Anyone Know History of this 430 Spider?

Price is good but not completely out of reason. I did some stats before I bought mine that indicated nearly $1/mile drop in value with all other things equal. So if this car had 9k miles for example, it would be worth $130k.....all other things remaining equal, and that would be a good price but not crazy. Still need to check everything out of course, but could just be a good price.

 

It will be interesting to seel what the final bid is. Not much action on it yet.

 

The ad says it's already had 5 owner's...! That's nearly a owner per year, for the years this example has been around. As many of the Ferrari buying guides have pointed out, when a car has had numerous owner's in a few short years, sometimes that indicates a car with continual problems & issues. And usually ever new owner has thrashed the new toy, to some degree(known as rode hard and put away wet). Not always the case, but I would want to see detailed service records, and have a very complete PPI done on it.

 

Being in the hunt for an F430 and my first Ferrari right now, the mileage on this one is a huge turn off even for the opening price. 5 owners also means lots of unknowns IMO. Not sure the 5th owner could give you the true story on the car even if they wanted to.

 

True--5 owners must also part of the low price.

 

They calculate "owners" in a strange way on those sites. In some states, the dealer is required to take out a title. I was recently looking at a Diablo with "6" owners, but it was really a 2 owner car.

 

Service records indicate it could be a rough car. Cracked exhaust/manifold brackets indicated on one of the inspections, and I don't think it was ever fixed. As you all know, this could mean an existing or near future expensive repair.

 

Where are the service records? Cracked exhaust brackets are nothing and very common on the left side. Wear and tear part. Cracked exhaust manifolds are an entire other (bad) story. It is an '06 so if they are failed, they should arguably be covered by the 8 year federal emission warranty. The car was alleged always Ferrari dealer serviced so if they are bad you would think they would have been replaced with MK2 headers. I would have a dealer run the VIN and see what has been done to the car.

$115k seems like a good price to me even with 24k miles since it allegedly has 85% clutch life remaining (those are not always accurate).

If it really has 5 or 6 owners I would be weary too.

Car looks okay in the pictures but I'd have to see it in person to really know its condition as I've seen cars in person that are garbage that looked good on the internet.

It has the factory bluetooth (see the console shot by the ashtray) so it will run Google Maps navigation. It lacks carbon fiber interior trim which is different. The black roll bars are interesting compared to the beige many F430 cars have.

If you are local and want a F430 for lower money and a (driver car) maybe it is a good car to look at. If it looks decent, I would have a dealer or knowledgeable indy do a thorough PPI.

 

I had the seller send me service records as I was looking at the car for a friend. In Sept 2012, there is a comment on the dealer records that said exh man; bracket cracked; needs full service...

I read it as exhaust manifold and bracket cracked, but I could be wrong. Even if it were only a bracket cracked, excess vibration may have damaged manifold (service record actually says vibration) I would certainly have a PPI done to verify, as the current owner couldn't tell me about the manifold. Current owner has only had car for two or three months, and said there was an electrical short in the door and a bad convertible top motor (both fixed) while he owned it.