1983 400i Auto Chassis 45189 on Ebay

WOW, that's in the Cleveland area, only a couple of hours from me in Columbus...I have to leave for Manhattan early tomorrow for a week. Otherwise, I'd inspect it tomorrow & get feedback to you guys asap.
Can't believe it to be a parts car w/only 11K mi. on it, it's the 1st parts car I've seen that hasn't had the FI lines man-handled. Definitely looks like 'no reserve'.

 

The subheading of "1983 FERRARI 400IA MTR NO RESERVE 11K MI COMPREHENSIVE SERVICE MINT 12 CYL 4.8 L," in combination with the statement "GOOD ENGINE! SHAME TO PART," says to me that the sale is for a motor ("MTR") only. I also speculate that the car was in a catastrophic collision, bad enough to turn it into a parts car, and that the photos were taken before the crash. That's my guess anyway.

 

This thread is getting interesting!

 

talked to owner just now, says car is OK. i need a motor and windshield, two different cars. i have been unable ti aquire a really good motor and am counting three now.

 

I understand the concept, although it sucks to part out a good-running car of any kind. One thing I don't understand is the "no reserve" language in the Classified ad. Is that the same as "OBO," or was it a mistake to include that language in a Classified? I guess I should give up trying to mind read this seller.

 

Auction has been removed.

Hmmm.

 

I spoke to the seller on the phone just now.

The car's history is, it was first shipped from Italy to France, and then shipped from France to L.A. After getting DOT and EPA approvals it went to Straman for the conversion. It was bought by Shelton Motorsports in Ft. Lauderdale and sold to a customer in Wisconsin in 1985. This owner sold to the second owner in Cleveland in 1990. He held it for 16-17 years and sold it to the eBay seller four years ago. The car has extensive service history. The eBay seller has not driven it very much at all, until the past five days.

Sadly for me, no California B.A.R. sticker.

Earl Gibbs of North Coast Exotics has eyeballed the car and has made positive comments. He could do a PPI, or Marshall Goldman Motor Sales could do it.

The eBay No Reserve auction is for real. The seller intends for the auction to run its course and he says that he *will* sell the car to the successful bidder. eBay took down the Classified sale because the seller had no feedback history and eBay thought the ad looked suspicious.

The reason for the engine sale is the seller thinks he might get more money parting the car out than he can get for the running car as a whole. The idea is, he would pull one auction or the other before the time ran out, depending on where the best money seemed to be. I told him imho the engine auction taints the car auction, and that it might take him many years to part out the car at the prices you see for used parts on eBay. The seller did not say he intends to take down the engine auction right away, but if it does go down soon it's because he's concluded he'll get the most cash, quickly, by selling the whole car rather than parting it out. That's his goal, to liquidate the car for the best money quickly.

 

89 really poor cellphone photos of this car: http://s1153.photobucket.com/albums/p509/chaptertwoholdings/

 

This eBay auction had an interesting conclusion. I know because I got involved as a bidder. I made a couple of low-ball bids earlier in the week. By Friday Feb 3 the auction seemed to have stalled in the $16K range. On Saturday I put in my max bid of $20K. An unwise decision and against all the rules of Ferrari hunting, I know, but I thought the car is certainly worth that much. By Monday morning I was still in control, at $18,444.44, with a little more than a day left in the auction. On Monday afternoon, though, I looked and found that eBay had put me down as the auction winner! I phoned the seller to make arrangements, and he told me he had intended to end the auction early but had instead clicked on the wrong button and had inadvertently ended the auction with me as the winner, at $18,444.44. What had happened is that a buyer had contacted him and they agreed to a price of $28,500. The buyer suggested, if the seller would add a "Buy It Now" price of $28,500 to his auction then the buyer would click that button and end the auction that way. But eBay would not let the seller add a "Buy It Now." So he tried to end the auction early, and instead clicked the wrong button, and eBay put me down as the winner.

So there you go, another data point on the marketplace in these cars. $28.5K for an '83 spyder with very low miles. I think the buyer got a great price, but what do I know?

I'm attaching a screen cap of the listing and of the bidding, to show how this auction ended:
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I actually checked this car out earlier today. Owner mentioned that he had just sold it to a buyer in Cali for $28.5k (as mentioned). Car looked good up close, a few blemishes here and there, but overall in pretty good condition. Appeared very complete as well (cosmetically and mechanically). Very nice driver for the price, IMO.

 

And there's the problem- These cars usually look good. They've all sat around for ages- This car looks like an Autowest conversion, not a Straman- and I've seen a few and they are rough. I would not be surprised if this car was put back on the road and needed $15K worth of work FAST to keep it running.

A really good sorted Straman convertible should be a $50K+ price- $28K is probably about right for this car- You can ALWAYS tell what a car is really like by the quality of the seller- and fuzzy cellphone photos and cryptic answers almost always lead to many, many hidden issues.

Honestly I've been elbow deep in these cars and I cannot imagine how you know if you're getting a decent car or not without living with it for a few hundred miles.

 

Here's a long-awaited higher quality photo of the car (that I snapped earlier) for reference sake Best of luck to the buyer, hopefully it won't take much to properly sort this beauty.
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Jay, that's one thing that put me off about this car, that the seller had told me on the phone last week that the chop-top was a Straman conversion, but then changed his story with this Q&A on eBay "Q: Can you tell me who did the conversion? Thx, A: i believe it was straman in newport beach but i'm not positive.ty.bg." I think you would know, wouldn't you? Somewhere on the frame or the fabric there would have to be a trademark. I thought that maybe a car with a non-Straman conversion might be a white elephant. For $20K, well OK, but not for anything higher.

The seller also gave me an answer to my written question, "are there any other problems," that the dash lights don't work. There was also this Q&A: "Q: Does the air cond. blow ice cold air? is the ac fan working as it should? Thanking you for your time, joe A: dont know. its wintertime in cleveland.......ty.bg. ps even the best ferrari of this age when brand new had a/c that sucked!!! you were lucky to get a 'wisp' of cold air haha!! just wait til u run the p windows!!!lower your expectations....this is no lexus. if that's what you're expecting.....don't bid!"

I'm guessing Dan might agree, this seller is a little bit of a character. I think he's a good guy, and I'm glad he got some decent money. But he's a character.

 

LOL you hit the nail on the head ;-) Good guy though, let me take his DD for a spin. If I see the car again, I'll check around for some kind of tag regarding the conversion.

 

Yeah I Inquired about this car too- From the roofline of the convertible top yo know it's not a Straman. Besides whatever the car may need mechanically to be a reliable runner- too many "small things" that did not work that denote a car that has sat for some time.

I don't think the price was bad at all- I just hope the buyer is realistic about what it takes to sort out one of these.

I think you'll find once the impact from all of the recent great press for this series of cars settles in- the $20K 400 will largely be a thing of the past. Even trashed cars seem to bring mid $20Ks and I've had a few people offer me pretty strong money for my 412, certainly much, much more than some of the "buy it now" ebay prices that we've seen lately that resulted in a "no sale", so who knows??

I think buying a clean, sorted car with everything working from an enthusiastic who has current service records AND has the car currently registered and on the road has to add 30% to the value, from the buyers perspective, over a nice car sitting with a "highline" dealer with no A/C, power windows and dash lights.

 

Just so everyone can know for future reference- There are two or three OTHER convertible conversions done to these car- The two I know about are Autowest and Sheehan. (Yes...THAT Sheehan) Autowest is rough- Sheehans are nicely done but the Straman conversion is really nice-

The thing you notice about a Straman top as shown on the red car is the top meets the windshield header flush like a Porsche 911, and the rear bow gives the top a "peak" above the rear window- and the convertible wraps around the rear quarter window with a slight arch- The Autowest shown on the black car has no rear peak- wraps over the TOP of the windhsield header (LEAKY!) and has a straight line on the rear quarter window.
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The seller sounds a bit "odd" wouldnt be surprised if it turns up for sale again v soon. I know cabs are worth more but they just don't look right to me. But I think that about 99% of cabs v coupes

 

ty dan. i wud hope an aerospace engineer cwru masters car nut's opinion wud mean sumthing on ferrari chat. if i get it back from detail prior to shipping i'll call u 2 drive it! nice meeting u! what r the odds???!!!hope ur well.....the "character" the buyer got an unreal deal. win win. ty to all bidders!

 

hi jay....based on your assessment u have shown yourself to all members to be a projecting crook. just cuz u r doesnt mean everyone is.....

 

btw my dd is a 96 xj12 which will blow the dooooooooooooors off any 80's 12 cyl prancing horse...but we'll just keep that our dirty little secret....i still love the horse...even tho a 80 ford esc gt blew my 82 pos 308gtsi!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.

 

based on this; mines a straman and a deal!