Just another opinion poll before I buy one!!!

I like the 355 for driving. Mid engined the way real race and sports cars are meant to be.
That said the 550 is a 12 and lots cheaper to do majors on. Long term maint problems less as well.
Less production = greater long term ( investment ) capacity.
If it were my coin I'd get a 550.

As an investment ?
Get a Boxer.

 

Buy one to drive and enjoy. It will be decades before they are collectible. You can always buy a garage queen in 2029!

Dave

 

In less than forty years, gasoline powered cars will be made illegal. Gasoline will be judged to be in the same category as asbestos and won't be allowed to be sold anymore. So, if I were you, I'd drive it now before super cars are regulated out of existance and crushed by guys wearing haz mat suits.

Don't laugh.

 

I almost fell off my chair laughing..
I will bet you a tank full of gas that in 40 yrs we will still have cars that run on fossil fuel.. and I will probably drive to you in my electric fuel celled car to come collect. But, my gasoline powered muscle cars and imported sports cars will be in my garage

 

You can get all the statistics you want but in the end what do you love? Choose the most strikingly beautiful stallion in the pen. You really can’t go wrong. Beauty may be only skin deep but Ferrari is bad to the bone. Be happy.

 

Do your son a favor. Buy the nicest vintage Ferrari you can find and afford. In 40 years it with be worth way more money than the cars you are thinking about. An be one hell of lot funner.

 

Why do you care how much it costs to repair if you don't intend to drive it - none of them will be investments so just buy one you like the look of drain it of fluids and hang it on the wall - or just buy a fiberglass body shell and leave the real car for someone who will use it

 

neither of the choices you've offered...

better choices:

Boxer
Dino
308/328

if you can swing it,... a 550 Barchetta would make sense.

 

I say a 355 and drive and enjoy, to me its a bit of a crime to have a Ferrari sitting around that is never driven, like an F50 I know of that has 600 kms on the clock....

 

What they said.

 

Who's laughing? Not I.

 

Yes there were more 355's than 550's. However there were very low numbers of 355 GTS sold in the U.S. So based on the Origonal question? the 355 GTS is the rarest of the three [Berlinetta/GTS/550].


My $0.02

 

How many more polls do you need each telling you your choices do not have investment potential ?

Excuse me I'm off to go for a drive in my 355 because its about pleasure not an investment

 

And perhaps I'll forward this to anyone considering purchasing any car your selling...

 

The best move IMVHO, you will get a better leverage financially speaking.


I would try to buy a BB512 or 512TR but you will have to put more money than you expected. If you want to respect your budget, why not bet on something very exclusive: Mondial Valeo.


If you can negociate and find one for 50k or less you could also buy a 308 and even if it is not a pristine example you will have plenty of time to restore it, 40 years in fact!


Good luck!

 

...How the hell not?

 

investment potential = early 308's, I think they're the next Dino.

355/550 won't stop depreciating for some time, might as well separate 'drive for fun' and 'investment'.
Life's short - enjoy it; Sheehan has a 355 spider with almost as much in repair bills as the car's being sold for - although looks like a good car. Any operating costs will outweigh the appreciation for a long long time.

 

IMVHO buying a Ferrari based only on its investment potential is a bit like buying a stock because you like the engraving on the certificate.
Why anyone here would give advice as to which Ferrari to remove from the road is beyond me.

 

I've made this point somewhere but I don't recall any particular model Fcar that is worth more simply because of the body style. If you have two cars of the same year, 10 years down the road, the 355 GTS will be worth the same as a 355 spider. It's not like the fiberglass 308 vs the steel 308 (different years) or the TR vs the M (again different years). Any historians out there?

Ace

 

???

Daytona vs daytona spider
550 barchetta vs 550

 

I'd bet on less than 40 years.

 

One of the biggest things that I learned since I joined this site is that you don't buy a Ferrari as a investment that you can make money on in the long term. Personally I really don't think that the F355 or F550 will ever go up in value like some vintage the F-cars have in the past. This is mostly because both of these cars were essentially mass produced vs some of the offerings in the 60s. And when you think about it just about any exotic will never offer much as far as of long term returns when compared to "real investments" (stocks, bonds, funds things like that).

Now a Ferrari is a great investment if you plan on driving it to blow off some steam. Although that's just my humble opinion.