Dear Ferraristi, I am looking for some advice & information and I was hoping you guys could help me out. For as long as I can remember, I have been dreaming about owning a Ferrari. Now this dream might come true, but I would like to avoid it becoming a nightmare. I am considering the purchase of a Ferrari F355 GTB, current prices in Europe are roughly about 60,000. Now my question: what does it cost to maintain a F355? I know we are not talking about a 'normal sporstscar', but people like to make up stories although they don't have a clue... Imagine I would do about 10,000 miles or 15,000 km a year. What is a realistic amount to consider in regards to maintenance, repairs, tyres, ... Is a Ferrari 360 (a lot) cheaper to maintain? I just want to know what I am up to. Thanks a lot for your advice/comments. Best regards, Zolder
Welcome to F-chat Zolder, you have come to the right place for Ferrari advice, there are many people around here that have a huge knowledge base of all things Ferrari. For you question i would recommend spending some time looking around here, there are many threads related to your questions, the search feature here works really well also. There are a few things you need to do when looking at buying your first Ferrari, the most important of these is a PPI (pre purchase inspection) have this done by a trusted Ferrari tech in you area. I am happy to read that you intend to use the 355, in this case i would look into a car that has been used and well maintained, a higher mileage car will save you a few $$$ and provided it is in good shape and well maintained it will serve as an awesome toy. I looked at 360's before i made my first purchase, i just couldn't get past the look and large feel of the car, to big for my liking. Enjoy your search, its all part of the fum. Good luck mate.
Thanks JDM! I already learned a lot from the forum indeed! I was just hoping that someone has a rough guideline like 1,5 / km maintenance etc. If the number turns out to be a bit disappointing, I got a warning in advance at least. All the best!
There's huge variations in actual maintenance costs; some spend as little as a few hundred $ annual, others many thousands. If nothing at all goes wrong you need the engine out major every 3-5 yrs (dealer says 3, I vote 4, others stretch to 5) and that can run $5k - $10k depending on just how much work is done. Much also depends on how much of your own work you can do, and how resourceful you are at searching Ferrarichat for some of the documented lower cost solutions. For example you will likely need new headers, which from a dealer are $15k. But there are aftermarket parts for $3k that have a lifetime warranty. Good luck pursuing your dream, just keep on reading to make sure it doesn't become a nightmare!
I have seen a few on here that do their own engine out 30,000 mile service on their cars from the garage at home. That's a big savings right there alone with only a parts bill and no labor tacked on! If you're a DIY mechanic and aren't afraid of engine removals in any car, I don't see how a Ferrari would be different. I think the cleaning takes more time than removal and servicing put together
Since I do most of my own work, the last 12,000 miles have come to $0.10/mile. Cheapest car I've owned so far! When Clutch or 30k comes aroud (10k more miles), the cost will substantially go up, but not by much. Maybe to $0.25/mile
Welcome to the 355 section . For pure driving euphoria ...... the 355 is it!!!!! Right now is a great time to buy a 355 as prices are down because the jelly-bean 360 is going down the steep roller coaster drop at this time. Unfairly taking the 355 with it IMO. The 355 has the perfect mix of technology and classic ferrari styling.... !!! Find the best one you can afford and frequent here often. As quite a few 'issues' are common on 355s and the solutions for most of these are pretty well established.
Keep in mind that as I respond to this post it does not mean that the 355 is not my favorite car. In my belief it is the best "classic" design of them all. However, if you ask any dealer, maintenance professional or owner that absolutely takes car of a 355 the way it should be, it EATS money.....Whether it's now or later it will...My view is that the few that haven't yet will soon. The car is definately a heavy maintenance vehicle. Some dealers are scared to take 355's in trade if you do not believe me I suggest calling a few. I own two 355's....One needed an entire engine shortly after I purchased, that car had roughly 30K miles and it was molested by a do-it yourself guy, hence the engine and valve seals discovered in the pan. The spider lost its F1 pump which we modded to a 360 pump enough said. Point is, 360's are far more refined in the maintenance area, you do not need to pull the motor and for that matter the proof is in the pudding. You often see 360's that are newer with double the miles of much older 355's. There is a very good reason for that. I am currently looking to sell one of mine as I plan to go with a 360/430. Again, I love the 355 and will always have one, but taking care of it let alone 2 is becoming very annoying as I am not certain which one will crap at any given time. Further, I have a friend that just had all of his guides done at only 14K miles and yes they were shot!!!!! His car is as mint as mint can be.....It is pristine and has a full documented history..... In summary, I have referenced 3 serial numbers above to give a REAL guide in regard to cost. Would I still get one? You bet! Just have your checkbook ready at all times!
If you are a DIYer comfortable with indexing cams, a major costs about $1500, and many $3-4k problems can be fixed with the help of FChat for hundreds. Until the headers and valve guides are fixed, you have a large potential expense - the repair and the repair of anything that got taken out at the same time. Headers may kill valve guides, valve guides may kill rings, etc... However, If you do a $1k annual checkup and belts every 3 years for $7k, you have a basic service bill of $3k. After that, the car will occasionally feel the need to play with its own kind, and will blow up a F1 pump or make the top go crazy just to watch you pay for yellow boxes... One recent poster detailed his first year of ownership, and he did over $20k in repairs - some know to be needed at purchase - and about the same in personal mods, IIRC. YMMV!!!! Hell, everybodys mileage varies on this board!
DIYs can't obvioulsy have the same experience a Dave Helms or Brian Crall have, combined they know more about 355 cars than the majority of all Ferrari authorized service centers. I personnaly would never buy a car from a DIY because I can just about guarantee something will be missed (duirng his 30K service) that will require pulling out the engine later, and will probably include a more expensive fix that should have been a minor cost if taken care earlier. There isn't much tolerance for screw ups on these cars. I USED to work on my old Pontiacs and Chevys but not on my Ferrari. BTW, a 355 is great car to own if taken care of and maintained properly.
Thanks a lot for all your replies! As I am not a DIY'er (I can hardly get a picture hanging on the wall, not to mention servicing a Ferrari!), I will have to find a reliable service center (probably an official Ferrari dealer in Belgium). But at least I have got an idea what to expect as a service bill. As soon as I have one, I will let you know! But this can take a little while... Best regards, Zolder
<Snark mode on> I don't think that anyone here is qualified to answer your question - 10k miles a year in a F355 is in the Ripley's Believe It or Not category! <Snark mode off> Damn, I'd love to have a F355 in Europe! Could only afford a 928 when I was in Germany, but it was fun... Your maintenance costs may be dramatically different than in the US. I read another thread about the very low cost of majors in England ($2500?). Talk to local owners to find out who will service your car and then find out what they charge. At 10k a year, you'd probably want to do a major every three years. Tires every year or year and a half. In Belgium, I assume that your car will live a life more like one of the US track cars than a US street cars, and probably have more sustained high RPM runs. You should be careful of high heat areas like the alternator - might want to heat shield it. Get a Challenge grill. Oh - the standard F355 advice: Get A Good PPI!!! Check the compression and leakdown. If the car doesn't have upgraded headers and valve guides, figure that into the final cost of the car to you. Run away from a car with damaged headers or valve guides unless you get a unbelievably good deal. And have an extra $10k ready for when it throws a fit and wants to hang with the mechanic for a while. The 360 is probably a little cheaper to maintain, but it doesn't have to soul of the F355 IMHO.
i have recently added up my costs since june 2009 and c 20k miles over that period. some of the numbers are approximated as i cant split out the work hours on each item: all figures in pound sterling: tyres: 2.1k annual service, cambelt service, 2 clutches: 8k mot, tax: 1.2k repairs (both manifolds, both rads, alternator, oil cooler, o2 sensors): 7k insurance: 3.5k petrol approx.: 10k i have an offer on the table to sell it now for 3k less than i bought it for so thats c. £1.75 per mile but given that the cambelt service and clutch were done within the last few months, i would fully expect the cost for the next 3 years to be qte a bit lower hope this helps
Confirms my theory. 10K per year repairs, for a car that is actually driven. Prob can bring down 2-3K if you are good with a wrench.
Whatever the average, the standard deviation is probably about $10k. Some cars never break, some eat money for all three meals, some just snack once in a while. Some will purr for years and then need a complete engine rebuild, supposedly out of the blue. The maintenance costs of each F355 are so variant that you can't really budget, just have an (initially) fat open wallet from time to time. Enjoy it while ya can!
well, i did have to take care of a bit of deferred maintenance in the beginning ( both manifolds and an alternator ) and ran into some bad luck as a stone punched a hole in my oil cooler and radiator. i was thinking that for the next 3 years the car would cost significantly less to run even assuming same annual mileage sadly i wont find out as i have to sell due to a pressing need for cash btw the car only left me stranded once during the entire time