Nonsense. When someone who lives and breathes these cars for a living such as Paul says you are hearing the voice of experience. Doesn't mean they don't want to own one or are talking their car down. I find this forum is one of the most informative because people share the good and the bad. Plenty of other forums just dwell in sycophancy - constantly talking up how wonderful their cars are. Good for them, but not that useful. Let's get real...the market for these cars are hardly moved by the chatter here.
Correct imo ... the buyers decide the value ... that is not new. And Paul Newman gives you a very good insight in how buyers think of keeping a TR ... the risks, costs ...
Prices seem all over the place and lots seem to be for sale for a long time. I am happy that mine sold 2+yrs ago for the sum it did. Having owned one for 12 years I knew them inside out. I would be looking very carefully if I was to buy another again.
What Yogi Berra might have said: A testarossa ain't expensive until you need to spend a lot of money on it... That's said... porsches ain't cheap either. They just seem to have unrebuildable motors that fail at high rates...
My take. Lets say the styling is polarsing, so half the audience does not exist, unlike say a 308 which is generaly considered lovely. They made a lot of them, compared to 275's Daytonas and BB's, well each was produced in greater numbers and each is half or less of the price of the other. Exceptional cars fetch far betetr prices, there are a lot of needs cars around, so figure on speding 20k over and above before you get going. Compared to the V8 cars they are harder to drive and live with, most classic owners in this proice range not really looking for "ultimate" performance and so are happy with a 308. So you have a visualy polarsing car, relatively hard to keep, comparatively hard to drive, produced in significant numbers. Its a 12, the Ac works and you can use it which are all blg plusses. But fear not, Boxers are harder to drive, a little easier to keep and were produced in less significant numbers, yet untill a few years ago they had not broken out of old car orbit. Look at Ghiblis, they were below 100 forever, now theyre classics too. Somewehere there is a breakout and the value of the car starts to make sense of the costs then there is takeoff.
Lots of good points here. I think firstly one must review the original post which was pointing to a UK car, at an auction; years back and it was still over 100k Once u get that in mind u realize that, even if it is by Ferrari standards, testarossa, for a good one with less than 40k going for 100k or so... Now unless u live in a super rich world that is not cheap and even if they made a lot of them and they are expensive to maintain it's a sure bet to say 20 years from now they will be worth more. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Not at all, I loved ownership of the car and it was probably the most famous Testarossa in the UK. But times change and owning the car wasn't so much fun anymore as I couldn't use it as I used to and driving the car in London was getting tiresome. The diff went and that wasn't cheap-not through skimping of maintenance and my car wanted for nothing and I had the best UK Ferrari mechanics on the case. Electrical issue's were also very annoying. So many for sale have very patchy history or haven't had proper servicing, yet commanding stupid prices.
Reading your various replies to my original post has been most interesting. Here are my conclusions from what you have all said. Few if any have contested my original premise that a Testarossa can be bought for around the same price as a 328 GTB, give or take a few £Ks. There are two things that are unusual about TR pricing IMO: 1. Values of V12s are usually ahead of contemporary V6/V8s e.g. a Daytona is getting on for twice the price of a Dino, BB is around twice the value of a 308 GTB. 2. Once they have passed rock bottom and are on the upward swing, the value of a particular V12 2-seater is usually higher than that of its successor, whereas a TR seems to be less valuable than a 550. The reasons would appear to me to be: 1. The relatively large production numbers for the TR and we all know about the effect on Ferrari values (at least in monetary terms) of production numbers. 2. Its marmite looks some people love it, but a lot of people really dont (I have to admit to being in the latter camp myself). 3. Its reputation (true or false, though some here seem to confirm this from bitter experience) for unreliable mechanicals, which may, of course be an indirect result of the first of my reasons with so many made, a significant number have not been maintained properly when they became just second-hand Ferrraris, bought by people who could not afford to give them the attention they deserve. 4. The 328 is an easier car with which to live, more reliable and cheaper to run, with less controversial looks, and not significantly down on performance in real world terms, all of which go a long way to make up for the missing four cylinders
There was a nice Testarossa for sale at Silverstone Salon Prive auction today. I viewed it yesterday while there looking at another car. Really nice looking car. UK RHD. Estimate 100-120k GBP. It didn't sell. The UK has been inundated with Testas from Europe and the infamous Beverley Hills Motors..but this was a UK car and still didn't sell at a 100k reserve + 15k commission. My own Testarossa was only marginally better than this one, only difference being a thorough recent restoration, it sold for 148k GBP all in 18 months ago.
You nailed it with your earlier response. This forum has no effect and will have no effect on the market.
