F40 prices sinking fast? Asking below $499k and no takers

Jim:

Would you agree that in the purchase of a motor car the expression "looks very nice" has great latitude??

 

Ross:

If you are seriously looking for an F40 to keep in London or in Geneva contact me. Not only do I know these cars a little bit by virtue of owning them, but I know at least one gentleman that has a car that is hardly used in your neck of the woods. Properly & currently maintained, but, as with some of the best cars, it will never appear anywhere advertised, which is the way I am seeing a fair few deals being done (notably some GTOs of late).

On the other hand, if you are simply looking for the "cheapest" car you can find, those will be out there and I know you are doing a good job tracking them...
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

joe, thanks for that. i am biding my time for the moment, but sure, i would like to know more about the car in question - at the very least it will educate me further on this car and the market. pm me if you like and i can provide you with an email address etc.

btw, as is often the case in written form, it is difficult to fully express yourself as you might in a face to face conversation...so if you or anybody else has interpreted my postings in a confrontational or challenging manner, please dont. i am the novice in this area of the ferrari market and am hanging out in this section of the site to learn more and meet people who can teach me more or point me in the right direction. do i want the best car i can afford? sure. do i have an opinion of the market direction? sure. but we all have opinions, and i am not shy of voicing them, and then being corrected.... all of my posts have been written with a smile.

 

Good Evening Mr. Sackey,

May I congratulate you on an inordinately succinct post. And indeed quite perfect in the context of this particular thread.

And yes, you have always proffered such helpful advice to present clients and indeed potential clients and would never attempt to sell a 'cheap' car to them. For they are discerning folk and are well familiar with the words of John Ruskin: "The common law of business balance prohibits paying a little and getting a lot. If you deal with the lowest bidder it is as well to add something for the risk that you run, and in so doing you will have sufficient to pay for something better."

I am certain that should you be able to lay your hands upon an excellent F40 with superb provenance you would be able to place it immediately within the hands of one of your clients. For myself, I am still waiting for the F50 and I know that when a perfect example becomes available you will be pleased to inform me.

 

No problem.

We all know where the market is. Some of us more than others actually. My only point I wish to make is the subject matter of this thread is not one with which you can generalize if you are actually a buyer.... you have to really know your subject matter.

 

A_SINGER:

I recall years ago in your fair country a gentleman who goes by Prince Phillip (an amateur horseman of sorts) once purchased a racehorse for his fair wife, the Queen of England based upon his judgment that it "looks very nice".

Upon careful inspection by a chap called Henry Cecil it turned out the nag had knocked knees, a turned hoof and was blind in one eye! Piggott refused to ride it, and the Queen banished Phillip to the tower in Windsor Castle with cold meals for one year!

The moral of that story is that when you are dealing with valuations and the purchase of a finely-tuned racing machine, serious specialist expertise is needed. If you don't have it, accept that, and have the wisdom to solicit the help of someone who does!

I cannot think of a car that is more subjective than the F40. Having been around for about 20 years, there are HUGE variations between them and I would have to agree (as a professional who deals in them) that a good one is "inordinately difficult to acquire".

As to the F50, like the F40, their prices are still coming down. But I fear that the 2 checks I have written on your behalf (for $180k and $250k) will not buy you a good one. I happen to know you are a discerning gentleman of good taste and I would be loathe to place anything but the very best F50 to grace the presence of your historic and wholly perfect F40. But I am stalking a couple of them and will of course keep you advised.

Please give my best regards to yours, and I am anxiously awaiting the band getting back together again!

Cheers from California.

 

All remarks should be judged by the qualifications and economic interest or lack thereof of the person making it.

Some may feel that a person who has won the Concorso d’Eleganza Design Award for Concept Cars & Prototypes at Villa d'Este
may have an idea as to whether or not a car looks nice. Other's may not.

 

Jim:

You make my case for me. People here on this forum look up to you with your experience, and hang upon your every word, so when you endorse this particular F40 being sold by Classica Motors SA with the statement "looks very nice", many reading here might take it that this is a great car to buy and is priced where all cars should be.

But the reality is, how can you adjudge this car is "very nice" from these poor images? Have you ever seen this car to see what its paint actually looks like today on a scale of 1 - 10? Can you see from these pics whether the paint is so bad most of us would want it repainted? Do you know what the interior looks like right now? Remember, we are talking about a 18-year-old F40 that has 34,000 km where the owner has neglected to do the belt service and the fuel tanks need to be replaced! If he wasn't kind enough to the car to have it properly maintained and is selling rather than perform the proper maintenance, Id love to see a leak-down/compression test on its engine! Can we say "deferred maintenance"? All together now...

Im not saying this is a bad car, but to give the impression that this is a good car and thus create the impression that all F40s are already $318k is just wrong. Perhaps I do indeed have knowledge of this car's true status but sometimes it pays for me to sit back and just read what others are saying before I chime in.

I am here to say that there is too much 'generalizing' going on in this thread (not to mention speculating, but we will save that for another day).

After reading this entire thread, one can be forgiven for thinking that you, ross, fire-n-ice, drive550pfb etc are not simply warning the rest of us of the impending end of the world, but are desperately 'talking prices down' as best as you can for your respective motives. As I said, "one can be forgiven for thinking".... nothing more

By the way I have a great 1990 Euro F40 for Ross. It HAS had the fuel bladders and cam-belt service done by the Ferrari and it is simply perfect. It should be, as it has only 1,100 km. Of course, the owner wants $516,000 (to include me). Ive told him prices are going down, and he knows this as his car would have brought more last year. He says the only reason he is selling is that the car is never used (as the mileage attests) and he accepts that F40 prices have declined so he says he will simply hold out for $500k and if he doesn't get that he will keep the car. I dont think that he is the only owner of a "good" F40 that has this type of mentality, and this mentality will have some effect in the market. I can see it already with the sellers of good cars being very unmotivated sellers, ergo so few deals being done at certain levels.

Meanwhile here below are the images of the car you said "looks very nice". Jim, if I ever send you pics of this quality of a car that I have never inspected, or driven, or reviewed its records, or have personal knowledge thereof, accompanied with an endorsement, I suggest you, or anyone else, never do business with me.

We simply have to stop the generalizing, and start speaking with specificity. The market is very defined and clearly polarized. In the words of a famed salesman: I can sell a good one for a million pounds but I cant give a poor one away for a hundred quid! Its sort of that type of market, so if you focus on the cheapest one you can get your hands on, you're not doing yourself any favors.

I hope Ive made some good points...
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Joe

As you are a non sponsor of this forum I have come to view your posts as simply spam. You want Ross to buy a car from you for $516K putting money into your pocket when he can buy one for 200K less and fix it up as he does or doesn't want too. I get it. The people who pm me for free advise in search of cars including F 40's get it too. Three of them bought good cars, at good prices, last week from someone who is a sponsor of FCHAT. All is good. Fuel cells have a shelf life and have to be replaced. So what? Cam belts have a recommended replacement life. Until they break that's also a so what. You can replace fuel cells, cam belts, repaint and service an F 40 for a lot less that 200K. Do you seriously think Ross wouldn't commission a PPI, learn what needed to be done and have people who know what they're doing do it? Do you think he's an idiot? Do you think the folks I mentioned,DK aren't capable of doing that? You are using this forum to sell cars and put money into your pocket without paying a sponsor fee. This is and remains the bottom line and your notion that Ross should pay 200K extra to put money into your pocket speaks for itself.

 

I never viewed a F40 as a 500k car. Always viewed them in range from 200k to 300k. It's only because of the past 3 year run up in ferrari prices bring them up to such an absurd level. Can see them falling back down to under 300k easily.

Good luck on trying to sell for 500k. Doubt there are any enthusiast buyer willing to chase the car at that price.

 

Ditto. Check this out...

http://www.autocar.co.uk/News/NewsArticle/AllCars/236380/

 

Very interesting! And not surprising.


Onno

 

This morning I got a call from an official Swiss dealer offering me a brand new 599 GTB Fiorano for US$ 40'000 (forty grand) BELOW the official sales price.
I said no, thanks.
Marcel Massini

 

In all this discussion of price, I am missing something. Most people think that if you have owned an F-50, that you know about all Ferraris.

I have never driven an F-40, nor a 612, nor an Enzo, nor a 430 (or Scud) for that matter. I think have driven everything else since 1990. People used to tell me all the time that the F-40 was faster than my F-50, but I don't know how that could be possible--the F-50 was a freaking Formula 1 car with a 2-seat chassis, and on acceleration, it hurt my eyeballs.

But, as for the overall performance . . . was the F-40 comparable with the F-50?

(Here is why I ask . . . a lot of people think that F-50 prices are now in the 600s. If that is the case, the F-40 has to be much lower than $350K, doesn't it?)

 

http://www.joemacari.com/cars/ferrari_f40_1007/cardescription.html

$310,207.10

This the the currency converted to US Dollars. This vehicle does have mileage but the major servicing has been done and also says is certified by Ferrari Classiche! Now this is a great price for this vehicle! I have no affiliation or interests in any way, just showing that $500K is not the current market for this vehicle. What would the advantage be to buying Joe's F40 he is selling for $500K? Not sure but $310 looks awfully interesting.

Mike

 

That one looks really nice.

Ross check it out. Keep in mind that it will be fully US legal in 6 years.

275K euro

 

This is just a guess, but I'm thinking that a 599 or a Scud would run circles around both of them. Point is that I don't think F-40 or F-50 prices are based on performance.

Dale

 

It is £240,000 that is approx. $352,000

 

Those who make their money by "assisting" buyers who can't possibly understand the market, are incentived to create the idea (IMO the illusion) that the market is very complex and rapidly moving and, without expert help, the hapless buyer is ripe to be fleeced. Of course, said expert is conveniently close at hand and and willing to help said hapless buyer to ensure they don't get taken advantage of (at least, not by anyone else).

And as I stated previously, it is *always* in the best interests of any seller to highlight (being kind in using that word) how the market isn't as bad as people think it is, and how "good" cars still trade way above (I guess close to double, apparently) what the riff-raff trades for.

 

So you hinting that A_SINGER is either David Gilmour or Robert Plant. Most likely David Gilmour.

If so, he is not going to be too happy with you. So don't drop hints in future.

 

Wrong. He is neither.

 

Dear Mr. Sackey,

You are right of course.

However, you were wrong once. But that was when you thought you were wrong but wasn't!

However, it would appear that all contributors to this thread are decent and very genuine people.

However, many of them are wrong.

However, you and I do have many faults, but being wrong is not one of 'em!

However, All F40s are wonderful motor cars. However, cheap ones are wonderfully horrendous! Therefore expensive F40s are actually very good value for money as they are less expensive than the cheap ones!

Exclamation mark now worn out!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A Singer

 

Thought 512 Tea Are was BANNED, not in a BAND.