Bye Bye 308....

Well, My '77 308GTB will be going to a new home. I have owned her for 18 months, done tons of work to it, busted my knuckles a thousands times and written WAY too many checks, driven her about 3500 miles and decided to let someone else enjoy her.

The 308 was my first Ferrari. When I first got it, she ran pretty well, was hot inside and handled like a pig. She is leaving me with a show condition engine bay and running very strong, great AC and handling like a very hot modern car. The buyer is getting a great car, but I dont think I will really miss her.

I have no idea how the market for 308s is, I did not advertise the car. A gentleman saw her at a local car show and followed up with me over the ensueing months. Im sure he will give her a good home!


Terry

 

TERRY

WHAT WILL BE YOUR NEXT CAR IN YOUR GARAGE??

 

I'll give you 18 months before you have another one. Once a Ferrari owner, always a Ferrari owner. Sometimes we just take a break from them to clean out the garage.

 

I do still have a '69 Euro Daytona..... and a '69 Porsche 911S. One of the reasons for selling is lack of garage space!

Terry

 

Do you mind telling us what you sold it for? I am hunting for one and every tidbit of info is gold!

 

Why not? :-(

 

Car sold for asking price, $32,500. I was not advertising it and really didnt care if it sold or not.

I do like the 308. It is a fantastic looking car, fun to drive and has phenomenal handling. But when walking into the garage and choosing between a hotrod 911, Daytona or 308.... the 308 comes in a far 3d. Plus, I was having to store one car away from home due to space. I also dont realy enjoy working on the 308. ITs a packaging nightmare and so much of the engineering falls into the "afterthought" catagory.

Terry

 

T, what do you mean about "after thought" engineering?

 

I too think the 308 is my least favorite Ferrari (among the ones I own). I wish someone will come and give me 32,500 or 30,00 for that matter and I might even take less to let her go. She is an engineering afterthought, just try to take off the AC belt to replace it...It is a major undertaking. Nothing is easy to do on any Ferrari, but the 308 is cramped...have you tried to change the rear spark plugs...busted knuckles, special tools, a veritable pain. I will stick to my 12 cylinder horses...someone can have my 308 (1979 GTS...the last carburetted model) tomorrow for all I care.

 

If the 308 is an enginering afterthought than so is the Dino 246 as they have the same layout.

Try and remove a simple starter on a 4 cam Daytona and you will spend 4 days removing your whole exhaust cutting it in half and need to remove each bolt 1 flat a time and then need to raise the motor to clear the frame and still fight to get it out, that is an engineering afterthought.

Need to change your water pump on a mid engine flat 12? better
drop your engine, thats an engineering afterthought.


All Ferraris are engineering or more precisely servicing afterthoughts.

 

Does this still hold true with the newer ones - the 355, 360, and also the newer 12s?

 

All this brutally realistic talk about the real world problems associated with Ferrari maintainence may be just another nail in the "future Ferrari ownership" coffin for me. One of the seldom spoken realities in the collector car world is the fact that when something ceases to be enjoyable then maybe it's time to unload. When the good times equals 5 per cent and the "ownership hassle" time equals 95 per cent, what's it all for? Overly expensive OLD cars, outrageously expensive parts, overpriced insurance premiums, maintainence nightmares due to afterthought engineering, etc, all just for an occasional Sunday afternoon drive is not exactly a great return on ones investment of time, effort, and money.

But in Ferrari's defense, changing the plugs on a '57 Chevy with headers is not exactly a walk in the park either. Or dropping the oil pan on a '79 Pontiac. (you have to remove the engine mount bolts and jack up the engine several inches in order for the oil pan to clear the front crossmember during removal.)

 

Yeah, but Ferrari could care less about anything out of production. So any whining about 308's, 246's et all, they could care less. Okay, they may care a bit about a 550 or 355 to some degree, but they make money on new cars, not used ones (service not withstanding, which is mostly made by dealers, not the manufacturer).

They MAY try and handle issues with a 355 or 550 since that owner may eventually be a prospective NEW Ferrari owner someday.

Seems the cheapest Ferrari to own these days is a new 360 spider. You can drive it for a couple years, and flip it for at least what you paid for it. Your only costs are fluid changes, fuel and insurance...doesn't get any better than that! But you gotta have the money to buy one of those babies....

 

Terry, congrats on selling the 308. It was a great car & I am sure the new owner will enjoy all of your labor over the last year. Look like Xmas comes early for your 911 now that you can spend time on it. I'm off next week, lets get some work done on the S, Road Atlanta is soon!

 

I think you did well

 

Has anyone ever thought of the possibility that Ferrari intentionally engineers their cars to produce maximum inconvenience for the average owner, and therefore dependence on the dealer network for service?

Ferraris are low-volume commodities and if you read the related thread about how $$$ much F-car dealers make you can see that the profit is not in a one-time, low-margin (albeit high priced) transaction. It's clearly with the steady stream of income produced by owners of these fine looking machines being petrified that an overdue maintenance item may void a warranty or result in catastropic repair bills. Taken to the extreme--a la Enzo--this translates into $700 oil changes and $24,000 brake jobs. Despite the exotic materials (like Shell Helix is *that* f-ing different than other oils) this is still good 'ole prison-style sodomy by the Italian Mothership.

I test drove some 308's that I was seriously considering and have talked to people in the know like Jon Kofod about buying a 348 Challenge car. But with the inevitable services that can run $5, 8,...even $20K (!) I simply can't hang. Maybe in a couple of years.

That, my friends, is why I went with the NSX. Sure, it's not a Ferrari and you can talk about "no soul" all you want, but I didn't want to end up feeling like Terry.