Has the tide turned on depreciation for 355? have they started increasing in value?

Sure. Just put it in a container and ship it.
Lets take a $55k 355 that you might buy here from eBay. There's shipping to Aus, for what? $2k usd lets say.. Then when it gets there, there's a luxury car tax of 33% at customs. So the 55k car has become closer to $70k. This is just with simple math and I didn't get into the BS of what "customs value" will be.. Which might be the Australian 355 value.. Which all means for that $55k car in the US, you'll be paying 100% taxes and duties on the car just to have it on Australian soil. That would explain value differences. Apples to apples.

Regarding cost to purchase, yes I think you're right. When you have to pay big bucks to buy the car you're more likely to maintain it with the higher residual value. You can see this in the US with porsche 928's. Once the car filters into the sub $5k range th rednecks get them and improvise with napa parts and duct tape. The resulting values plummet.

 

Major problem with that is that Oz is a RHD market. We can't and don't import cars like 355s from the US, or any other LHD market.
We do import some cars from the UK (my car is originally from the UK) but even then we can't import anything newer than a 360.

My only two points in regards to this thread are that;

1) As was very well described above by another poster, once any car falls into the "owner maintained" bracket, it's not likely to increase in value. The only place it's going from there is to someone else who can self-maintain it, or the scrap yard.

2) if you compare the relative price of the 355 to other Ferraris, in every other market in the world where the car hasn't already fallen into category 1 above, the 355 is performing very well indeed. This is because for a lot of people it represents the last of a certain "classic" style of Ferari, and it looks and sounds better than just about any other car Ferrari have produced since. For these people things like relatively high maintenance costs are irrelevant.
And there seems to be enough of these people to push the prices well above 360s and even into 430 territory for very good examples.
This is a fact which may not apply to your market, but it is still a fact.

 

You don't need to spend ridiculous amounts the properly maintain these cars or any cars.

If you do what you can yourself, be wise where you purchase parts, look for quality shops with reasonable rates, the cost of ownership will be much less.

When I bought my car I did a full paint correction on top of correcting various minor interior issues. I probably spent $2-3k including purchasing a DA polisher. Had I hired someone it would have likely cost 3x that amount

 

Having just reread this, and without wishing to bore the hell out of everyone else, you are not correct. It is not apples to apples. LCT would not apply to a $55k car for a start.
More to the point, we cannot import and register (most) LHD cars. There are some exceptions for classic cars but this would not apply to a 355.

Car prices vary enormously (and inexplicably) from country to country.
For example, you guys can buy a new V8 HSV Commodore (Chevy SS in your country) for less than I can, despite the fact they are built less than 5 miles from my house!!

All of this stuff is relevant, but it is only relevant to 355s. It does not explain how the 355 may or may not perform relative to other Ferraris.
I remember in the early '90s when Dino's were $60k here. Now they are anything up to $500k.
I'm not saying a 355 is a Dino, but I am saying nobody really knows where these cars are going, and "high maintenance costs" may in the end have no bearing on their market value.

 

You did a paint correction yourself? Can you share more of what/how you did it or is it documented somewhere else?

 

http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/348-355/408492-my-exterior-adventure.html

 

Amen to this.

 

Matt:

I hope your correct. IMHO, unit replacement is suicidal. The price I stated for the DCT unit was directly quoted to me by the parts manager at a large Texas Ferrari dealership and included installation. Perhaps, Ferrari, Spa and FNA are finally realizing that they are pricing themselves out of the market.

Secondly, this issue with having all diagnostics being performed on the servers at FNA (rather than individual SD units at the Ferrari dealers) is specifically designed to take independents "out of the equation". If there is no SD unit available to non-dealers that is compatible with the newer cars (e.g., 458, F12, etc.) how does one work on them? FNA has realized that the dealers charge too much for, very often, inferior quality work, as compared to that provided by independents. There are very few real Ferrari Technicians left, many now are merely "part-changers". Try taking your Lusso to a dealer and ask them fix the air leakage coming from the carb mounting bases in your Weber carbs... LOL

 

Fantastic, thanks for the link. As I have a few cars to work on I will definitely go this route rather than paying to have it done.

 

+1. Dave did a fantastic job on his Nero F355! If you can make a black car look that good, you've got talent.

I can only imagine the amount of time it takes to do the rear deck louvers correctly....

 

Only contention I was trying to make was that values have to be discussed in a market specific manner. Not transferrable.
Dino's did the same here. I suspect that the Dino is skyrocketing because of low production numbers and they are the cars coveted by a male demographic that is now earning enough to finally by the car they fell in love when they were young. Time will indeed tell if the 355 follows the path. Personally I'm skeptical, as I am with the 360 as well.

That was a great job on the black 355. Like glass!

 

Thank you guys - it's really quite easy.

Scott, I decided to not remove the rear bonnet. I used blankets to lean over the car - not too bad. The foam pads really work well with the louvers, so not that bad at all. I did fully tape the openings to keep crap out of the engine - that probably took the most time.

My biggest fear was making sure I did not drop the buffer on the car....

 

Yup, this.

I have had 3 fchatters contact me over my 2 years of ownership to let them know if I ever decide to sell. They all want a GTS 6 speed and can't find one. So again, $55k for my GTS 6 speed makes me laugh. If you want comps, go look at all of them for sale publicly on Ebay, Dupont, Cars, ect.... all zero of them.

What people say on a discussion forum means zero to me. If I was selling I would only need one buyer.

 

Gold Coast Bentley just listed a 99 GTS for 94.8k

 

Dave, do you track your hours spent working on projects? I find that for simple jobs I can come up $$$ ahead, but for more complex repairs - pros can do it in a fraction of time and get it right the first time due to having more experience and being better equipped , so saving money with DIY becomes tricky once you start putting $ value on your time.

 

Been listed for a while....they are 355 Dreaming...

 

You are spot on except for one aspect: I love working on my car! Saving money is just a bonus!

 

Agreed. There is nothing more addictive than working on these cars yourself. However, one always needs to keep in mind their limitations - which I painfully became aware of when I tried to rebuild a 5 speed ZF transmission on a 1981 Euro 308 GTBi......

 

Really Dave?

I've been around these cars for quite a bit longer than you have. For some strange reason, you continue to try to bring their values down. I will never understand it, but whatever, I think time will prove you wrong.

The 355 is better looking than any subsequent V8 model (aside from maybe the 458). Sure, for now, service costs seem high, but we both know that with the correct fixes, the known issues can be permanently remedied. Add to that, the 360s and 430s have header issues, precat issues, and other models specific querks which are equally expensive as those known issues with the 355. Give it time. Owners of those cars will complain about the $30k top end rebuild that was needed due to their precat failure. Couple that with the fact that they built 3x as many of those cars, the 355 will quickly trump their values in the US as it has in every other country.

And, the 458? How about a $92k tansmission replacement when the DCT fails? Yup. It's coming.

You yourself admitted that you spent 80k on your F1. Should I dig up the thread?

Will the gold coast car fetch anywhere near it's asking price? No. Not a chance. As an F1, it's worth about 10k less than a comrpaible 6 speed. But, I think it does demonstrate that these cars are worth more than you'd like to admit.

I don't think you and I will ever agree on this, but at least we agree that 355s are awesome.

I travel to update NY for work quite a bit. Perhaps we could get together sometime and debate the merits and values of 355 over a beer.

I will let you buy.

 

Dave, understood! And I love working on cars too, but I had problems with this projects becoming all-consuming time-sinks. The black holes that swallows all of the not-so-free time, never to be seen again.

Have you ever had to take a 3 week "workation" to do an engine rebuilt? Or stay up till 3am trying to figure out why that #$@#$ doesn't run right and still go to work the next morning and have your boss and clients wonder what is wrong with you? Or spend entire weekends turning wrenches instead of playing ball with kids and doing things with family/friends?

And with $$ saved on professional repairs you have to buy tools and build and maintain (or in my case rent) your own service garage with a lift and plenty of work-space.

So whether DIY or professional service, I don't think there is any way to get around the fact that F355s are high-maintenance. I actually saw a comment from a guy on another forum that had both - a mid-90's Lamborghini Diablo and F355 and his comment on reliability was that his V12 Lambo just needed regular maintenance, there as F355 had to go to a shop for regular repairs.

 

As I said to you at least 100 times, I have no motivation to bring the value down, but you have a motivation to bring it up - I only state market value.

Yes, dig it up - I paid $68K, never said $80K

That's funny, very funny

Yes, True

 

I have a lot to learn and I am not too proud to admit it. But, I love to learn and my 355 is not my DD so if it's tied up in the garage for months, I'm ok with that if I'm doing the work.

Plus, in my area, we have no shops that work on these cars. I'd guess that we have 10-12 Ferrari's in the area. I'm pretty sure I have the 1 of 2 355's, the other is a red spider.

 

I don't know man... Sure, I think 355s are undervalued, but myself and others here think that you, for some unknown reason, try to bring prices down. I believe that they are worth more than often represented, and want them to reach the level of recognition they deserve. If I ever sell my car, it doesn't really make a difference to me if it's worth 85k or 95k. you can sell yours for 60. To each his own.

I was wrong about you paying 80k for your car. I found the thread, and I now see that it was 71k.

Let's bury the hatchet. I'll tell you what, I'll buy the beers. I will be in Albany on Wednesday. Have they salted the roads there yet? Wanna pick me up at the airport?

 

No hatchet to bury. I paid $68k as said, not $71. I invested a few bucks after purchase.

Albany is 5 hours from me so you are on your own.

 

Ok