I’ve had my 355 b for close to 20 years and 60k miles, in 2021 or so I added a 348 TS. Both are super fun in their own way and it’s awesome to drive them back to back regularly.
Buying one Ferrari over another due to maintenance costs is fools gold imo. They're all expensive and most have had the major issues permanently fixed at this point. I've spent more on upgrades on my 355 in the course of my ownership (13 years) than on maintenance at this point, and that includes it catching on fire at a track day, which was due to an issue that could affect either the 348 or 355 (oil line). People blame the 'engine out' for high maintenance costs, which apply to both 348 and 355, but it's again, fools good, as it makes the jobs way easier than trying to do them in the car. I've looked at the process for a 360 belt job and I don't think you save much on labor at all - you have to remove the seats and carpet, then sit there crouched in the back of the cabin to do the belts. I'd much rather have the engine sitting in front of me completely unencumbered. Most of the time on the major was not in the R&R but properly cleaning gasket mating surfaces, cleaning up the CV joint that needed a new boot, cleaning up the entire drivetrain etc. Trying to do that stuff with the engine still in the car would have really sucked instead of sitting on a chair with the engine plopped right in front of me.
I have had Testarossa, 360 F1 , currently run a 208 GT 4 and this new to me to me 348 spider .Along with two Porsche s and a Austin Healey . Running costs never figured in the buying equation. But they might for the op ? The 348 spider was purchased to circumnavigate Italy . I did frame a 355 initially but comparing the two ( 348 ) not withstanding performance the 355 s hood scared me off . Not sure why you have tossed in the engine out ? It’s identical , so neutral in the decision process . I agree with your analysis re 360 . Adding 360s eat Suspension components like no other car bumping up any imagined savings by a cam belt in situ service to match the motor our 348/355 . We run a 50 ft motor cruiser based in Italy , it consumes 200 L/hr and generally do 50-80 hr per year. You do the maths . I never said I would buy one on maintenance costs as running a boat eclipse any Ferrari . In fact makes running ferarri ( I have two ) look like chicken feed . I just pointing out the differences between the two . Took a boxster for a month around the Alps + Italian lakes last summer , moving between our Swiss and French residences …..every day hood down such was the weather . Just didn’t want to end up with a 7u%#ed up hood this summer and hydraulic fluid stinking up the interior in the heat = nice - NOT . It’s possible from my previous experience to run a Ferrari with Porsche reliability……you just have to pick carefully.I mean go as far back analogue wise as you can ……which is what this thread is about . Take my ex 360 .It sat along with four other cars for 9 yrs I had it . Full Ferrari dealerSH …..but occasionally the F1 box would throw a brain fart . After a hot run parked up it wouldn’t engage R intermittently . Often to great embarrassment due to the inevitable watching crowd, we would push it out of a parking lot to get going …..from then onwards ( after a bit , a few meters of fwd motion ) it would engage R if needed . Intermittent as it was the dealer never resolved this issue . So when I drove my carburettored , manual 208 GT with a miserly 170 Hp for 8 weeks in Europe I knew I would be able to reverse out of parking lots , indeed it was uneventful. This is because there’s zero elecrotwackery, it’s as simple as your garden bush whacker , any tech can fix. So who’s gonna fix a knackered electrotwackery 355 hood ? If it goes wrong in the the EU tourist hot spots . I ask you ? Italy shuts down in the summer tech wise . It’s blatantly obvious looking at the 1960 s designed carry over pram hood of a 348 It ain’t gonna cause grief . It’s not the money it’s the hassle ……the most analogue, further back you dare go with Ferrari the better inmo . Take the FF .It’s 4 WD involves a drive shaft for the front axle returning forwards from the gearbox under the sump then a diff , then a pair of drive shafts to the front wheels . The drive split between front / rear being controlled by electrotwackery. It doesn’t take a professor of mech Eng to realise there’s an awful lot of seals to go bad to fail there and ask how does the diff and crank get on sharing the same oil ? Erh they don’t as it turns out in practice ! Low and behold hey presto FF s are plagued ( even low miles ) with oil leaks and or front diff failures requiring the lower train removal and separation. Remember these are not designed for easy powertrain removal like our 348/355# . Who in there right mind would contemplate a 3-4000 mile euro hoon over a month in one of those ? If the owner thinks charging from 0-60 in 2.6 sec ( or what ever ) cos it can lay down the power is a good look in central Paris, Rome , St Tropex , St Moritz et al then good luck to him . This hasn’t anything to do the buy in cost or running it’s the analog ness “who’s gone back “ and why .? Finally as mentioned earlier nobody s answered what power steering had brought to the party with its introduction on the 355 …..would you care to take a stab at that please ?
If you're that worried, it's pretty easy to convert the 355 top to manual, making it the same as the 348. That seems a better solution than buying a car you like less to avoid a potential problem.
Not that worried just minimising un necessary risk . Prefer the physically smaller size of the 348 anyhow for practical reasons like parking , the none PAS for greater involvement and the whole strakes thing . Realise style is subjective. Aside in my view interesting cars go through a mini life cycle . Along these lines . 1- first release esp Ferraris they occupy ( until the next modal release ) the hot spot in sale every one wants one and are trading in the outgoing modal . 2- They fall out of main dealer servicing , depreciation enough to enter the scope of used car lot guys . 3- They drop important service schedules , start to get scrapped , accidents , fires etc . Enter the mod world , gain bad reps . 4- Appear in mags with “ look what I bought instead of [ run of mill euro box ] . 5 - The few left with a decent provenance start to be added to collections . 6 - The restoration band wagon starts , whereby cars from group no 2 , are refinished now it’s a numbers game, dealers mark up the prices and the values start to rise . 7 - Return to factory OEM specs as buyers who pay the upper prices want near perfection . 8- Start to gain a classic status as folks regularly quote “ back in the day I didn’t like them , but today they are coming to me “ 9- There’s not enough good ones left to meet demand of the ever greater number of potential buyers and values keep on rising . “ A few yrs ago [ insert number ] I remember when you could pick one of these up for tuppence “ starts to chime on forums . In my view they need to be un modded in full working order to meet the higher numbers ^ Every Ferrari I have owned I have been on this escalator and cashed out for significantly more than I paid . I think the 348 is further down this list than the 355 due to difference in numbers . 348s are rarer. Equally enjoyed the ownership experience. As an aside in 1990 I went to test drive a 348 tb at the local F dealer . Turned up in a 911 CARRERA G50 . Wife sat in the car , the 911 while I took the new demo 348 out with the sales guy . Wasn’t impressed . It felt heavy , less agile , not a nippy and a bit lardy . This was before I read any bad mouth mag articles ! I passed . 35 yrs later ( with a lot of cars passing through my hands ) it feels a different story I like it . Funny how that’s happened. I think it’s the analogue ness the feed back compared to anaesthetised electrotwackery modern stuff .
The 348 and 355 are the same size - they're the same chassis. Worrying about values instead of enjoying the car ruins it imo. If you're worried about converting to manual top, keep the factory parts so you (or somebody later) can return it to stock. I've done that with all of the mods to my 355, I have all of the stock parts so my kids can return it to stock and get maximum value when I die if they want to sell it. But I never worry about the value, I view it as sunk money.
When you park them side to side ( view in a dealer showrooms) the 348 is shorter and feels daintier .Bodies on the chassis are different the 355 more bulk a few cm longer and wider .As was my 360 over a 355 , but totally different chassis being a Al pressed sandwich affair . Attitudes to modding differ on each side of the pond . In Europe we are more conservative certainly with “ rims “ , lowering them and pseudo track prepping . Agree it’s sunk money to be enjoying but unusually with the car world i believe from experience if you choose a Ferrari carefully the appreciation covers the maintenance if you hold on to them for a decade or so . But you have to pick them up ( run against the herd ) at the right moment . There isn’t a bad drivers F car out there . De activating the electro hydraulic hood on a 355 all it does is defer fixing the hassle , kick it into the long grass for your kids . If I had to rank analogue F car driving experience….nothing beats a carb d car , but that’s going back 20 yrs before a 348 . There was nothing wrong ( in a V8 ) of quad twin barrel Webbers a barrel for each cylinder no induction manifold the carbs sat on the inlet valve openings …….until emissions. But as a driver the power spread , the throttle response, the sound , the simplicity ( no electrotwackery ) they delightful. Jumping back to back from a GT4 ( carbs ) to a 348 on Bosch 2.7 motronic……one wonders apart from the exhaust gas composition….exactly where the progress has been made ? That’s what happened with the 360 F1 , felt like I was a passenger nannied by the electrotwackery….just flipping paddles in totally de skilled by driving it . It drove me . The 355 for me was too close to the 360 ,electrically adjustable dampers ….who needs that ? Aside the dials on the dash of a 348 remind me ( orange ) of the Testarossa, which I like . I always thought the 355/360 dials a little underwhelming…..and they are starring at you .White on black, back lit in boring green like a zillion cars . Again who needs a 6 speed man box ? What problem were they trying to solve adding more cogs ? Much pref a old school dog leg 5 speed on the 348 . It’s the spacing in every day driving that counts …engines are powerful V8 s plenty of torque mid range in a lightweight car .
I think you like the 348 more than the 355, and that's fine, but it doesn't sound like the top has anything to do with it other than it's maybe the only thing that you can point out, objectively, that the 355 might actually be worse. Fair enough, but I don't know anybody that would base their choice of car on something like that, especially when a manual conversion is available. There's no way that would kill the value of the car by more than the cost to fix, which if you keep all of the parts will not be that much. The rest of the subjective stuff I'll leave alone other than the carb one - the ITB's on the 355 are markedly better than any carb'd car prior. It's the best of both worlds and a bummer that they got rid of them for the 360, one of the many reasons I prefer the 355 to the 360.
