About to buy a 355, PPI protocol question

After a few months of searching (and many more years spent wanting) I just placed a deposit on a 99 355 berlinetta 6spd with 4k miles. This is my first time buying a car (partially) across country as I'm in Virginia and the car is in Louisiana. I was planning on flying down, ideally getting a PPI done on the car, then have it shipped back to VA.

The tricky part is that the nearest shop qualified to work on Ferraris for the PPI is a 2 hour drive. Should I expect the buyer to be willing to drive to one of these places? Should I expect to pay to have it put on a flatbed?

Also the car has not had a 30k service done. I'm fine with this but would I be correct in assuming it would be fair to negotiate say 4-6k from what the buyer is asking? I plan on having the car shipped directly to FOW to have the service done before I even start to drive it.

Thanks in advance for the help, I'm extremely anxious to soon be able to fill in the "Personal Ferraris" profile box!

 

99 355 gtb 6 speed! Awesome! how did you come accross one?
Is it Rosso corsa?

 

Yes, you should expect to pay to flatbed the car for the PPI. Put yourself in the seller's shoes - you could just walk after he's paid to transport the car to satisfy your need to have it inspected. He may be willing to drive 2 hours, but I doubt it.

And yes, you can negotiate a bit for the 30K service provided it hasn't already been factored into the price. I bought my 328 from a dealer, and IMO their asking price was retail for a fully serviced car. I negotiated down several $K, enough to cover most of the service costs but not all.

The other thing to consider is that FoW is an authorized dealer and may charge significantly more for a 30K service than a good independent might (say, $5k from the independent, although it obviously varies). If FoW comes up with an $8K estimate, you probably shouldn't expect the seller to knock $8K off the asking price.

And yes, it is a great feeling when you finally move from "thinking of buying a Ferrari" (maybe 75% of the adult male population...) to actually owning one (maybe 1%?)

 

Depending on what you are purchasing the car for ?? The PPI is a must. If you are giving a strong number to the seller I would absolutely work the numbers down. Your 15k / 30K at FOW -- I'll bet will be in the $7K range being in "prime time" vs. off season. If it was a closet queen (sounds like it was) & depending on how owner did service I wouldn't be surprised to see it alittle higher. Maybe a 50/50 on flat bed costs? Talk with FOW on trailer costs as well. Anything can be negoiated for a win - win

 

Yup rosso corsa on tan. I've been checking all the internet sites (dpr, ebay, autotrader, etc) as well as calling dealers pretty much every day for the past few months and was lucky to find exactly what I wanted. I don't have to tell anyone how difficult it is finding a 98/99 355 with a 6spd, let alone a 99 tb.

Alright thanks, that's pretty much what I was expecting to have to do.

The seller is asking 95k so I would pretty much assume the 30k service is not factored into the price. What I was planning on doing is getting a rough estimate from FOW then bringing that down there with me.

Thanks for all the help.

 

Have fun with her ... if you get it. I also looked around for a long time to get what I wanted. I found tb's everywhere, it's the gts '98 / '99 that are hard to find especially with painted roof option.

FYI: When you get the service done change your plug wires asap to a set of Kingsborne (don't go with Ferrari) & I would also change out brake pads to Porterfield. Originals squeak.

 

Make sure no hurricane damage..water, gravel chips etc. Welcome..I'm in Richmond..97 355 Spider Swaters Blue 6sp. I have a Tubi and had Krause and England in Raleigh put HyperFlow cats on last fall (bot from Daniel Pass @ Ricambi). They as well as Sport Auto in G'boro are other service sources. Haven't done it but understand FoW will do a round trip truck pickup of your car to be serviced for @ $180..beats dealing with NOVA traffic though C'ville to Dulles not so bad..no I 95.

Cheers,

Chris

 

Just copied from Roy Cat's post at Lambo Chat:

If you want to check out your car, go to this web site.

It will tell you if the car you are buying was TITLED or REGISTERED within the 12 months PRIOR to KAtrina in the States of.....

LOUISIANA, MISSISSIPPI, ALABAMA AND TEXAS

WWW.AUTO-CHECK.COM/STORM

ALSO CHECK

WWW.NICB.ORG

 

Kingsborne, Why? Never heard of this what I'm missing?

 

Just checked the car out on www.nicb.org (other one wasn't working?) and it came out clean, thanks for the heads up. Also, I was aware of FoW's pickup service but had no idea it was that cheap, very nice to know.

Beautiful car you have, nice to find someone close by. As it looks now I'll be flying out of RIC for the trip down to Louisiana.

 

Your ignition wires from Ferrari are not good to begin with. I have a '99 355 GTS F1, the amount of time that has gone by your wires are probably pretty poor by now. Ignition wires don't last long to begin with and it is one of the most overlooked areas in a cars performance. Kingsborne makes VERY GOOD ignition wires for all cars & the high end stuff /race, etc. Cost is about $170 but well worth it. If you go back in Fchat history you can look up and see discussions but basically any good tech will tell you to change them. Ferrari will want you to go with theres but don't !!!

 

Best of luck on your purchase; it will be nice to see a few more F-cars around the 'ville. I'm itching to add a 3x8 (most likely) of my own.

 

Good to hear! I see we're on the same page with the BMW and a civic on the side for crappy weather

 

I chatted with a guy who had just bought a single mirror Testarossa that he had brought to a softball match at Darden Towe last weekend. If there are enough of us here it would be fun to do a C'vile F-car enthusiasts meeting once a year, say at Vivace?

 

I'm game, though I'm probably jinxing this whole process as I don't even have the car yet. The only other f-car I've seen around cville was a yellow 355 spider with dealer plates about a year ago.

 

Interesting, thanks for the info. I'll look into.