Gray Market F550?

Others will likely chime in, but generally speaking California is going to be toughest on getting a grey market car (of any sort) registered, etc. Given it is being offered by an LA dealer, I am going to assume it's a California car and is already titled in the state. That alleviates some of the concern assuming you intended to register it in CA. [Your sig doesn't list what state you are in.] As to other states, it's a good guess that if the car can get through CA DMV etc, it's going to get through all the others.

If you have never dealt with a grey market vehicle before, it helps to have someone advising you that's been through the process before and can help with what to look out for, what the papers SHOULD look like (there are some good fakes out there), etc.

That said, a lot of the horror stories one hears about euro cars are usually old anecdotes passed down from 20+ years ago. It's not like it used to be. I remember trying to import Astons from the UK in the mid-80s when the pound was in the crapper. Whoa Nelly, what a headache. Thank goodness things are much smoother now. Anyhoo....

Good luck. If the docs are in order, the conversion work done properly, and the car has already been registered in your state or a state like CA, you're pretty far down the path already.

ketel

 

Ketel is right, it's going to be difficult to register a Euro car in California if doesn't pass emissions; and by difficult, I mean impossible.

I know the car you're talking about, it's ZFFZR49B000115134. Have you seen it in person? I ask because this car was up for auction in 2001 and the paint was described as less than stellar. Rick Carey's exact words were: "...it must have been mostly down dirt roads behind a fleet of dump trucks" because of major scratches and paint.

Good luck! Let us know what happens.

 

what sort of details do u keep on these cars ?

 

KM- The number of shops who could legally bring in and convert cars, especially in California, was very small in the 1999-early 2000s timeframe and those companies usually qualified as remanufacturers. The differences between Euro and US spec cars were also much less than for earlier gray market cars. All the major mechanical parts are common between the cars, and the certification process would have taken care of those that were not. Parts and service are not a problem, since the parts catalogs and workshop manuals have both Euro and US parts and procedures, and dealers can order whatever they need.

From other Euro 550 owners here, you can expect the car to be slightly lighter and faster than a US equivalent car of similar mileage and state of tune.

On the condition of the car, no clue, but I would not worry about the Euro spec. I would want a really good pre-purchase inspection, however.

I imported two gray market cars in the late 70s and early 80s. The process was nowhere near as organized as it was when this car was imported and certified. There were also many more shady operations in the old days.

Good luck and I hope you get your dream car.

Taz
Terry Phillips

 

Henry, I try to record as many details as possible. Exterior/interior colors, options, mileage, any damage I might see, date and location of when I saw it, etc.

Kretch, it sounds like the front end was repainted, which is common. I know one of the guys at EM where the car is consigned; he's a nice guy and a straight shooter. Good luck!

 

well, for the record. no one has ever passed gas in my 575.

 

Henry- I am sure that is a great relief to your leather.

Incidentally, do you have any photos of your car with those 19" BBS LMs? I am going to do a wheels article for this forum, and the photos I have of those wheels are very low resolution (they suck).

Taz
Terry Phillips

 

Taz is right. importing a gray after the 80's got really tough while cars got more and more the same between euros ans USA cars. These two events narrowed the real gap between euro and usa yet the stigma of gray still remains. I have had 2 gray ferraris with zero problems. One really easy thing to do is go to the cali smog website. You can plug in your VIN and see the smog history online as well as failed attempts and aborts. This is hugely valuable because if you got a cali title, cali registration, and cali smog history you can basically just about throw the old dot/epa certs in the trash because no one will ever ask you for them again. The final layer of security is buying from a dealer who has to jump more hoops and is held to a higher sales standard than a private party. I am totally ok with buying a gray car once I see the smog history online. In fact before i bought any ferrari I would check the online history. a consistent passing of smog tells you something about the car. Failures and aborted attempts tell you about the car. I can't explain it but I think the gray cars tend to be just tighter and more abuse resistant. Maybe that's because european's drive their cars and American's polish them? How many blinged out mercedes do you see on our freeways do you think could really do well at 140mph on the autobahn with an american driver?

 

LOL!

Well I don't have your 575M in my database ...but are you telling me that so that I can make a note of it, or because you know that I farted in Darth's last 550?

 

Terry, while I don't have pictures of henryr's wheels, I have plenty of pictures of other Maranello wheels, both stock and aftermarket. If you need photos, just let me know.

Sorry for the hijack - now back to your regularly scheduled 550 thread.

 

T - i'll check but i don't think so. having my GRIPPY pirelli corsa removed from the BBS LMs and put on the modular 19"s as we speak.....

 

The amazing thing is that he keeps the entire database in his head!



Hi Carbon!

 

Carbon- I may take you up on that. I have good images of the Novitec NF2, Hamann PGIII, 18" standard, and 19" modulars. Possibly a couple more like HREs. If you have others, you can e-mail them to me at [email protected], or just put them in the thread yourself.

I will probably start a separate Maranello Wheels thread, and then add the results to the Assembly thread when it has enough photos, which I think I will have the mods name change to 575 Technical Thread.

I just picked up a bunch of technical data on the 575 Superamerica. May be able to add some things on that car. If we are lucky, maybe we get another serial number list like we did for the 575M and 360.

Taz
Terry Phillips

 

A "European" Ferrari 550 living the life would be the ultimate in my opinion!

Buy it.

Erik
Norway

 

Very cute!

Terry, I'll e-mail you when I get home - right now I'm at the Apple store posting from a new iPad!