Hi, Just wondered where is the best place to get standard servicing items such as spark plugs, oil & air filters, charcoal canister, etc in Australia for the Testarossa? Doing some research they seem quite competitive on Ebay, but only really in UK & US. Some of the items are made by UFI which seem to be the OEM manufacturer for Ferrari - is this correct? Reading on the forums about spark plugs, the original ones seem to be Champion, but most people seem to like the NGK Iridium now. Are any of these available from Repco, Auto One, Auto Pro, etc in Australia? Sorry for all the "newbie" questions. I would really appreciate any thoughts & comments. Cheers, Gary.
Stardard items such as comsumables you should be able to buy from Bursons/Repco. Such as plugs, fuel filters etc. Oil filters are cheap (Oddly) from the main dealer. Anything else, use Dave Thursby, a very helpful ex aussie based in California. His site is fab, all the parts diagrams on line and he's a good guy. The current exchange rate makes dealing with him a no brainer. FMS Car Parts
his site seems to be quite expensive. hydraulic ram is leaking slightly in my spider, comparing the price for it with prosport the difference is extraordinary. Ferrari Parts : 66454300 : 66454300 REAR GUARD RH CYLINDER - FMS Car Parts Welcome to Prosport Ferrari...
469 pounds at Eurospares. At the bottom of the Prosport page is says " last updated March 2010" parts prices have moved up since then (some by a lot)
Early last year I replaced all the little rams in a friends 2003 Mercedes SLK Kompressor. The owner was quoted inbetween $860 to $1100 per ram from the closest Merc dealer to us, but I found them online from the US for $1200 delivered for the total of 5 new rams. Saved him over $4000. It took and hour or two to change all the rams...................................but it took me 5 hours more to run the hard plastic hoses from the rams to the pump. A lot of little plastic covers, clips, tabs and zip ties hold them all in place. I will never do that job again, let me tell you. I did it for free too. Looking at how the hoses run in that parts diagram for your 360 Spider, I hope you have deep pockets to cover the labour cost mate.
it's a tiny leak so I'm not too fussed about it. With winter approaching, no top-down driving for me until October-November. No using the roof = no leaks Someone in the 360 section wrote up a step-by-step instruction manual on how to replace the exact ram leaking in my car. About 8 hrs of labour involved, maybe I'll even do it myself in the garage during winter.
Ricambi is more or less in line with UK suppliers, I check their website among others when shopping for parts
I have found the opposite for the cars I look after. That said, sometimes the issue is availability, not price. I've also found the UK to Oz shipping cheaper. M
Dickhead !! But good onya, how do you feel about doing an engine out on the 308 ?? I'll pay the same rate and throw in lunch as well
With Dave's site, he's still building it, best to confirm the prices first as not all the items are updated. I have found him extremely competitive. I have bought from the UK too, the only issue I've had, is that sometimes I've asked for genuine parts and received aftermarket. Superformance for example don't list whether the part is genuine or not. I'd rather play it safe.
Hi All, First, thanks Carl for the shameless plug... Here's how Ferrari parts prices work... There are 3 main sources of parts in the world. a) Factory b) Ferrari North America's warehouse c) Maranello Concessionaires - aka Ferrari UK aka MarCon There are a few others such as Motor Services in Italy (HUGE dealership) that have a great selection, but prices tend to be the same or more than one of the main 3. The "big" independent suppliers here in the USA buy most of their parts from one of these 3 and price according to what the FNA list price is. That price may be better than in Europe, but for the older cars, is often 2-3 times higher than the same part from say MarCon. The price shown for any part anywhere is meaningless if they don't have it or can't get it. Always ask for a quote, and if you've seen it cheaper somewhere else, say so. At least give someone the chance to match a price. The fact that you might have found the part at XYZ for half the price might clue me in on another supplier I hadn't thought of and I might be able to get the same part for even less for you. The price variation between the same part in a cute black and yellow box with little horses all over it and a boring old Bosch/UFI/GM/NGK/whatever box can be staggering. The price difference between an OEM part, whether in a Ferrari box or a manufacturer box, and an aftermarket part is not as much as you'd expect. Trust me when I say that many parts suppliers prefer not to mention that they are selling you an aftermarket part. Margins in the order of 1000% are not unheard of. (Yep - thousand percent). The aftermarket parts are of very variable quality. Take 355 and 360 cambelt tensioner bearings as an example. The Hill Engineering ones are exceptionally good. The "other" main aftermarket ones are real junk. Bearings are no-name made in China items. The price difference is nowhere near the quality difference. Ferrari have about 120,000 different part numbers in their catalogs. Pricing and availability on almost all of these is amazingly fickle. The key is to find someone who has or can get the parts BEFORE you even talk price. The hydraulic cylinder mentioned earlier in this thread is not available at MarCon, so you can pretty much rest assured it isn't available anywhere in Europe. It _MIGHT_ be available at a dealership here in the US or even at FNA. <removed commercial> The best bet for parts really is an independent "drop shipper" <removed commercial> There are some other drop shippers that do very well, but they don't like to be known as such, so I won't mention names. Basically though the smaller resellers carry very little stock but can generally locate and get a part if it is available somewhere in the world. <removed commercial> <removed commercial> Finally, just in case people are not aware, MarCon holds and distributes all Ferrari parts for 355s and older. Go to their website www.ferrariparts.co.uk and check availability. Check pricing too. Use both these pieces of info as a benchmark. If they have what you need, then that's your price, regardless of where you buy. If they don't have it but show a price, then anyone else who is close to that price probably doesn't have it or can't get it. Sorry for the long rant/ramble. I just wanted to be transparent and provide an explanation for what appears to be insanity with the prices of Ferrari parts. It's simple - it IS insane. Dave
It's getting late (early?) and forgot to mention shipping. UPS and FedEx are a belligerent duopoly. When you buy something from the US, ask for USPS priority or express flat rate boxes. They are the best deal but they don't offer volume discounts to the sellers so most of them have no interest in using them. You as a customer will usually get charged retail for shipping, but the seller is getting up to a 50% discount on that price. Some places even charge a handling fee on top of this. It especially annoys me when they use the FedEx or UPS supplied (as in FREE) boxes to pack things in! </rant>
Thanks Dave, useful insight into the parts situation. People who work on cars as their day job probably know the above story already, but us little folk buying bits and pieces to work on our cars at leisure have no idea
