Is it possible to get a "good" 458 for sub $135k

The bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten.

 

You and I usuat agree and I think you have GREAT insight.

But there are zero 2010s going for 170 or anywhere any close to that wholesale. 150ish is the end of the road for a 2010. Maybe 155 if it's a stud and has lift and steering wheel

 

Image Unavailable, Please Login


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Just bought a 2018 488 Spider from Atlanta. That’s a great dealership with great people. I’m sure staff at all Ferrari dealers are the best, but Atlanta there’s just no air of superiority. Really solid, professional, real people. Can’t say enough good things.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

I feel this as well within the next year or so... how much pull back are you predicting? 15-20%?


Sent from my 16M

 

Find the one you like and if its lets say 10-15k higher than what you wanted to spend then JUST DO IT, don't wait, don't be patient, you only live once and we are all getting older, that extra 10-15k will just sit in the bank and do nothing (if you were paying cash which i understand you aren't)

Also IMO higher mileage cars are usually the best cars (assuming maintenance history & so on is done and documented)

 

You could have the best PPI results one could hope for and there are still things you're not going to know. I've owned a few collector cars and there is always a little bit of luck involved!

 

Great stuff.

 

I would take a well maintained Ferrari with some miles on it over a garage queen with super low miles any day. These cars are generally well engineered and are more reliable when driven and serviced than left sitting around. I started with a 275 GTB/4 in the seventies and had to put a cam in it shortly after I bought it. The comment then was that cams didn't fail in cars that were driven regularily. I drove the crap out of that car for 14 years and it was incredibly reliable.

A few years ago, I was offered a Euro F40 with something like 40,000 miles on it. It looked great cosmetically and I commented at the time that it was probably a bulletproof rocketship. Everything worked flawlessly and all the little bugs were taken care of. But, the car was hard to move as everybody wanted a super low mileage car to just drive to car shows and Starbuck's.

I am watching the 458's also. I love the 360 6 speeds, but they are really going up. I have driven 458's on track a lot and they are fantastic cars, even if they are paddle shifters! In fact, they are the first Ferrari with paddles that I really enjoyed driving on track.

 

A red 458 with 51k miles just came up on autotrader for $139k. It’s in Arizona

 

I'm sure that is a trickle down of the owner / management attitude. Will Campbell (Lanikai to you Fchatters) is a straight up nice guy who loves all things Ferrari, and is the GM there.


BT

 

I just wanted to say thanks again for all the solid advice. Mature temperament in this thread.

 

The 458’s can be found for less than 150. My car has over 100k and still rocking.

 

That’s great to hear. Goes to prove something I believe and have said for a while: mileage alone doesn’t matter one bit. Tells you virtually nothing. I’ve seen Ferraris in need of expensive brake and clutch jobs at 12.000km, and others running strong and sturdy at 80 or 90.000km.

Buy condition, history and spec.

Kind regards,

Nuno.

 

The 458 is a different animal and for the most part is fairly cheap to maintain.My budget was similar to the original poster. It did take some time though . Ferrari or Honda cars are pretty simple machines and I’m not scared to take it apart.

 

If you are fine with a high milage car, make sure to have the brakes checked. Not much fun in having your 135k dream car going straight in for a 25k brake job after 6 months. That is a real possibility.

Other than that, I tend to think a well maintained high milage car can be safer and in better condition than a low milage garage queen with dried up gaskets and belts, cracked tyres and god knows what lurks under the forgotten dust.

 

I’ll be switching to a steel rotor set up. My car to my knowledge has the original rotors. I’m not anywhere near 135 in mine though

 

Nono. I meant it's a bummer buying a 458 for 135k and then finding out it needs new brakes. Some that track a lot can burn through those rotors in 3k miles. Not sure many get more than 20k max.

Steel rotors are an option. You should also look into the Remmen CCST discs with Pagid pads. Not as cheap.as steel, but they outperform the stock CCM brakes by quite a bit, and from what I'm told, the rotors last several times longer - like in the 6-8 times longer than OE. I drove a 458 with that setup a few years ago, and I was properly impressed by their performance. I suppose there's a good reason why Singer uses them and they are used on some Challdnge cars as well.

 

For Reference

I hammered down at 155K for a 2013 Spider. No stories. Heavily Optioned. CF dash, console, rear, rockers, steering wheel, race seats... (Everything but a front lift) 35K miles. Fresh service, manuals, air compressor, tender, tool kit etc...

probably not the norm on price but nonetheless the deal I got.

 

Probably not that far from reality either. There's a big difference between cars that sit because the owners or dealers think they are worth more than they are, vs. cars that actually move.

Fact is that supply and demand controls pricing,, and while some definitely like to think of the 458 as some kind of unicorn, it isn't - unless one would call a production number of over 25000 a unicorn figure.

Loads of 458 Spiders and Italias for sale, and that's what ultimately determines pricing as well as the reality of all the 458 models still depreciating.

 

Where did you get that number from? I’ve been trying to find reliable and accurate numbers for ages, but always came up empty. However, 25.000 units seems exaggerated according to most educated guesses I’ve read over the years, that’s why I was asking for your source.

In any case, I sometimes think we should review our standards when it comes to classify something as being rare. Back in the 60s/70s, less than 1.000 units of a given model wasn’t that rare: most people couldn’t afford a car, and they were mostly built by hand, which lead to manufacturers having a low output per year, namely compared with modern times. Today, manufacturers’ volume is in the hundreds of thousands if not a million of units per year, so even if your guess of 25.000 turns out to be even remotely accurate, given the automotive industry’s output per year nowadays, it’s still pretty rare, at least rare enough for a person (the majority of people actually) die of old age and natural causes, and never see a 458 or 488 in their whole lives.

Kind regards,

Nuno.

 

Ferrari factory rep a few years ago. He estimates the number to be roughly 25-30% higher than the F430 number which he estimated to be around 19000 units.

I completely agree that the definition of rare has changed. But the rarety I speak of here, has not so much to do with actual production numbers, or whether or not people go through life without seeing a 458 or 488 in the wild.

My point is that plenty are for sale and as a buyers option, there's really nothing rare about a 458. If you want a red 458 Spider in the US or EU, they are there for the taking.

If your local dealer does not have a 458 on the lot, you can find one at another dealer, or the dealer can get one within days.

 

I understand. Thank you very much for your feedback, I appreciate it.

Kindest regards,

Nuno.