Number of former owners on documents.

chaa · Mar 7, 2004

I was prompted to write this after i read another thread last week regarding a guy on FC.com who was conned by a dealer as to how many owners his car had. And i was thinking about why so many ferraris had so many owners, i do know that here in the UK we only realy have sun shine a few months a year, and what happens is people like my bosses frends who are loaded and not Ferrari fans but want to just own and use them during the sunny periods then sell them again at more or less the same moneys.When i went to see mine in the show room there was a guy there who was calling in to see how his lambo order was going and he told me he was looking at my not yet sold 355 spider to use during the spring period. I do know that 3 of my cars former owners did the same thing becourse i contacted them, and they all told me the same " use for the summer then get rid". I know there are some nails and lemmons out there but what i have said should be keept in mind when looking for one.Another egsample has just sprung to mind, in 2000 a frend of ours brought a used year old 360 and now 4 years latter its been sold on to two more other owners, the cars fully serviced and all the owners are frends, so that must make over 4 owners. This is not good for future resale values ofcourse but the casual summer time owner does not care as long as they get more or less there money back so therefore the Ferrari ownership only realy cost them a couple of grand.One of the first thing a buyer askes is how many owners has it had. Is not a car that has been owend by 8 with a full service history still not a good buy? On the other hand a one owner car with patchy history....... what do you think about summer time owners?

355f · Mar 7, 2004

chaa said:

I was prompted to write this after i read another thread last week regarding a guy on FC.com who was conned by a dealer as to how many owners his car had. And i was thinking about why so many ferraris had so many owners, i do know that here in the UK we only realy have sun shine a few months a year, and what happens is people like my bosses frends who are loaded and not Ferrari fans but want to just own and use them during the sunny periods then sell them again at more or less the same moneys.When i went to see mine in the show room there was a guy there who was calling in to see how his lambo order was going and he told me he was looking at my not yet sold 355 spider to use during the spring period. I do know that 3 of my cars former owners did the same thing becourse i contacted them, and they all told me the same " use for the summer then get rid". I know there are some nails and lemmons out there but what i have said should be keept in mind when looking for one.Another egsample has just sprung to mind, in 2000 a frend of ours brought a used year old 360 and now 4 years latter its been sold on to two more other owners, the cars fully serviced and all the owners are frends, so that must make over 4 owners. This is not good for future resale values ofcourse but the casual summer time owner does not care as long as they get more or less there money back so therefore the Ferrari ownership only realy cost them a couple of grand.One of the first thing a buyer askes is how many owners has it had. Is not a car that has been owend by 8 with a full service history still not a good buy? On the other hand a one owner car with patchy history....... what do you think about summer time owners?
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Well first off I also read that thread and did respond to it. To say this individual was 'conned by the dealer' i think is a bit rich. Lets look at the facts;

He looked on the ferrari website where he saw a car that advertised it had 2 owners, in fact after he acquired it it transpired it had 5 owners. He was at best 'misled' by the dealer a little but as was discussed later he did not check any details the sales guy told him in respect of this. Also the price he paid was a very fair price for a top condition 355 and he is very happy with it.

I dont see Ferrari dealers changing the prices as a car has 1 owner more!! its all about condiiton and mileage

Prices of ferraris do not change if they have multiple owners, providing its not to excess anyway.

Secondly!! whilst I sympathise a little with this individual- if you were paying this kind of money, would you take the salesmans word as gospel??? they are there to SELL the car.

Would seem to me the rudimentary checks are SRVICE HISTORY, RING FERRARI UK< CONTACT PRVIOUS OWNERS and SEE THE REG DOCUMENT.

For one thing I would want to know who the previous owner was!! he fact is this purchaser should enjoy his car being happy he has a good one that he likes.
In the comparison you give im sure anyone will choose a muliple owner car thats been serviced as opposed to a 1 owner that has not- it take ONE owner to destroy the car!

flyingboa · Mar 7, 2004

I read the above-mentioned thread too, it made me think, and here I am just sharing my considerations. Since Dec. 2003 I am the second owner of a 1986 328. Easily counted, first owned had the car for 17 years. Just 13.500 miles on it, almost unused on the road since 1995. Service history.... Just the first two services, then nothing as the car, apart from regular starting in garage, was not used.
Even if I was warned to be very careful with this car (no usage, garage queen etc. etc.), thanks even to the advice received on this site, I went for it. Major service with belts done, and now it rides like a dream.
To me the fact that a single person owned the car made all the difference in the world. This guy was in love with the car and would never have abused it.
Now take a different scenario. Same car with, let's say, 8 owners. Chances that 1 of them was in thinking "I will have it just for one season, beat the hell out of it and sale for almost the same money next year" are quite high. Perhaps wrongly, I would never buy such a car.
If I want to keep a car for a long time (and this is the case with the 328...), how many previous owners and how long they had the car makes all the difference in the world to me.

Just my 2 p...

Ciao

Eugenio

chaa · Mar 7, 2004

355F and all very very sorry for useing the words "conned", very sorry poor choice of words. My thread was not about the fact of the guy felt conned. So again i am very sorry. Flyingboa, one onlt assumes that one person beats the hell out of it. A few people that i know owend cars last year just for the summer and did not spank the cars and put very few miles on them over summer then sold them on in the same condition, BUT the paper work had yet another owner on it.

355f · Mar 7, 2004

flyingboa said:

I read the above-mentioned thread too, it made me think, and here I am just sharing my considerations. Since Dec. 2003 I am the second owner of a 1986 328. Easily counted, first owned had the car for 17 years. Just 13.500 miles on it, almost unused on the road since 1995. Service history.... Just the first two services, then nothing as the car, apart from regular starting in garage, was not used.
Even if I was warned to be very careful with this car (no usage, garage queen etc. etc.), thanks even to the advice received on this site, I went for it. Major service with belts done, and now it rides like a dream.
To me the fact that a single person owned the car made all the difference in the world. This guy was in love with the car and would never have abused it.
Now take a different scenario. Same car with, let's say, 8 owners. Chances that 1 of them was in thinking "I will have it just for one season, beat the hell out of it and sale for almost the same money next year" are quite high. Perhaps wrongly, I would never buy such a car.
If I want to keep a car for a long time (and this is the case with the 328...), how many previous owners and how long they had the car makes all the difference in the world to me.

Just my 2 p...

Ciao
I agree but another scenaro is that a guy with more money than sense buys a ferrari ( it does happen!!) and then thrashes it from cold and could not car a less because when the car shows problems at th end of three years he sells it as the warranty is out!! this actuallt accounts for many owners.

reality is one buys a car on condition, mileage and service history whatever the scenario. Beacuse it has less previous owners does not mean its been well looked after

Eugenio
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