

you can get a good ferrari 360 for 45k dont think about a 355

 

V6Lee:
Please point me to a location that has a good 360 for $45,000.
I've only seen dubious ones in the high 60's and decent ones in the high 70's - low 80's.

 

Duh... It's called FANTASYLAND.

You can buy high mileasge 360s wit a few resprayed panels for around $60K- but with low mileage clean ones for not much more- seems like a foolish decision to cheap out.

 

You guys kill me with th high mileage stuff . What's wrong with a higher mile car? In any other car world, a car with 50k miles 8yrs or older is considered low miles just broken in.

These cars are meant to be driven and will go much pass 100k.

Even the cars with low miles have repainted paints.. I have seen at least 5 360s with. About 15k miles in worst shape than mi 50k miles 360.


Bottom line...Just buy a good car and drive it. Doesn't matter the model, get what u like.

 

good post

 

full_garage:
Thank you, I knew that was the case. The question was half rhetorical and half sarcastic

 

Just one caveat...if the car racked up its low miles 2.5 at a time, those are harder miles than granny driving to church on Sunday in her "any other car in the world." Most of these cars are driven everywhere but to church on Sunday by grandma. They are driven hard and their parts are stressed a lot more than daily drivers. Some of these cars have their fluids changed weekly or monthly. Your average daily driver has them changed once or twice a year. You cannot compare the wear patterns of a Ferrari with those of a Toyota Camry. To all those who don't mind high mileage cars, please contact me so that we can lock in the price at which you will buy my car after I run up another 50,000 miles. The only people who loudly proclaim the superiority (and resale value) of high mileage cars are those who have run up a lot of miles and would rather not face the massive depreciation they will endure when they go to sell. The only reason there are fans of high mileage cars among buyers is they want a deep discount on the price they pay for a particular model.

 

Dude are you serious with that reply ? Granny miles LMAO at how dumb that sounds. We see you own a garage queen that is depreciating just as fast as mi high mile car.

these are are meant to be driven and driven hard(not abused big difference). Mi car seems to run better after a day at the track.

A car with higher miles has most problems figured out. Plus most fcar owner use synthetics fluids and change their belts regularly as compared to the DD which probably goes 60-80k mile before belt change and oil changes at 5k mile or more with regular oil.

No one with a Porsche will say their car has high miles at 50k or even 75k so why should Ferrari owners feel this way.

these are not trophies, they are car which are designed to be driven. If a Ferrari can't go 200k miles just as a Porsche can and does regularly then its a rip off to buy one. Ferrari owners would be 2-3 times the price for 1/3 of the life. that doesn't sound like a good deal to me.

PS. this is mi second Ferrari. first one i bought with 47k and sold it with 56k after 1 year(new owner loves it) mi second ferrari a 1999 was bought with 50k and i put 1k miles on it in 3 days.

I'm getting mi monies worth.

Drive people!

 

The whole Ferrari "high miles" market is definitely weird compared to the rest of the world. My Porsche has 116k on it which is hardly high considering it's 27 years old. I hammer it all the time and it's still very tight and solid, and no one can believe how old it is. I'm sure Ferraris are very similar, but the way Ferrari values fluctuate tends to prevent piling on the miles - low miles are generally worth more. It's market-driven and has nothing to do with the strength of the car.

That said, if presented with two identical cars that are well maintained, one with 30k and one with 100k, I'll take the one with 30k. Most buyers have to consider the market as part of buying one, because they will probably sell at some point. The 100k car will be nearly impossible to sell unless you give it away.

Oh and the car I'm buying has 30k on it.

 

A 30k car & 100k, equal condition, quite a few people would buy the 100k car because its cheaper.

Second, the guys with low mile fcar are still overpricing their cars..and in todays market neither car is really selling. If people start driving their cars and put miles on, it may change the market for used Ferraris. When most of the cars for sell have low miles that reduces the price because availablitiy is high andthe norm. A low mile car should be a treasure and rarity and not the norm.

 

+1 Not just a money pit though. A pit will fill up after sometime. This pit is filled with burning gasoline and you can never fill it to the top

--Mike

 

For the specialty models, such as the Turbo & GT2, Porsches can be mileage sensitive, since like a Ferrari they tend to be pleasure cars.

You guys preaching to drive Ferraris are fighting an uphill battle you can't win. The don't drive 'em cult is too ingrained over decades. People are convinced they are too fragile to hit 100k miles.

The really wacky mileage sensitive car is a Viper. It has a truck engine, but they have an insane penalty over 10k miles.......goofy.

 

The 'don't drive 'em' school of thought seems to be far more ingrained in the U.S. than elsewhere. In Europe, people seem to have far fewer qualms about putting 50K miles or more on their Ferraris. Perhaps there is something to be said for driving them as often as any other car...

 

"You guys kill me with th high mileage stuff . What's wrong with a higher mile car? In any other car world, a car with 50k miles 8yrs or older is considered low miles just broken in.

These cars are meant to be driven and will go much pass 100k.

Even the cars with low miles have repainted paints.. I have seen at least 5 360s with. About 15k miles in worst shape than mi 50k miles 360.


Bottom line...Just buy a good car and drive it. Doesn't matter the model, get what u like".

+1, for the good reason that in Europ we are used to see some high mileage cars, including ferraris.
When I got my first one, a 25 000 km 550, one of my neighbour nearby paris was exhanging his 550 having more than 250 000 km against a brand new 575!
Then he put something like 150 000 km on it within few years before getting one of the first 599 gtb, so what?

There was also a funny article in sport auto few years back, mentionning for example a nice guy using his murcielago on a daily basis, more than 200 000 km and still running, so what?

My second ferrari? an F40, quite new with only 5 000 km, then after two years I sold it with 25 000 km, so what? and in the same time I was making 10 000 km with a stradale and 15 000 with a 575, love it, us it and keep it if possible, but don't wait that somebody else put km on it!

 

In the spirit of staying on topic, I will say that no Ferrari is cheap to buy or easy to maintain. Your comment that high mileage cars have most problems figured out is interesting. This implies that Ferraris leave the factory in an imperfect state and must be fixed over the years. I have to say that I do not completely disagree, since my camshafts were not timed correctly at the factory. However, it doesn't take adding lots of miles to a car to discover a problem like that. Like I said before, you can choose to be delusional. If you think that a high mileage car is more desireable and worth more than one with low miles, I want to sell you my car when I am done with it. Contrary to what you are reading, I am not saying that you shouldn't enjoy your car. But to say that a car that has been beat to death on the track is better than one that has been enjoyed moderately is just silly. What keeps a lot of owners I have talked to from driving their cars every day is the maintenance. The more miles I drive, the faster I'm going to have to change the belts, etc. Unlike other cars, where a belt change is $250, mine costs $5,000. A set of tires for my car is $1,800 and they last 8K miles. Although my car looks pretty nice, it is no garage queen. I put 500 miles on it the first day I bought it. Here she is after driving from San Francisco to Virginia City, Nevada (200+ miles) and then running up the 5.2 mile hill course 13 times for a total of 67.6 miles at speeds approaching 120mph. After that, we drove home (another 200 miles) and then I washed the car.
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You misunderstand me mate.
I am not saying a hi mile car is worth more or more desirable, i'm saying its not ready for the junk yard. these cars will go more than 100k miles.

The more a car is driven, most things that go typically go wrong are replaced most times with better parts(ie Hill Eng.)

as for maintenance, a belt change on an Audi is cheap either. Its a few thousand for a major. there is no reason to be scared to drive these cars. AND, the ones that are used regularly suffer less problems.

I would not say that a car taken to the track is abused. I go to "track days" and drive it the way is suppose to be driven. And mi tyres last longer than 8k with track use.

 

DonJuan,

Many of us can attest to the fact that DakHarris does not own a "garage queen." In fact, he drives his car, at times pretty damn spirited, and frequently. Here in Northern California, it's pretty much driving weather most of the year. I've driven with Dak at least twice monthly on F-car Drive/Breakfasts for the past year or so. I've put about 7000 miles on my car this year alone. Dak has probably similar numbers. That's far from a "garage queen".

 

Love to see other adding miles and enjoying every mile

 

Superb!

 

There's nothing wrong with a high miage car, if thats what you want. Many of us, (talking cars in general) look for the lowest mile car you can find. Why else does somebody ask, "how many miles are on it", if it doesn't matter. Personally I will search far and wide for the lowest mile, nicest condition car I can find, for the money I have to spend. I will also take a garage queen, if it meets the criteria, any day of the week.

A more important question for anybody looking for their first Ferrari is, am I really interested in a late model car, or do I really want a classic or vintage car. Shortly after buying my first classic Ferrari I found that my interest was solely with Vintage cars. My money would have been way better spent if I was fully aware of that desire.

 

Funny you should say that, because that is exactly where I am right now. I *think* I've narrowed down my choice to a 328, which I consider to be a classic, and a 360, which I think of as a "modern" Ferrari. Honestly, I'd really like to have both but I have neither the funds nor the space for that.

 

Mondial Cabriolet....the best starter Ferrari ever....;=) call me biased.

 

Just look at that!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1h7l8cqbUrc

 

Both are excellent choices. You will have a blast in either.