How long did it take you to find your Ferrari?

It has been a few months now that I'm actively searching for a car (after it took me a few months to narrow down what I exactly wanted), and I have yet to find an F430 Spider I really want. I'm guessing this is just the norm with these types of cars, but this being my first F-car I can't say I know for sure. Am I being too picky? Am I just being inpatient?

I thought I'd ask you folks...how long it took you to find your car?

P.S. I'm searching everywhere conventional you can think of, as well as talking to dealers, YellowCompass, going to meets, F-chat wanted post, etc.

 

Took me about six weeks - yup, an F430 Spider - agreed on the price, if it looked good - and then I travelled to personally inspect and we ended up not closing the deal...

Then took another month or so to find the one I finally bought - and I think I should have bought the first one...

So, patience, my friend - better to do this right than do this fast!

Kevin

 

4 years.....and still searching.
85% of the cars here in Italy are in such a miserable state and 15% still has some problems (no recent major services, no documentations, lack of accessories...) with prices out of this world.
I keep saying that american Ferrari are far better kept than italian ones.
You? Picky? Absolutely no. Keep searching and you will find "the one".

 

1st 4 years

2nd almost 2

Aomw.of that time was negotiating

 

I think a lot has to do with what you're looking for. For instance, if you don't want Rosso Corsa, you're probably looking around longer.

Then it comes down to options. Do you HAVE to have all of them as factory installed parts, or are you OK getting some yourself. Example, lots of F430 with the aluminum dash trim that were a lower spec, but finding either OEM or factory replacements for these parts can cost less than finding a car that came with them.

Does it matter how many owners the car had?

Finally, and most importantly, what's the history of the car? Are you looking for something with meticulous records for service from a dealer or are you willing to let some DIY items slide or do you not care at all as you're pretty handy and don't mind getting dirty on a few things that could cost big money for a shop to do.

Your flexibility on those things will dictate how long you might be waiting to get what you want. I was lucky with my search, found something that ticked the boxes in a few weeks. I like to think I'm a professional car hunter though, scouring odd places, dealer sites, old links, etc. At the very least, I'd stick autotempest.com into my search routine.

 

Not bad, though the first story much be a bit painful (moreso not closing the deal and traveling for it). Thanks for sharing.

Didn't realize that, crazy.

That's quite a long time. Glad you found it but I think I'll go crazy by then.

 

Thanks, this is helpful. I'm fine with Rossa anything, Yellow and most blues. Okay with most interiors, just not a fan of certain inserts in the Daytonas and it can't have the challenge rear grill (even though I know most people prefer it). Doesn't matter on owners, but I would like a car that has been kept very well as I'm not very handy at all, at least yet.

Never heard of autotempest, thanks I'll check it out!

 

Probably wouldn't hurt to put an "in search of" ad in the vehicle section with your list of wants. Or at least post up what you're looking for in case anybody surfing the board is considering selling theirs. Also, join some of the FB groups if you're on there. Lots of cars get posted there in the 360/430 groups and lots of people post wanted ads as well.

 

About a year. That was mostly waiting for the right spec to come up. If you are less picky about specs then it would take shorter. Also, I think with the first one a lot of the time you are looking but not actually in the market because you're maybe not quite ready to buy.

 

4 or 5 months, 13 years ago for my '01 360 6MT. I only looked at 3 cars in person and a friend looked at one for me. 1 was beat. 1 was OK - I wasn't a fan of the interior color (car was Ti/blue Scuro) - and I couldn't reach agreement with the seller (Miller) anyway. The one my friend looked at was amazing but the price was not. The one I bought was owned by 2 f-chatters. @RayJohns , then @moorfan (who doesn't seem to have an account anymore).

moorfan posted an fchat thread a couple days before I was going to be in his general area anyway. I didn't even drive it - I let him drive me around. It was so clean and the pile of records so deep that I had to have it. The next afternoon, we reached an agreement on price and I flew back and picked it up a week or two later. At the time I felt like I paid a bit over market for a better than average car. It has been awesome and I've never considered selling it.

 

I suggest that you have a pretty concise list of what you want and realize you are buying a used car. You cannot expect to find the perfect one that meets everything you want. Some compromise will have to happen and you will have to be willing to decide which ones those will be.

It took me about 6 months back 6 years ago when I found my car (albeit a 360). I had a mileage cap in mind. I was open to color if the car was well kept, good records, and was cosmetically well taken care of. I limited my choice to only cars that had 4 owners or less. My thought was too many (six or seven), or more owners simply bought the car to have the Ferrari experience. I felt like too many probably drove the hell out of the car and got it sold before they had to "pay the piper".

When I found "the one" it checked almost all the boxes (mileage, maintenance, 2 owner, new dash, new clutch, and decent records). Cosmetically it fell a little short of my expectations but-- there it is. Compromise.

 

All done already Got a few good responses actually but for one reason or another didn't match what I was looking for.

 

Too late to edit my post!

This thread sent me on a trip down memory lane. . My daughter was 18mo old when I bought the 360. I have a pic of her sitting in the driver's seat in her footy pajamas. She's now almost 15, a freshman in HS, and loves to take the 360 anywhere. She's the only kid at school who knows multiple Italian motorcycle manufacturers (though not the only one with a Ferrari-owning dad - I saw a Portofino at pick up the other day, salty roads be damned).

 

Oh, don't forget that Ferrari's are typically seasonal cars. Fewer for sale in the middle of the colder months. You'll start seeing them pop up come spring when everyone is hoping to get a better value, then a few better deals the closer it gets to fall.

 

Took me 3 weeks. Car was one state over so I was able to see it and drive it. Car was on spec (challenge grill, Rosa corsa over tan, red stitching, carbon bits in interior). Only option i wanted that it doesn’t have are the racing buckets, but that more than likely wasn’t going to happen anyway. Had pretty complete service records and the price was close enough. Some random things that needed to be fixed but I was OK tackling them (dash vents, stickies, rear deck struts).

Definitely agree with being patient and having a list of must haves and nice to haves. Good luck!

 

Both I and moorfan took really great care of that 360. Always allowed the oil to come up to temp before going over 4000 RPM's, mostly highway or cruising along the cost miles when I owned it.

Took me over a year of searching I think to find that particular color combo on the 360 with a gated shifter and in good condition. I bought it originally from Ferrari of Washington back east.

I know Peter did some nice upgrades to that car after he purchased it from me. Similar to your story... he flew across the country just to see it in person. I gave him a ride around town and he bought it on the spot.

Here's a video showing it the day before it was picked up by his transport company:



Ray

 

About 6 months, be patient and enjoy the process.
Too many plane tickets to go examine worthless cars, can be an issue!

 

About a week. Wife and I determined we wanted a 430 coupe and the only thing we didn’t want was a tan interior. I hopped on a flight to Australia for work and when I landed my wife had posted to Facebook that she was buying our 430. Perfect spec (colors and options), FChat previous owner who had taken great care of it, good service records, clean CARFAX and passed my PPI with a couple small issues noted. I’m a DIYer and have enjoyed making our 430 better through lots of deep cleaning and correcting the couple small issues. It was a long two weeks waiting to get home to go pick it up. We’ve had it for over four years now and no plans to sell as long as I’m vertical.

Oh, I have an awesome wife. Her Facebook post that I saw upon landing in Australia.

 

About a week. Found a CS I liked the spec of and bought it after a decent inspection. There were like 6 for sale in the country at the time so not like I had tons of options honestly. Super happy with the cosmetics of it, but it has needed a lot of unexpected mechanical work. All good though. I didn’t want to wait and it was the exact spec I wanted. That’s just how I am with things though. I never shop around and just buy.

 

I started looking after Xmas 2020, signed paperwork and wired money 2/9/21.

I had always wanted an fcar and knew roughly what I was looking for but was flexible. I started out looking for an f355gts and ended up with a 360 spider 6spd when I saw the right thing.

In hindsight it was not exactly the right thing i thought it was but still a blast and I’d do it again (even if the guy who sold it to me was dishonest).

My advice would be to make a list of the things that you have to have and don’t settle if those aren’t checked. But be open to changing your mind if you learn new stuff or realize you might know as much as you think you do. And read classifieds regularly. I would check them for 10 mins at lunch so I could see what was new and price ask trends. That gave me what I needed to go fast when ready.

And when you know…shoot to kill! Don’t let it get away.


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I searched all of the Ferrari dealerships around the country as well as the major exotic car dealerships for one year for a red/tan gated 360. Then, one day, one shows up right in my back yard (Ferrari of San Francisco). I couldn't figure out why it hadn't sold immediately, so I drove up there and looked at it. It was the perfect scenario: guy buys it brand new, has all the campaigns and maintenance completed on time, then traded it in on a new 430. The issue was it had a few cosmetic problems. The glove box had a scuff on the leather, the passenger side interior door handle had a large chunk missing, the center console had a huge gouge on the driver's side (from the seat belt) and both air box covers were dented. I bought the car, purchased a door handle from Daniel @Ricambi America, sent the center console to Premier in L.A., threw the glove box to Franzini Brothers (upholstery) in Marin, and picked up a couple of mint condition airbox covers from @RayJohns (he picked up some carbon fiber airbox covers) and, within two weeks, I had a perfect, fully loaded, red/tan gated car.

 

About a year. I made a few contingent lowball offers at first on a few F1 cars but I knew I wouldn't be happy with them, so I'm glad they weren't taken seriously. The car I got was choice #2 of the ones I narrowed it down to. The seller of the other one (a gated TDF) was just too quick to get rid of it.

 

^^^ Absolutely. Been there done that.
I kinda got to a point that I would only see cars that the owner (or dealer) would rave about-- knowing full well there would be a certain amount of exaggeration. Without unbridled enthusiasm from the seller, I would pass. I had dealers and private sellers send photos that would conveniently crop off flaws (just out of the picture framing) or areas of concern. Buyer beware to be sure.

 

I bought mine sight unseen from Palo Alto.. shipped it to Boston, after I did a PPI at some well known shop in that area. I just wanted a clean F430, color did not matter too much (just not red), looked for about 2-3 months

 

About 6 months for the Italia - didn’t get all I wanted but it had what was really important

About 6 months for the speciale. Wanted a launch spec so that made it a bit easier.

Both were CPO cars from F dealer.


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