should have bought a Porsche

I had a Porsche for twenty years and enjoyed every minute of it including the low maintenance (relatively). I also had (ever larger) boats over a ten year period and that experience taught me that if you wanna play you gotta pay. Nobody here NEEDS a Ferrari (or a Porsche or a boat). These are all luxuries and if you feel the cost is too high then it was not meant to be. I now have a 355 spider and loving it more than I ever did the Porsche. It did start with a $5K service before I got it on the road. And so it goes...

 

Excellent statement....Time for everyone to MAN up.....


+1 on boats !!!!! $$$$



Try airplanes, they make boats look cheap....

 

+ a cazillion on boats...........big holes in the water you throw money into.........the best thing is to have friends with boats.

 

I can provide some answers here...

I was one if the "idiots" that called and I'd be careful with calling fellow fchatter names since some of us do read posts every once in a while. If I recall correcly, your last service was MORE than five years ago. You had an attitude about the GTS as being the rarest of all cars made from god. What really turned me off was that you said "...I don't care if I don't sell this car...I'll just keep it here and I don't need the money..."

Fast forward about six months and what are you asking for the car after your major? You shouldn't have bragged about the fact that you turn down an offer in the low 60's...

Give me a break and stop the crying. I think most of us "idiots" told you what your car was worth in need of a major.

GL with the sale!

Ace

 

Gentleman, the right Ferrari makes all the difference. My Ferrari is cheapest car in my garage to own....and I have a Toyota minivan in the mix.....Why? My 1994 348 spider is only one of 1100 or less in the world. I paid $43K for it and highly doubt it will ever be worth less than that. These things depreciate madly.....level off....then the rarer ones start climbing in value. Take a 1987 328, werent those things like $70K brand new? What are they now? Mid forties and rising (long term)? Thats $30k depreciation in 22 years? I lost that much in my BMW over 6 years???? AND it aint going to appreciate either. Now lets pretend my 348 has bottomed out in price....308s are in the $30Ks, 328s are $40ks, that would make this car the only appreciating (LONG-TERM..understand current dip) car of my 4 daily drivers. The 348 is very affordable compared to other Fcars. I spoke with one of the owners of SHI Ferrari, he pointed out that there were 2 348s on his showroom floor along with 28 other Ferraris, but no 355s. Sorry, probably going to get flamed here, but, he says he wont sell them(355s) because of the high cost of items.....convetible top computers, valves, headers, F1 pumps etc etc.. What I'm trying to say is, the right Fcar makes all the difference, they can appreciate like few Porsches can, and taking that single fact in consideration, is cheaper than my Toyotas, BMWs, and Lexus. (Depreciation of BMW + Maintenance)> (Appreciation/lack of depreciation+ higher cost maintenance of my 348) Love this car. For example, I understand the original post......Had the massive depreciation I just spoke of, then 355s high costs.....different experience than mine.......AGAIN, the right Ferrari makes all the difference.

 

Exactly.......The best 2 days of boat ownership is the day you buy and the day you sell!!

 

Should have bought a GTB, i.e a car with a roof.

 

LOL!! Obviously , I also was one of those "idiots" that called and was turned off by the whole condescending/arrogant "sales pitch". However if the car had all services up to date or if the price reflected the need to get these deferred services done he may have had a chance. Here is my advice to the seller: Get a comprehensive service done at a ferrari dealer, fully documented with photos as well. Then have the dealer or someone else with some "people skills" handle the sale for you. You're right, a 355 gts is a desireable car but it is YOUR fault that it didn't sell.

 

Congrats on selling your car. It does look very nice and I wish the new owner well. We had spoken last november, if you recall, and you were asking much higher numbers than you mentioned here. THe numbers you are talking about now are closer to what I was suggesting were more realistic at that time given the market. I was inquiring as to the service history and specifically things known to be problematic with these cars. You were unable and unwilling to provide any records or information as to your car's history, so I moved on. If all of that makes me an "idiot" and now a "bottom feeder" in your mind then so be it. In my opinion I was being an educated consumer who was doing his due dilligence to make an informed decision about a potential purchase.

 

I understand where he is coming from. I have found the dealers to be very arrogant (for the most part). The dealer service overpriced and incompetent, and many of the owners to be the equal of the dealers.

However, I love the cars and the history! I am more than competent enough to service my own cars. I realize that sales people who are driving Taurus' are there to serve ME, not the other way around, and I don't need a club (even though I helped found an FCA region) of knuckle heads to enjoy my cars... I can find good people.... or not.

 

Very nice cars there mate! Your garage is also awesome!

Thanks for sharing pics.

 

+1

 

When I owned older Ferraris I did encounter times where my gut feeling was right and the so called mechanics were wasting my time and my pockets. With the newer cars all they have to do is replace parts and fluids, easy stuff and no guess work. At least I'm happy with my local Ferrari dealer and I have a current model.

I'm also into Ferrari for real and like the cars enough as to ignore the costs of ownership, but know some who didn't love the mark enough and changed hobbies. I guess you had bad experiences with mechanics and that you're able to work on them so that's really a positive, but you sound angry, lol.

 

What a great collection of cars you have. Love the garage as well. Looks amazing!

 

+1

BTW, I believe the arrogance starts in Maranello and gets magnified by FNA.

Dale

 

Not angry... just blowing off steam. .... and disappointed. Between the dealer's actions and most of the owner's attraction to the marque as more of a bauble, rather than driving passion, is a real turn off.

We have the 'magic list' as well. It's written in pencil and hidden. It is not unusual for one's name to magically be moved up if an envelope, watch or other 'gift' is left behind. In contrast, when I put my deposit for an SL55 1.5 years before they were coming to the US, it was a no brainer... and no tricks. I was #1, and guess what... I got the first car and was treated like........ a valued customer, before, during and after the sale. That is a big difference than my Ferrari dealer experience.

I have been going to Maranello for 20+ years. I have many friends there, and the BIG changes came after Enzo died. What was a very cool and eclectic place, steeped in history, is basically now a money machine... and that is it.

 

Joao,

Beautiful garage and i love your collection of fantastic bikes too and your cars look great, you have good taste and thanks for sharing, i hope your son follows in your footsteps, i really hope your buddy is happy with his 355 cause i wanted it

 

Joao
You should not apologize-you are 100% in the right on this. People who negotiate on the phone without looking at the car are IDIOTS-period. I too would have turned arrogant on the phone if someone took that tact with me without even looking at the car. However if people were asking service related questions, as Ed suggestes , then I would think that the seller should be able to confidently answer them without issue. That being said, selling a car in general-sucks. Quite frankly everything you have stated about the Ferrari experience I find to be true, however if I did not have one, I would surely miss it.

In regards to Ed's comment,
Obviously the price went down from November to now-I am not sure why that has surprised Ed- the economy has gone into a death spiral since then. Last Novemeber, a higher price may have been justified.

 

I was NOT negotiating price on the phone. I was inquiring about the service history etc of the car and all I recieved was a bunch of rhetoric that had no bearing on anything. Had I recieved (even verbally) satisfactory answers to my questions I probably would have made the effort to have the car inspected. ( I inspected 2 spiders and 1 gts before I made my purchase) My point in responding to this thread was that I couldn't get past the first step with the seller and if I couldn't I would think it likely that the others inquiring had similar experiences. His sales tactics were less than desireable and off putting. He was calling the potential buyers, "idiots", but in reality his car had no records of having had any service in many years, so if someone were to make him an offer it would be a low one because they would have to factor in the cost to have all of these deferred services brought up to date. I could see him saying to someone, "come inspect the car in person and then we can negotiate" if they lived locally.... however I would never consider driving 18 hours round trip to look at a car in which the seller hadn't previously supplied me with some sort of history.

I don't know where you get from my post that I was surprised the price went down. I wasn't surprised. I was pointing out that he was distorting the facts of what transpired. He wasn't asking 60k for the car. He was asking 75 for a car that needs a major service. So in reality by the time you bought that car, shipped it , paid tax and had it serviced it was easily a 90 to 95k purchase. There were many cars for sale that were a much better value and had sellers who were more "humble". I'm being as polite as I can be. He didn't understand why he wasn't selling his car and put blame everywhere but on himself.

I'm happy for him that he found someone to buy his car within the last three day since he started this thread. THe price he says he sold it for and the agreement he made with covering the service expenses sounds very fair.