Hi there , I'm Dave , a professional car detailer based over in the UK. I'm looking to buy a 308 both to promote my business at shows and to enjoy driving. I'm looking for as much advise as possible as for what to go for. I.E carb , QV , GTS or GTB . I must say I'm not the worlds best driver so throwing it around a race track wont be happening , but a good blast round the country lanes on a weekend will. What are the downsides to owning these vehicles , i.e repairs , faults etc, Has any one owned a few of them ? Are they a sound investment for the future or just a money pit ? If they can be viewed as an investment, which would be the best model to go for. Thanks Dave
Prices currently range from £12k to £30k The consensus on which are the best cars to drive seem to be either the first GRP bodied cars or the last QV engined cars. If it were my money I’d go for a late 308GTSI qv The cars as a whole have few problems apart from the normal ones associated with a 21-30 year old Italian car.....Rust (yes even on the GRP cars!) & electrical gremlins are the main designed in faults, and due to age there are the normal issues with parts falling apart through age (rubber fuel hoses & suspension bushes for example) & due to some perceived costs some maintenance may have been deferred......which of course should be caught up on before you end up with lots of niggles. A reasonably competent mechanic can pretty much take care of these cars from top to bottom as far as maintenance is concerned, and given the amount of specialists in the UK should you choose to have somebody else look after your car it’s not going to be spectacularly expensive (we charge around £350 for a yearly service with belts and tensioners around £280) The best advice anybody will give you when buying one of these is take somebody along who knows these cars inside and out (if you don't know any specialists pay somebody to do it, rather than somebody who "knows a bit about cars" or even worse has been involved in other sections of the motortrade), a PPI including compression, leak down and paint depth tests should be mandatory before buying one & with the results normally helping with negotiations on price If you look in the for sale thread in the UK section, Stig's got a very nice late GTBIqv for sale
Apparently there are 78 threads answering this question on this site as well as all the answers you have had elsewhere ! http://ferrarichat.com/forum/showpost.php?p=135956126&postcount=3
Cheers Andrew, I've had a look at Stig's and he was kind enough to let me go and drive it. It really is a fantastic car and I've been using that as a benchmark when looking at others. I'm amazed at how much crap there is out there though , some peoples perception of "immaculate condition" is beyond me. I know I'm looking at old cars so i'm not expecting showroom condition but a lot of cars that i'm looking at just havent been looked after properly, but i am now building up a list of potential cars both carb and QV , just not sure which would be the best option !
The 84-85' 308's have rust proofing if that is a concern for you. "Birdman's" fuseblocks take care of 90% of the electrical gremlins in 308's. ($100 and easy to replace) Just take your time and find the BEST car you can afford, NOT the cheapest. It took about 6-8 months of daily searching to find mine. **BEWARE of BUYING a 308 of any year, you may need plastic surgery to remove the huge grin from your face ! (I've had my 85'qv for 1 year this month and I love it even more today, if that's possible. It's a great car.
