Why not just have a thread where owners post what a note about their cars when the bought it, model year, color, mileage, body style, year/month bought, condition, fresh major or not..... and what they paid for it.
Because no one wants to admit what they pay for anything. Asking less $25k if the car is in good shape would be my formula. Money for sorting. I'd bet only 20% are sold to just sell and the balance because if the service neediness of these creatures. Most are sold when service is due.
Yes, because they are afraid they will find out they paid too much. Good luck with that. The best price I was able to negotiate on a car I didn't end up buying was about $5k under asking. The car I bought was $3k under asking with a deal that saved me another $1k on taxes, so $4k one asking. In the course of 3 years I made offers of a couple of other cars that were flat out rejected. Both of those cars were sold for the asking price within a month. One was a Black/tan 97 spider that sold for $59,900 in 2011. The other was a 95 spider with a 3 year old major that was in very good shape otherwise except being very sticky. Ask was $62,900, and there was no negotiation. I said I would sign a contract for $60k and they let me walk. They called me a week later and asked if I reconsidered but they were not making any concessions. That car also sold for ask. I ended up paying $58,000 for my 95 spider that was the exact car I was looking for and which needed nothing, swaters blu, tubi, challenge grill, near perfect interior, 19k miles. That $58k included new tires, a fresh major with guides, new valves and replacing about 1/2 the lifters. I did have to replace the cat to get it through CT emissions which cost me another $1100. So let's call it $59,000.
I have no mechanical issue with higher miles but the fact is that more miles = more wear and tear. When I was looking, I wanted a low mile car so I could drive the hell out of it and keep is as pristine as possble thru my ownership.
One thing not noted, but I think has potential for a $20k reduction in value is a lack of service documentation. A top tier car with no documentation would go from 80k to 60k (or less) without a complete service history), and plenty of cars without documented histories are out there.
I think $50-60k is correct on a freshly serviced car. Most for sale aren't freshly serviced or if done were probably not well documented services. Sounds like a good car as long as all owners know its $5-7k per year to keep them going. Are there actual sales at $80k? Besides Fioranos?
That IMO is a red herring. Records only tell you what broke not what will break in the future. Records can only tell you if a service is current. If none exists then you assume it needs a major and that has a simple fixed cost. Just because records show full brake service for example does not mean the brakes are in good shape for any period of time. There is no substitute for knowing what you are buying and having the skills to evaluate the car. One of the biggest problems with PPI's is that they do not reflect the potential owner's compromises but some else's idea of what is important.
Yep, and even if you are quite skilled or even the master FCar mechanic of all time, there are some things that simply can not and will not be discovered short of a complete tear down and analysis (exceeding the cost of the car) until you just log in some miles and break it. I think this is called the basic reality of stuff.
Being educated is one thing. Living in fear is another. A Ferrari is a car. It's a well built car. All the talk about the potential issues that only some cars see is just BS
The 355's rep is deserved. It is so bad that it has poisoned the well for all ferraris. People talk about leakdown tests that were only done by the most educated because of the 355. It is not a well built car at all. It can be a well sorted car however and be made into a good car with sweat equity. 355's lovers are smitten by the lines and the sounds. If the 355 looked like a mondial this thread and many line it would not even exist because on one who care.
I included lack of records in a "general condition" deduction where a bad Carfax, lack of service history, sticky stuff etc might be lumped together. If I separated these all out a car with more than one might take too much of a hit vs one with one issue. I agree this area could us more fine tuning.
I could not disagree more. Yes, the cars have some known issues, issues that don't effect the majority of cars. I, like many have a awesome running car.
I'm far too busy driving my car with no issues and a smile on my face to check. In over 3k miles, no oil burn....
Hear hear. Well said! Who cares? My car runs beautifully, has been properly maintained by Ferrari trained mechanics (not back-yarders), and is looked after and driven regularly.
If those with awesome running cars who can therefore feel awesome running cars, if you were a new buyer of a 355 would you now buck conventional wisdom and not have leakdown compression included in your ppi?
If buying, I would request a leakdown for a 80's Porsche before a 355, so what! Having owned lots of exotics , I consider the 355 a solid car (in terms of 80's and 90's sports cars). All cars have their issues, in the US we tend to blow certain weightings out of all proportion, talking up certain minority events and then scaring off anyone interested in belonging to the 355 family. If you've got burnt by a 355, bad luck. Try be like the Porsche guys, suck it up and continue calling the car Great, because it is. There are even more guys who haven't got burnt and are totally happy with their 355's and think they've got the best deal ever! That's why Porsche prices keep rising! They keep fixing them but, at the same time they keep telling everyone how wonderful the 911 is! If they need headwork, they get it done and move on. ..they don't B*** and moan for the next 10 years like we Ferrari owners seem to! Alex, Challenge cars had the same 2.7 motronic as 95's (OBD1). 5.2 (OBD11) was better at dealing with increasing emissions restrictions amongst other things.
That would depend entirely on the car I was looking at. If it had a full history including recent major by reputable Ferrari mechanics, looked, sounded and drove well, had been obviously looked after very well, and passed a ppi by an independent expert etc, etc, maybe not. Note the word maybe. If it had a patchy history with large gaps between majors, maintenance done by non-professionals, less than excellent cosmetics and so on, then of course I'd get leakdown compression done. But then again, I wouldn't be looking at that car anyway....
My car was serviced since 2000 by Algar. They did a major 252 miles prior to my purchase. I called and discussed the car with them. They gave me full confidence in the car. I did not do a formal PPI, I did my own 3 hour inspection. I don't live in an area where a PPI would have been possible without shipping the car. I supose I took a risk - such is life. I ended up with a fantastic car.
