Any Advantage in buying a pre-owned from a dealer?

I don't know about a warranty even with a reputable dealer. The salesman at Shelton in Ft. Lauderdale wouldn't consider a warranty on a QV i was interested in there.

When it's all said and done it's the car you end up with and not the dealership.

Usually though a better dealer won't take a 308 unless its a good one and they usually do a major but remember you pay for it too.

Depends on how much the extra peace of mind is worth to ya.

 

No such thing as "no worries" on a 20+ year old Italian sports car. That doesn't mean they are bad, but go in with your eyes open.
Some guys go years without any trouble at all, some not.
Thats why it is a toy, and not your daily driver.

 

I was taking this approach with the help of Ferrari of New England while looking for my 308. They were looking for 'that perfect car' and were going to offer me a 90 day warranty on it. I was looking at about a $8K-$10K premium for that approach however, after all was said and done. So you're certainly going to pay for the dealer approach. In the end, they weren't able to find me a car before I found one elsewhere. But they did work their butt off looking for me, so I'm sure in the end they would have come through.

 

Exactly.

I bought the best 328 I could find last September, had it checked and probed stem to stern, had a "major plus" service performed, and this month a coolant hose blew out and one of the heater cores started leaking. Those aren't huge issues but stuff still happens with even the best of these cars.

Going in expecting no worries is naive. I hope for the best and plan for the worst. Don't spend your entire budget on the car, keep some cash in reserve for the inevitable service down the road.

One funny thing is that I'll tolerate defects in my daily drivers that I would never put up with in my "toy" cars.

 

Isn't that funny. I'll let my toys get away with acting up because I cut them some slack. I remind myself they are old and need extra care. Its part of the fun of owning them.

If my daily driver new truck acts up, I'll put a rag in the gas tank, toss a match, burn it to the ground, and go get another one. Its new; if it wants to continue living it better never let me down.

 

What I meant was that if on my daily driver a piece of trim falls off I don't care. Or if it's dirty or gets a ding, etc. But if a piece of trim falls off one of my toys then it becomes my highest prirority to fix that. And God forbid they should get too dirty. And if one of them got a ding, I'd probably have a stroke.

 

I'm with you. My 13 year old Honda is really showing it's age; it's dirty, has junk ground in the carpets (two kids will do that!) rust spots, dings....runs great though.

My 35 year old Lotus always looks perfect (at least from 5'!) the carpets are immaculate, it's clean as a showroom car and I still drive it a couple times a week.

Ken

 

Dirt or rain on one of the toys?

HORRORS!

We won't talk about a door ding. That is just too much for my mind to comprehend.

 

We bought our mondi from Shelton. Considering I will probably never be in a position to buy a new Ferrari, it sure was an experience to buy the car from the showroom floor. And they treated us like we were buying a new F430. Buying the car was a day I will never forget. Also, I feel confident that the claimed 30K service was done correctly.

 

You're probably wise to buy a car from a reputable source, but I agree with the other posts that warranties and 25-year old Ferraris aren't likely to come together.

The advantage is that if something goes terribly wrong soon after the sale you may get some accommodation from a dealer. Also, there is a better chance that an AD would recognize a car with problems and be unlikely to sell it.

So - I'd answer your original post with a 'yes'.

 

All this talk about clean cars!

Just try driving around the block during the current "love bug" mating season here in Florida. You guys with the garage queens would have a stroke.

 

The older the car, the more important the service records are. I would put records near the top of the list.
You need to know when the bearings were packed, not just the t belt replacement, ditto with the brake fluid, coolant, suspension bearings, valve adjustment, oil seals, any recurring electrical problems, alignment, body work, clutch, gear oil change, coolant hoses, vacuum/emission hoses, fuel injection components. the list goes on and on.
Many parts have a "service life" or at least a recommended replacement/inspection interval and without a history, you are just guessing or hopeing you catch things before they let you down. I bought a 77 308 with almost no records and am playing catch up, (while also doing a few fun upgrades).
This is not to say that a car that has "good" records will be bullet proof reliable, but I would say there is a strong correlation between prior service history and reliability. At the least, it gives you a place to start with your own maintenance program.

The second issue, one of "dealer vs private party" is the possible sticky issue of responsibility for smog. Here in california, it is the selling dealers responsiblity to provide the smog. This was the principal reason that i bought the 77 from a dealer, (albeit used). He fumbled around with it for weeks eventually installing a couple of cats, (on a non cat thermal reactor car just to get the tail pipe results in spec).

So, if you are going private party, get the seller to provide a current smog cirt, especially if it is an older carb car.

hth,
chris

 

Mark,
How is your back doing these days? Did you decide to keep the 930? 308s require some effort for ingress/egress, so give it some thought.