Should I buy or Leave well alone?????

See if he has his maintenance records. Its always good cheap insurance to have an independent mechanic inspect the car & give you his opinion on it. It may cost a few hundred but it could save you from spending thousands restoring a dog

 

Have a PPI done. Don't count on verbal service records. Have them produce receipts. If they can't do that, walk away. Either way, it will need lots of new rubber if has been sitting all this time. Belts, hoses and donuts will need to be replaced. It's entirely possible that engine rubber is bad, too, as well as the seals in the gearbox.

Deduct even more for a new windscreen.

You could be looking at a big bill to make it a driver, and the price should reflect that if it hasn't had a recent service.

 

Damn dude you found a Ferrari owned by a little old lady who only drove it a block to the store once a week. How can I say, "DIVE, ALL DIVE" & go for it. Its a risk, but w/ that milage it can only get better - IMO.

 

You wont need to replace the windshield unless you don't like the way it looks.

 

I personally don't think it is necessasry to run like hell from a low milege car. After all this is really what most of us are after isn't it?
I would suggest running it for a while and then have an inspection done. See if there are any leaks in the engine gaskets. If not the belts and hoses are not that big of a deal especially if you can do most of the work yourself.
I did all the hoses and belts in a few weekends myself, and had my mechanic come over and help me with the cam belts just to be on the safe side. I paid him 250.00 cash for the time he spent with me.
If the price is right you could easily wind up with a great low milege car. It also could go the other way. But I think the risk depends on the price.

 

It's all a question of price, isn't it? I mean, a car that has been sitting that long is going to have some issues, not necessarily astronomical, but there could be problems lurking there, regardless of the low mileage. So the suggestion to have it gone over by a competent mechanic in advance of purchase is right on, as is the advice concerning documentation. The ultimate question then becomes, how much do you want to have invested in a Mondial? (Not trashing them, but as you may know, they are somewhat unloved, and that's not likely to change in the near future). If you are going to buy it to drive it daily, that makes the PPI even more critical, and any premium paid for the low mileage would be kind of pointless, right?

 

I think it's more like "but there could be problems lurking there, BECAUSE of the low mileage". Admittedly, garage queens are seductive to buyers. But if you insist on buying a garage queen, why not find one which has at least been driven regularly (like around the block once a month to show it off...).

The only thing worse than a garage queen is an abandoned garage queen!

Come to think of it, driving it around the block once a month might actually be worse than just letting it sit there and rot on its own...

 

There could also be problems lurking there because of high milege, or mid range milege, or work poorly done on the car, or a multitude of things. Lets face it if you want a really pristine original car you will have to buy a very low milege car.
Pay a premium if the documentation warrants it, pay way less if documentation is questionable. If the car with low milege is priced about the same as a car with say 50,000.00 miles on it, I'll take the queen every day of the week.

 

Well, in the strange world of Ferrari, "high mileage" means 20K miles, not 50K. I would much rather buy a 5 year old Ferrari with 20K miles than one with 1K. I'd have to have at least a $20K price reduction on the 1K model in order to justify the additional risk.

But that's just me.

 

If all looks good and you do purchase it, replace the tyres immediately!

Would you trust 24 year old rubber on Willy?

 

The windshield is notorious for that issue. Mine has in a small spot. No biggie.