1997 Black/Tan F355 Spider

David,

Today there would have been pictures all over the internet but in 1999 it was before the wide use of digital photography. I don't know the insurance company nor the original owner and since no accident report was filed, I can only assume the wealthy first owner must have had some sway over his insurance carrier to eat the car on a minor claim.

Its notable my CARFAX from 2002 shows no Salvage auction either, along with no reported damage.

I know the guy was a fanatic about not having a radio because he special ordered the car without it as he was a purist in the sense that he didn't think exotic sports cars should have radios and you were meant to listen to the engine. I would think anybody that thinks like that, would not want the car after its nose had been put in the water and if he had enough financial horsepower, and with a bruised driving ego, could get the insurance company to take it.

Having detailed the suspension all around there is no sign of any structure being altered and the car aligns perfectly just like any other F355 all the fenders and lids and headlight buckets are perfectly aligned, so I have to believe the story from the second buyer.

Good luck on your quest for a F355.

Dave

 

The car was licensed by the owner in Missouri - so that would have been clearly Fresh water. The salvage title was created in York Haven, PA which is well up the Susquehanna river but not sure if it was driven there or that was where the insurance company was. If the incident occurred in York Haven, most likely was fresh water also. There certainly has never been any sign of corrosion or rust on the forward parts that would have occurred had it seen salt water. There has never been an electrical problem with any of the forward lights etc. There was a problem with circuit #24 which goes forward but re-seating the fuse for that circuit seems to have fixed the problem.

Fortunately in the northwest we don't have salted roads like they do in the east and Midwest and I've always keep it in a heated garage and since I've owned it for most of its life this car probably has less salt exposure than most and looks pretty pristine from the bottom side also.

 

If you take the price range for all F355 Spiders per Cars.com its $77K-$42K or an average of $59.5 - and 60% of that is $35.7K. How much credit do I get get to add for better than average condition, Concours history? $5K? I'm asking $9.3K. I'll bet there are a number of those F355s generating the low end of the range i.e. $42K that are pretty rough with "Stories".

At this point it isn't about the money - I want to see the car go to someone who really appreciates it for what it is and not what some Erroneous CARFAX report says it is, and I'll price it fairly to that individual and give him a lot of extra F355 goodies I have in my shop drawer. I have the advantage of not having to sell this car when my 458 Spider arrives, so I have time to wait for the right buyer to come along.

 

Had I been more up to speed on the original history of the car, I would have been able to Totally Rebut CARFAX and their BS history on my car. I looked at my file from 12 years ago and found the repair order to fix whatever happened to the car from the water incident and the total cost was only $3063.75 at Ferrari of Denver with 1714 miles on the car in Oct 1998 - Ask yourself how do you total a car worth $149,000 sticker in 1997 with a repair costing only $3K?

This was obviously a sham transaction between the owner and his insurance company to get the owner out of the car for whatever reason. No wonder there was no accident report filed, or any record of damage.

The current CARFAX report says "Severe Damage" that's PURE B.S. - $3063.75 cannot be severe damage.

The work order at Ferrari of Denver said they removed seats and door panels and re-lubed everything and ran fans over the weekend to dry it out and cleaned all the connectors with Stabilant 22, replaced the starter and changed all the fluids in the car - so something happened to the car - but nothing as significant to warrant a Salvage and Rebuilt Title.

I admit this classifies as a "Story" but no reason to significantly discount the car in its current state. I should have been more on my game to call out CARFAX!!!

 

Thanks for your comments Big Tex.

The paperwork on the repair order has the Name blanked out - which is not unreasonable.
I haven't recently called the dealership, but several years ago, I found out that Dave Helms did the repair 15 years ago when he was at Ferrari of Denver when I was researching the Gold Pin Kit. Dave said there was more he wanted to do to the car from a preventative standpoint being as fastidious as he is, but the insurance company wouldn't pay for it at the time. He could not remember what that was but I think in the 15 years since the second owner and I must have discovered whatever that was. In the last two or three years the car has been pretty bullet proof operationally as the repair history at Ferrari of Seattle will show.

Dave Helms and I agree all F355s need his "gold pin kit" because Ferrari connectors at this age regardless of mileage need replacing. In looking at the 1998 service report, the Motronic had a issue and it was replaced along with the starter and solinoid remove and lube and replace (presumably under warranty) because only $140 parts (fluids) and $130 in EPA were charged to the insurance company - I know this to be true because I have the latest MOD 4 Motronic in the car and I didn't pay for it.

 

I put it on Ebay 10 days ago and the auction closed Sunday. Final bid Price was $42,100. I had a firm bid from Ferrari of Seattle to correct the two issues with the car plus do the belts cam seals plus put in the complete gold pin kit - in other words the car would be bullet proof for the new buyers ($10,800). There were two finalists within a $100.

So effectively the car sold for $52,800 fresh from a heavy visit from one of the best Ferrari service departments in the World. If you factor a discount for mileage at 20,000 miles above the mean give or take $10,000 - that would put its adjusted sale price at $$62,800 -

I would argue if you factored a less than perfect title issue considering that the car is cosmetically near perfect at most the CARFAX effect was worth about $10,000.

I personally think the buyer got a great deal because of it, but I'm sold on Ebay!!! It greatly improved the exposure of the car over Cars.com where I had NO responses.

Comments anybody?
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