1999 550 in Rancho Santa Fe

Looks nice, but may be considered high mileage by some. Not me, but some.

Taz
Terry Phillips

 

Love the carbon fiber steering wheel! Is the bubbling around the dash area (around the 3 gauge instrument cluster, by the temperature controls, and the lifting of the leather piece below the gearshifter) normal?

 

SL- That is actually perforated leather, not carbon fiber, on the steering wheel, and found on most late model Ferraris. Plastic finish degradation and leather lifting are common and fixable. Sticky No More and Robbie can fix all the plastic components better than new.

Taz
Terry Phillips

 

Looks like it is worth checking out if you're in the market. I'd want to see service records and all that to make sure all the usual suspects have been rounded up. If it checks out, next step would be to contact Gary @ Bobileff Motorcar Co. If the car has been around, odds are he will know it.

BTW, you realize that most cars sell OFF eBay, not on, right?

Dale

 

Have someone take a very close look. I was interested in a F355 there about a year ago and it had zero service history and FoSD would not cough anything up on the car either. After the results of the PPI, it was a disaster (accident damage, bad compression, etc) so I walked away. Could have totally been an isolated incident. I am only 1 data point ... and this could be the steal of the century. They do tend to list fairly desirable cars at reasonable prices - check out the rest of their cars for sale and make your own determinations.

 

Make contact and ask for his phone #. Then ask questions, Stone chips? Repainted areas? Service records? Interior faults? Ask a lot of questions. There are several threads here regarding what to look for. If you like what you hear, I'm sure one of us could check it out for you. I'm 1 1/2 hours from there.

 

That car's been on ebay for over a month. The first two times it was listed (for 10 days each) at $59,999 it ended with no bids. The third time it was listed, about two weeks ago, it ended at $59,999 with one bid at that amount but the reserve wasn't met. This is at least the fourth time that it's been listed now in a row.

Check the carfax. It has some lease/rental notes in the report. That's always a bit wishy washy as it might have been used by the guy who owned the rental company and he just titled it that way presumably to save money somehow. Or, it might have been thrashed to heck by everyone and anyone looking to impress with a couple bucks in their pocket to burn one weekend.

I contacted the dealer a few weeks ago about the car. I try not to judge, but they sounded a little meat-headed for lack of a better description. I'm not sure if I'd want to buy something this expensive from someone who'd probably fit better in an episode of The Jersey Shore on MTV. I informally offered them less than their asking price and their response was something along the lines of "You should educate yourself about Ferrari pricing." I left it at that. Maybe they're right, maybe they're wrong... but they haven't been able to give this car away. It's a tough market to sell in right now.

 

Just for starters, those are not Daytona seats, so let that be a guide as to how well they might know Ferraris. You should have thrown that back at them when they belittled you with the price comment. And, it is very difficult to tell because of the poor picture quality, but the first picture hints at aftermarket shields. See that shadow under the point of the shield on the driver door? If they are factory then they are recessed and a shadow would not be there.

 

Looks like a decent car. Quite a bit of wear on the seat bolsters. It is does have Tubis, but that's pretty much the only upgrade on the car. Has 10,000 more miles than my car-same vintage. Depends on how much they actually want for the car and what service it has actually had and when. Most ads say that service is up to date, which really means that it isn't due yet, which means that it could be due tomorrow or in one mile.

 

The dealer is not an F car specialist. They tend to sell sort of medium high end cars (BMW, Mercedes, porsche, occasional Lambo, Ferrari. Cars I've looked at their lot are ok, not the best but not necesarily junk either. Never bought anything from them. Depends on your expectations. I think it's probably just going to be a used 550. If you want perfect I would look elsewhere.

Gary Bobileff has a 550 or 2 I think. I'll probably be at his shop tomorrow if you want eyes on what he has, let me know.

Alberto

 

Yes, please.

Dale

 

I apologize, I was unable to go. I should be there sometime this week or next saturday and report back. I'll pm you.