To good to be true?

Dude what the heck is going on here with these prices?!!???

Notice the F1 badge on the back, but the six speed manual in the pics.

Maybe another california forclosure story?

 

I think my 355 is worth 2x retail if I were to part it out. Unbeliveable.

If a 355 spider is 37k, what is a 348 spider worth?!! Maybe I need to add a lift to my garage!

 

Good Spot!

 

something is wrong here, this makes no sense...too good to be true as you stated

 

First, the bottom is falling out on Ferrari prices. Some people really need the cash.

Second, the Ferrari 355 Registry lists this as a 6 speed.

It does state that the valve guides were upgraded - that's a $16,000 job with the 30K engine out service (6K for the 30K service plus about 10K for the guide job).

 

+1

When unemployment is 10 percent, and even 15 percent in certain states, luxury items are going for fire sale prices.

If you think Ferraris are cheap now, just wait until January!!!

 

This. +1

Things are -bad- out here in the real world; I don't think some on the board really get it yet.

The bigger problem is that when the prices drop so far on that model, then the major/guides/cats/headers/etc issues start becoming huge chunks of the value of the car.

Oh, and that new model is coming out soon, to push all the previous V8s a little deeper in the hole...

(I say all this as a 355 fan -- I absolutely lust for a GTS.)

 

This is quite troubling.

I would generally say that Fcar owners are faily intelligent people, I mean, to own one of these cars it takes a bit of dough. Yeah Yeah you have the occassional schmuck that plows every dollar of every paycheck into his fcar (i guess i understand this because owning fcar is a dream for many), leverages up to the eye balls, and has to wait for the next paycheck to cover the repair bill... But generally, most guys here are fairly smart i would say.

So that being said, it's not that people don't know whats going on out there, it's that they don't want to know, and don't want to believe it.

But there needs to be a somewhat reasonable/rational relationship between the cost of parts, the value of the car, and to some degree the cost of labor to do the work on the cars...

As the value of our cars fall closer to zero, how can the components that make up the vehicle keep the same value? Doesn't make sense. Everyone in the supply chain all the way to the consumer should be ready to take massive losses on their cars. From parts suppliers (assuming their holding parts inventory), to the vehicle owners, to the mechanics that work on them.

The price of parts will have to come down relative to the value of the cars, although it may lag a bit, they still must fall. Simply because no one with any bit of sense would invest $20k parts/labor into a $20k car. Therefore parts won't sell, people will resort to parting out their own cars, supplies of parts will go up, and eventually business that make a living selling parts will understand that it's time to take losses, and start dropping prices to liquidate their inventories. This will take time of course, but this is how i see this all playing out.

Techs are also going to be hurt by this... I can see the conversation now:

Fcar Owner - "what?!?? you want how much $$$ to take the engine out of my $20k car??? Hell no, I'm putting my Fcar on ebay for cheap"
Fcar Tech - "okay okay, don't worry, i'll do it for cheaper. I gotta keep busy you know. Gosh this economy really sucks"

So the point is that as these cars deflate, everything associated with them should eventually do so as well.

 

I can see your point but parts are expensive no matter how valuable the car is. I had a 1982 Buick Century in college. I bought the car used for $2,000. As a "new" car, its list price was around $10,000. Long story short, a woman side-swiped me, and her insurance co. paid to get mine fixed.

I tried to get them to just write me a check for $2,000 so I could find another car, but they were steadfast that they wanted to repair my car. Well, a new fender was around $500 if I remember correctly, and the taillight lens and housing were around $250. The little "Century" emblem on the side of the car was almost $40. That alone represents 2 percent of the car's value!

All total, it cost a little over $2,200 to fix my $2,000 car. And afterwards, it was STILL a $2,000 car. (In fact, I traded it in a few years later for $300)


As for Ferraris, you can go and buy a $20,000 308 that needs a lot of TLC, put $20,000 in it, and it's still only a $26-27K car, max.

You can find a 348 for low $30s, dump 10-15K into it on 30K service, new tires, etc., etc., and you still only have a $40K car if you are lucky.

 

and as for doing a 348 or 355 engine out for "cheaper", realize that this is a 40 hour job. My mechanic charged me a very reasonable $75 per hour if I remember correctly, which is about $20 less than the local Honda shop.

You can't get around the 40 hours - there's just no way to cut it. Your mechanic is going to make his $75 per hour - whether on your Ferrari or your Honda.

As for parts coming down in price, they ain't. And won't.

That's part of the reason that the values of these cars (and other exotics) are dropping. Not only is the economy in the dump, but as you say, buying one of these is merely the entry fee. The repairs and maintenance bills can choke a decent-sized mule. Because of this, the "willing to pay" factor on these cars, in these times, is dropping precipitously.

 

A Google search of the VIN# turned up a listing for a previous sale, when it had about 36k miles on it, and an asking price of about $59k
http://www.mohrimports.com/view_inventory_details.php?car_id=13

I'd be curious what carfax has to say about this one.

 

Probably not as much to say about it as the market in general. These cars have dropped from 20 to 30 percent in the last 18 months. Ask someone who knows first hand.

 

I was really interested in following up on this car until I noticed the F1 on the back while it is a stick. At that very moment I got an uneasy feeling. May be just me, and it would probably not run me off completely but it has me suspicious. Price is interesting though. And you guys are correct the market is dropping but I don't see the prices of 30k service dipping, maybe a tad, and it is all based on the tech hours. This is going to be a real dicotomy with these cars in the future. From standing outside the circle and looking in and taking the situation at a whole; The car is worth 45k as an example, and the 30k service is 8k or higher. That means that you just spent around 20-25% of the cost of the car just to maintain it and that is not including insurance, gas, taxes, etc. But I still love the looks and the sound of the 355 so there ya go, just my .02

 

I wonder if the back end got rammed and who ever did the body repair on it didn't know that the F1 badge belongs on a different car? How else could this possibly happen?

I completely took the entire badge off of my 355. Looks a hell of a lot better without it. Cleaner look. But you can be sure that when I get the car ready to be resold, i'm going to put the same badge back on that I took off.

Bobby

 

It is also possible that someone just thought that having "F1" on the back of their car looked really cool without knowing what the hell it meant. Just because you have the money to own a Ferrari does not mean you are the sharpest tool in the shed.

 

Mileage checks & CA location checks on Carfax. Damage in CA at 30K miles but no details. Serviced at The Auto Gallery in Woodland Hills recently--41,573 miles. Started life as "Corporate Lease" in TX

 

The one flaw in your theory is that Ferraris break. And they do it faster than techs can fix them. I have never in my life seen a Ferrari tech/service guy sitting around twiddling his thumbs. They won't drop their price either. The more Ferraris that are made, the more opportunity is there for them. If Ferrari started making better (i.e. more reliable) cars, I could see that happening.......maybe. But that isn't happening anytime soon. ;-)

 

True, but unfortunately, it also probably means the owner doesn't know or care what 355 service schedules are.

 

That was sort of my point. I would be very wary of this car.

 

In the 60's and 70's and even into the 80's you could pick up old Ferrai's for almost nothing. The cost of the maintinence drove the value down. I remember seeing a 250GT for 7K in the recycler. I dont think we are there yet but we seem to be heading in that direction.

 

The people who think Real Estate will never come back are the same people who said gold would never come back. All markets have their ups and downs.

Does that mean Ferrari prices will rise eventually? It all depends on how much disposable income people have and how badly they want to spend it for a Ferrari. Saying that the current downward trend is inevitable is like saying a roulette wheel will never hit on red again. Maybe it will, maybe it won't. The only thing for sure that will happen is the ball will roll again no matter what the last color was.

We may all look back and wonder why things were so cheap in 2009. Then again, we might wonder why people paid such crazy prices in 2007.

Also, you can't generalize "all Ferraris" as a market. Some will inherently be more desired than others. It's not like we're buying a generic bag of cement here at Home Depot. Some will naturally fluctuate values more than others over time.

Right now, I don't see the "desire" to own a Ferrari waining. As long as that continues, people will still want them as long as they can afford them. Now, if someday they became "out of fashion" and you're looking at a change in attitude rather than economic pressures, then you have a real problem.

Moral of the story: It's the economy stupid. Luckly, economies go up and down but people will still want to own the mark.

 

You make me feel like a tanspack bloody! I can buy what ever I want and pay cash.You sound like a bunch of working stiffs short stacked and all your outs gone.

 

"tanspack bloody"? "short stacked and all your outs gone"? If you can buy whatever you want, start by buying yourself an education, a spell checker, or an English dictionary. Oh, and while your add it, see if you can purchase some humility.

Of course we are working stiffs. We are in the 348/355 thread, dumb a$$.

 

I am always leary of people who make such BS statements and have not filled out any of their personal info. What do you have to hide? If you can pay cash for whatever you want then good for you. But like Tom said, go buy yourself some humility.