From what I've gathered, is it true that 308 and 328 do not require engine removal, while 348/355 do? I am in the market, trying to narrow down my choices, and it sounds like this is the biggest deciding factor. Thanks in advance for any input.
That is correct. It all depends on your financial situation. I think the extra cost on a service can vary, I've seen as low as $500 to as high as a couple thousand. With the proper tools it isn't a huge amount of time to pull the engine and then access is much better. If you upgrade to a 360 I understand there is a hatch by which the belts can be changed in the car. These cars can be money pits, or once sorted they can be quite reliable. Either way they are not cheap and for the difference in cost you'd be better off to bite the bullet and get the car that speaks to you.
308s & 328s should, overall, be less expensive to maintain than a 348/355. Stuff like insurance and tyres will also be cheaper. But the engine pull for belts etc is once every 3 years so in reality its not going to make that big a difference to what you end up spending. Buy the car you like the most & whatever you do, buy the best car you can find. Buying a "cheap one" is likely to end up costing you more
"It Depends".....certain aspects of service can be performed with the engine in the car. Certain aspects of service would be EASIER, and thus more efficient, and more-apt to be performed correctly, with the engine out of the car. Access to engine issues can depend on whether you have a car-lift, whether the issue is near the rear wheel-wells, whether the deck-lid is in the way, etc. Engine removal is only one-aspect to service costs - parts costs, and availability, and skill in diagnosing issues rapidly will factor in. Cars that 'require' engine removal as part of a belt-service, for instance, had their drivetrains engineered so that engine removal was VERY quick - TR, 348, and 355 engine removal is faster than 308/328 engine removal - the engines drop from the bottom of the car vs. the top of the engine bay like a 308/328 does. I've seen a 12-Cyl Testarossa engine get 'dropped', in a single weekend, from a friend's garage with simple hand-tools and no car-lift - just jacks.
308/328s are far cheaper and easier to maintain due to a host of reasons. As for service: Timing belts are done by taking the right rear wheel and inner wheel well off (piece of cake -- done in ten to fifteen minutes.) Take off the left rear wheel and well off and you're staring at the clutch housing. The other issue is simply reliability. 328s are as reliable as any 25 year old car. The mechanical fuel injection is Bosch's system used on all Mercedes for decades. The ignition system is the best of the group. Like any car, there are things that do go wrong, but in the hands of any good mechanic (not a Ferrari mechanic, just a good mechanic) and five minutes on F-Chat a solution is generally on its way cheaply and easily. (Just don't take it to a Ferrari dealer!!!) 348s and 355s are great cars, but technically more advanced. The 348 has many first-gen additions, as does the 355. The things that go wrong on these cars tend to be more expensive to fix. For instance -- the 328 has ignition coil amplifiers that go out, which can be replaced for $17 each. The 355 headers break with greater frequency, and last I checked, they were about $1500 for a pair. (This was years ago that I checked.) Also, F1 trannies in 355s (in the words of my Ferrari mechanic) "should be avoided at all costs, because there are no cheap ways to fix them when they die."
