R8 V10 vs F430, prices are level! Now what?

P.S. Who cares what the depreciation is on these cars? If you bought a car as an investment, you are a poor minded investor. Go buy a Honda or Toyota!
These cars are meant to be driven like you stole them. If you are worried about how much you are going to lose with the price of admission (depreciation), simply don't do it. However, recognize that you will miss out on something truly awesome! You will not experience what it is like to drive, own, smell, feel, and experience the joy of driving one of the world's most incredible accomplishments! One that virtually everyone else can only dream about in this lifetime! Life is short...Buy Ferrari!

 

I have driven both the gated manual v10 and the single clutch V10 R8...manual was great...not the older clutch...felt slow and clunky...last aug in Monterey I drove the new v10 with the dual clutch...mucho better car...love the fit and finish of an Audi...have a A8L sport model...but still like my 04 spider 360 gated car better than the new R8...just makes my spine tingle a little more driving my car.

 

+1

If you care about depreciation, that tells me you're already planning on selling it at some point, in which case a different car (or investment) would be a much better buy.

 

in the future low millage F430 will be for sale for around 80-90k$ like 360 nowadays:

2005 Ferrari 360 Spider
$86,500
11,985 miles
Details of Used 2005 Ferrari 360 Spider, Mesa, AZ - Yahoo Autos

 

I agree also. I hate garage queens when it comes to Ferraris. I drive mine every chance I get. Why spend all that money, just to stare at it and tell your friends you have a Ferrari. My next Ferrari will be high mileage f430 that is driven and maintained properly.

 

If depreciation is a concern get a 360 Challenge Stradale. Just as fast as a 430 round a track, one of the best noises and is appreciating in value currently.

 

And generally regarded as one of the last ultra raw Ferrari's...

 

Ferrari v Audi in FChat. Im guessing the answer will largely be Ferrari. F430 will continue to depreciate. Too many cars made.

 

The same Ferrari vs Audi in Audi Forum a while back resulted in the same thing...

 

Except for the other raw Ferraris such as Scuderia and Speciale!

 

Amen to that. Well said.

 

Carfax shows it was damaged by vandalism. Also 4 owners. It was also auctioned, apparently consigned by Ferrari of Ft Lauderdale. Why I wonder?

Dave

 

More than a few Fchat pundits predicted 430s would be sub 100K within a year of the 458 introduction. How'd that work out? The price delta between 430s and 458s is so large that 430s are just not affected, except maybe positively. Plus 430s have proven themselves to be easy to live with, unlike 348s and 355s. My 2005 is worth the same now as it was 5 years ago. The recession greatly accelerated depreciation in 2008.

Dave

 

Tell yourself whatever you need to to sleep at night. All of the v8's have followed the same path, there is nothing unique about the 430 that will make it buck the trend. When the 458 successor comes out, the 458's will drop. Then people will move up from the 430 to 458, which will cause the 430 prices to drop. Some 360 owners will move to 430's as the prices drop but then they'll start to flatten. If you think it's because the 348 and 355 are high maintenance, go read the 360 threads from 7 or 8 years ago on values, or even from 3 or 4 years ago. You will see the same pattern play out - '360's can't drop below $100k' but whoops, they sure did. That and I guarantee your car is worth less than it was 5 years ago. However, good luck, I hope your car does maintain it's value, but I'd put my money on it dropping.

 

If I cared, I would never have bought a new Ferrari nor would I have kept it 8+ years. I never said 430s are done depreciating. My only point is that trying to predict depreciation is a fool's errand.

Dave

 

Unless the 458 replacement is a turbo?

 

LOL....this is EXACTLY what the 355 guys were saying 8 years ago

Let me tell you, its a lead pipe cinch the car you describe will be less than $90k in 4 years

 

And exactly what the 360 guys were saying 4 years ago. There's already a red/tan high mileage (50k) spider advertised at $99k for sale and likely priced $10-15k high at that....

 

This is how it works:
Buy a car and pay what you are willing to pay. Enjoy the car to your heart's content for as long as you wish. When it no longer gives you the chills, sell it for as much as you can recover and buy the next "best thing" that gives you the chills, once again. The next owner of your old car starts the entire cycle again whilst you start a new cycle, perhaps with someone elses old car... or a new one, depending on how much you want to spend Fun being the main objective...not depreciation because that concept is simply not fun.
Money changes hands, new experiences are purchased for the price of admission (aka: cost of a new car). All the while, the fun factor goes up and the funds/money factor goes down. Every mile you drive, the value of your car decreases. If this thought ever enters your mind, the depreciation factor outweighs the fun factor in your mind. That is simply a shame and this game is not for you. I have heard it put this way: it is like having a really hot girlfriend and saving her for her next boyfriend. Silly, isn't it? Everything has a price. Everything great has a cost associated with it. A Ferrari is no exception to this rule. If you worry about the money factor too much, you have much less fun in your Ferrari. Life is too short to not have fun while owning a Ferrari. If you just accept that you are going to take a bath financially owning one of these cars, you can release your fun factor and enjoy the experience of ownership a whole lot more. If you can't afford to lose the depreciation, don't buy into this cycle and FOR GOD'S SAKE, DON'T PLAY THIS GAME. It is meant to be fun. The only thing that truly has value is your life...everything else is BS. If owning a Ferrari brings you joy, by all means do it. If you spend your days ploting on a graph the depreciation of your car, sell it fast for tomorrow it is worth less than today. Hell, who knows, you might even be dead tomorrow and then who will plot your graph!

Put differently, it is like going on vacation. A vacation has a price, e.g., price of airplane ticket, car rental, hotel, food, drinks, activities, etc...When you are done with your vacation, you don't expect to get back your money spent...you walk away thinking that you had a great vacation and life experience and it was money well spent. You have traded money for the experience.
Ultimately, it is no different than owning a Ferrari!
No one can predict or anticipate a market value..so have fun.
I hope that this helps... Cheers!

 

Good stuff right there!

 

Predicting prices like this is cargo cult foolishness. Don't encourage it.

 

+1; Very well stated. I was recently explaining Vacations Vs Asset purchases to someone and that was my exact explanation. On that note; I shy away from expensive vacations because my memory is not so good, thus depreciating the investment (no really)

 

I'll respectfully disagree. All of these modern era mass produced (relative to the limited production cars) ferraris have, are, and will continue to, depreciate. I suspect we all agree on that, so if your comment was that predicting "how much" is hard, then I agree, that is hard to predict precisely...but one can certainly estimate in order to get a handle on expected total cost of ownership.


OP - I don't foresee price "floors", in fact parts availability concerns could have the opposite effect of a floor in coming years. There are a lot of custom gizmos on these cars and production may be too low for after market players to step in.


Others - I think saying "who cares about depreciation" is off the mark, if not elitist. In my book, it's foolish to buy a car and not have some idea of expected total cost of ownership. I'm happy for those that have oodles of money and for whom the TCO for a Ferrari is a decimal point or rounding error in your financial position...that is not the case for all of us (and save us the "you shouldn't own one then" elitist crap, there is a lot of appropriate ground between "rounding error" and "foolish spending of a large portion of your wealth on a depreciating exotic car"...I suspect most of us owners live in that middle ground)

 

The R8 has been documented as one of the top 10 for holding value but I think they're lumping in modern daily drivers in that number.

That being said, when I was test driving both the V8 and V10 it was a drama free experience. Very capable of going extra legal speeds, cabin is quiet and well laid out but there is no drama and only on the V10 do you hear the exhaust. The V8 sits lower and has a better CG but since I crave the sonic abilities of an exotic car, the exhaust note really sways me.

One thing that I found out in joining the R8 forums is that the dealer experience is completely different than the Ferraris.
Audi truly satisfies in this regard.

It is well documented that when issues arrive and the owner complains then Audi steps up and solves it, even normal wear items that dealers shouldn't be responsible for.
Early wear on clutches and brakes are solved by the dealers at no expense to the customer. There is even an R8 that avoided a collision from another car running a light, that was run up on curb resulting in shock tower damage to the Audi. VAG replaced the V8 with a V10 and told the owner that they wanted their top customers to be treated well.

 

The different views on depreciation are interesting. Seems like people tend to fall into two camps: those who are really concerned about depreciation and hope/pray it's over for their car and those who have more of a devil may care attitude on the subject. I guess I'm somewhere in between the two extremes. I don't obsess over depreciation but I do keep it in mind. I want to enjoy my car but I also want to have as much left over as possible to fund the next one (the "game" as it was described before). As an example, I sold my V12 Vantage before I crossed over the 10,000 mile mark because I knew dealers would beat me up on the trade in once I was into five-figure miles. Unfortunately, my scud will likely have well over 10,000 miles when I sell it since I bought it with 7500 on the clock. Trying not to let it bother me though!