But with the Spider's roof down you can probably get half a dozen sheets of 3/4" plywood on the back.
Why do people own condos in Hawaii they use two weeks a year? You could stay at the Hyatt cheaper. Why do people own yachts? Most are not doing transatlantic crossings, half the boat owners I know are afraid to take the boat out as they don't want it to break and get another repair bill. For some reason building up a $70,000 pile of $20.00 bills in the garage is not as exciting, human nature I suppose.
Lots of good answers. I have purchased garage queens on many occassions. More often than not they proved to be maintenance headaches for all the reasons posted. But, the original question seemed to be why do so many of us not like garage queens. I think the real answer perhaps has just as much to do with our opinion of the owners of such cars as the mechanical ramifications of not properly using a car. To me, and this is of course just my opinion, someone who owns a great car such as a Ferrari and only drives it a couple of hundred miles per year is more often than not a WANKER. A poseur. A phoney. An individual not worthy of stewardship of such a fine piece of automotive hardware. A Ferrari is meant to be driven. Not only driven, but driven hard and often and enjoyed in a manner that would put a smile on old man Enzo's face. A Ferrari is a SPORTS CAR. It should be used as such. Take it to the track, flog it through the mountains. Enjoy those amazing sounds it makes at redline. Too many owners of garage queens are people who buy a Ferrari not because they love the history of the marque, are car fanatics, think its a beautiful piece of engineering or admire its performance. Instead they buy it for status and ego. They buy it because they can afford too and they feel it shows the world how successful they are. They buy it, it sits in the garage tucked away and rarely used while the owner swaggers around with his Ferrari key chain and enjoys bragging about his Ferrari. Yuck. I never understand folks who buy such cars and hardly ever drive them. Why not buy a large scale model? Then you can put it in your living room and not have to go to the garage to admire its looks. You can keep a car in absolute top condition AND use it frequently. The notion that frequent use means a car will see its overall condition degrade is false. It simply takes lots of time, effort and money to use your car hard and often AND keep it in #1 shape. But so what? Thats what makes it a great hobby! Just my opinion of course and as everyone knows.... opinions are like a__holes...... Terry
... okay many are not looking at this correctly and we have all got confused. There are many great replies, but none that sum it up correctly ... even my own. I was thinking about this as I drove to work this morning and I realise that we have been looking at this slightly wrong, thus I will attempt to make this clear. Somebody correctly states that wear is wear and a car that has done 100,000 miles in 2 years versus a car that has done 100,000 in say 20 years, well they both have 100,000 miles of wear. BUT the difference is reliability and maintenance costs: 1. The car that did the 100,000 miles in 2 years (ie. the driven car and NOT the garage queen) will have been reliable and probably only required routine maintenance. The owner of that car will move on thinking, 'Gee that car was great, I'll get another, etc.' 2. The car that did the 100,000 miles in 20 years (ie. the garage queen) will more than likely have been unreliable and will have required more than routine maintenance. Why?, 'cause batteries will have gone flat, exhausts will have rusted through, rubber components will have prematurely aged and gone brittle, fuel would have gone off and caused fueling issues for the engine, etc. The owner of that car will move on thinking, 'Gee what a piece of ****, hardly ever used it and it was so unreliable ... I'll never get another, etc.' My father, who used to run a car repair garage, has seen this first hand. In fact he had a customer who ran a courier car/business and this car used to get it's 10,000 km (or whatever) routine service EVERY week (or 2, can't remember). This car never ever missed a beat and very, very quickly ran up huge miles without ever breaking down or even looking like it. He also had customers who had their weekend cars or who only drove short distances to work, etc. ... those cars gave trouble (the amount depended on whether they were British or not ... the cars that is). Also note how reliable taxis are ... they hardly ever get shutdown! Thus if you want a reliable machine, USE it ... otherwise accept the lack of use maintenance issues, and please do NOT blame the car as it is YOUR fault. Pete
Ok, how about we put it up on blocks like Ferris Bueller did to erase the the miles? The car gets it run times and we have less miles, less filling tastes great!
People keep saying how easy that is, on a 911 you just pull it out 1/2" so the wire is no longer in the rear of the meter, like a bicycle speedometer, is it that easy on an Fcar?
So, how is it you know so much about how easy it is to disconnect the odometer on a 911? Didnt you also say you recently sold your very low mileage 911? Terry
I never did it, but a friend did. See the difference is, I've spent a few nights in jail so I know what it is all about, normally it the ones that have no idea that take those careless risks. I think it should be madatory that everyone spend a day at their county lock up, they will get a real education on staying clean.
You are exactly right. The discerning buyer will pay a premium for a very low mileage, perfect car as opposed to a high mileage, less than perfect example. A well maintained & exercised low mileage car is virtually as new and will be priced as such & you'll have people lined up ready to buy it. High mileage cars in less than perfect example are a dime a dozen and never command high resale values. You can buy a late model (98-99) F355 with high mileage, wear & tear, etc for $75K. A perfect, as new in every respect down to the tool kit still wrapped in its delivery plastic with very low mileage(under 10K) will easily sell for $20K-$30K more. Some people buy a high, mileage poor condition Ferrari for an inexpensive cost and then seem to bad mouth what they don't have or can't afford. The bottom line is that a perfect, well maintained very low mileage car will always be more desirable and worth more than a high mileage car in equivalent condition. This can be proven simply by looking at the prices that very low mileage cars have sold for compared to the prices of high mileage cars. If money was not an issue, would you rather own a perfect well maintained car with 2500 miles or a well maintained car with 25,000 miles?
One air filter in 7 years? Never changed the fuel filter? Never changed the brake fluid? Never changed the coolant? Never changed brake pads? The fact that you drove a car for a long time and ignored the maintenance requirements spec'ed by the factory is not how I would define reliability. I think following a regular maintenance schedule is not too much to ask for. Are you sure you are ready to own a Ferrari?
