Have we destroyed the 355?

Truth.

 

I acquired my 97 355 spider 6 speed with a number of issues. I am to blame for this misfortune as I was "that guy". The guy that on a whim decided "hey lets buy a Ferrari" I have always wanted one. And did such with no do diligence. I got the car from Florida and of course leakage due to valve guides upon arrival. So, almost DOA. Being in the car business I thought a clean car fax and I'm good to go. WRONG! As referenced in my bleeding thread "The dream is Over" That's on here. I all but, choked down a bottle of pills with some whiskey I'll tell ya. So, with some help from everyone. I was able to put the car and my lack of knowledge into perspective from the good folks here (you know who you are) I was able to understand this: I bought this car wrong and am damn lucky I escaped with just some scratches. I got back up and decided to invest " abit" of money to get the car right again and enjoy what a Ferrari is supposed to sound and feel like. So, I am a believer that the cars me mechanical issues will stay resolved with proper maint. I also understand that this car will forever need tinkering with. Don't be so quick to comment on what a nightmare these cars are. And as it turns out for my situation it was a short nightmare. I just had a lack of understanding on how to buy one of these. Not the car, not the forum. I have obviously babbled here. I did have a point somewhere. :>) I guess it was. I would think that the number of people on this forum with questions about how to fix this and that on their fcars relative to the thousands of Ferraris in the world. What- 300-1 No problems vs with?

 

That's great Yours is almost 20 years old give or take 2 years or more , mind is almost 20 years give or take 3-4 years. Really??? My math has those errors at 15-30%

You guys deal in fractions of millimeters in discussing specs in automobile technical data but who cares about a few years of error in a statement about about the age of the class.

The class is not 20 years old. You made an error in your statement.

It's Ok. There is a ton of hyperbole on this board and this is just fits right in.

 

The 17-20 year age range has always been rather nebulous with men, esp when dealing with female-types. We don't know. We just don't know....

 

Excellent point Bruce! Except my daughters are in the 17-20 year old age right now so maybe my sensitivity on this subject is somewhat biased as a result.

16 is 16. 20 is a whole different can of worms. At least that's my recollection a "few" years hence.

 

Agreed. Wonder what their ID's say?
The ONLY age when they fudge to the upside!
Lotsa guys think of their cars as "female"

 

The 355 was introduced in Europe in 1994.

In the US it was 1995.

We are in the 1994 model year now so the model is 20 years old.



The 355's reputation was earned and sealed before Fchat existed.

 

Perhaps I'm in denial.....

I'm the 3rd owner. 1st owner 2 years 6k ish miles. Second owner 12 years, 3k ish miles. Total of 9870 when I bought it.

I did NOT do a PPI. I did my own 3 hour inspection with the Ferrari check list and the one I created and shared on this forum and got the crap beat out of me for it.

Had I listened to 95% of the people on this forum, my car would have been listed as junk since it was barely driven in 12 years and most of you assume that's a death sentence.

I've done 3k mile this season (my first) and aside from the stuck throttle issue (rusted bearing which is probably a result of sitting), the car has been bullet proof - No CEL's ever!

Once I had a SD light and it's disappeared 2800 miles ago.

Most people on this board act like every single one of the 10k 355's made are destine for every known problem and more. I say BS. Just like I say BS to needing to rewire my car with the GCK.

Will I have problems? I'm positive I will but I don't see the car becoming the lemon that many think these cars are....

If I'm wrong, I don't care, Life is a risk and I live it to the fullest!!!

 

Ummm... If you read the Mayors post, he stated that 355s are over 20 years old. That statement is false. As of today there isn't one 355 that is over 20 years old and the majority of them are well under 20 years old. Fact

I don't think or I would hope you aren't as fuzzy with mathematics in your work. I'm not.

 

Nope, Europe goes by actual production date, US by model year, so the cars made in 1994 were '94 Euro and '95 US model years. There weren't any produced in '93 that I'm aware of other than prototypes, so there aren't any that have hit 20 yet. I'm not sure when the first production dates were, but the earliest US cars were August/Sept. Mine is Sept. build so one of the older in the US and based on the registry, one of the first 200-300 in the states. Still 11 months to go before it's 20 years old.

Why are we debating the semantics, though? It doesn't matter if they're almost 20 years old instead of just over 20 years old, they're old, period.

They undeniably have issues, but they are mostly fix once and forget issues. If a car has been well maintained, the only big gotcha is the valve guides, everything else is (should) be a sub $5k fix which is about the baseline for Ferrari fixes. People with $25k bills let things pile up or get talked into a laundry list of 'might as wells' while the motor is out. My car in particular has one of those horror $25k bills, it was 15 pages of stuff including valve guides that had to be done and smacked of the car sitting. It also smacked of somebody getting possibly taken for a ride - for example the whole purpose of the leakdown test which diagnosed bad valve guides was a misfire, which they then did valve guides on and didn't fix the misfire. Turned out to be a bad injector. Whoops, but it has nice new valve guides, whether it needed them or not.

 

Semantics for sure. 20 years, 18.75, 19.25, 16.5, who gives a crap?

And all the talk about valve guides, only 95, no-every model, blah blah blah....

So, assume you have "bad" guides does your car fall apart on the road or do you add a quart of oil every 2 months and move on?

 

IMO it's the minimal use. Cars like these are not driven often enough. Nothing mechanical likes to sit. I had two very similar boats...one was used year round, the other used only during the summer. Guess which one was "expensive?" I do believe the stock 355 headers are a problem, but because of the government required cats. Valve guides, I'm not sold on the fact they are flawed. Dayco says the belts are good for 5 years, and that service cost is mostly labor. I try to drive mine at least twice a month year round and so far so good.

 

The original thread title is right on as well. I recently saw an add for a 355 that said it had undergone a $70K dealer service. The wealthy owner apparently said "make it perfect." I'll bet every one of our cars at one time had a similar experience. Owner threw the dealer the keys and said "whatever it needs." Hence the $20K bills and the ensuing reputation.

 

Hey can someone grab a MOD and have them delete this post by me please. It really doesn't belong here. I appreciate it...

 

I thinkm like anything for sale you get what you pay for. My experience even with my f1 has been quite enjoyable. No f1 problems yet no any real problems other than a transmission shaft lately and it's not ruined bought thought I would fix it anyway this fall. Love the car and I have spent way more on insurance, registration, and gas than ever spent on the car. My advice is don't give it away. That being said I can see someone who is not mechanically inclined to believe they are temperamenta etc, etc, assorted by the mayor I think. Also remember our cars have gone down in value less in ten years than the 430 in 5 years.

 

I own two 355's...along with a small number of other old Italians. I love the 355's and don't care about their "reputation". Mine have been very solid, but even if they both needed valve jobs next week, I'd be happy to get it done. (But admittedly I would not have to drop them off at the dealer and say "whatever it takes")
I have some heartburn that "we" here have made them harder to sell, but at the same time we have made them more accessible (cheaper) to buy...it's really a wash that way right?
There is so much difference in selling price between a fresh service car and a needy one, I actually think you could make a living buying bottom market 355's that need Majors and other sorting, doing the work yourself, and then re-selling them at the top of the market. It's a strange micro-market for our cars for sure!

 

The first production F355 was SN 98345, built in October 1993. Always helps if you look up these things.

 

Regarding your line:

"....lots of owner have the high five figure repair bills to prove it."

If that isn't an anecdotal statement, I don't know what is. Since you brought up the topic of statistical sampling, how many is "lots" relative to the total number of 355s still registered? I'm not part of this group of "lots", so I'd like to know how big it is. Please give me your data.

Is $99,999 the "high five figure repair bill" ceiling?

Is $50,999 the "high five figure repair bill" lower limit?

Because if 5 figures goes up to $99,999, then if I spend $49K in repair bills, by your definition I am not in the "high" upper 50 percentile. I'm in the "low" five figures.

Be specific please, because no one should accept anecdotal statements.

 

Interesting post.Well I bit the bullet two years ago and purchased a 355 from the uk and shipped it to Australia . I drive it every weekend and I drive it hard and all I have had to do to it so far is give it it's annual oil change !! At the start I was crapping myself every time I took it out waiting for a cel a header to fail etc etc. I even went as far as taking the shields off the headers and inspecting them after all the negativity on this site only to find they are as new after being remanufactured 30000 miles ago.Look the site is very informative but I think that some people do go over the top re 355 problems.KEEP IT REAL PLEASE !!!!!!

 

Anyone who pays $12k just for cambelts and a clutch is a moron. There are plenty of reputable independent specialists who will do an engine out cambelt service and a clutch change for £2k. Also, you'd have to have bought an utter lemon with a poor maintenance record to find $25k worth of problems. In which case, you would have paid an accordingly low price.

Don't buy your 355 with your eyes closed. Shop around when having work done on it. It's just common sense.

 

There's alwyas going to be a bias one way or another. I deeply respect Brian Crall's experience with anything that he posts... he post carries experience with it, not anecdotal tripe. Granted, he only sees the cars for belt changes and when things go wrong.. his statistical sample is larger than anecdote.

I've posted about my experiences with my friends 355, that I have touched and worked on with my own hands. I've also seen the $20k he spent in a 12 month period. However, I hope he gets another because of his love for the car.

IMHO its a pricing issue and I'm sorry the OP isn't getting his optimistic price.

 

So what are you guys thinking?

Realistically, do you think the 355 values will go back up?

 

The engine out service will have an effect.. unless that is comparable in price to other models...