Are 348's that bad?

It's a BAD ASS car to own This subject has been beat to death, do a search please.

 

Do a search and form your own opinions.

 

So bad,.....I bought one!
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beautiful car! Not too many cars could replace the 308/328. . .except the 348 !!

 

i own a 348 and have had only 1 problem, a bad ecu.......
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That's why too much research is BAD. Best advice I can give is NOT to talk to too many people, it just confuses and polarizes you. If you like the car, have it inspected, buy it and never look back period.

 

I still disagree with this “Too much research is bad”……research to the cows come home if you like….you can never do too much research. But in the end realize part of your "research" is to drive the models you are interested in…..you will know which Ferrari you desire after you drive it! if you drive 1 Ferrari model it will be fantastic for sure.....if you drive another model you will have a comparison....drive a thrird model and you will know which one you desire place your money on.....research is a good thing!

….M

 

I enjoyed my 348TS. I drove it very frequently. I wouldn't mind another one. IMO they drive great. I think they have good power too.

 

people are nuts to bash the 348 ! i love mine. ill bet you will find most owners enjoy/ed/ their 348s . the problems that happen , can happen to any ferrari . they all suck in one way or another!

 

I think you have to put it in context. The 348 is not a bad car, but when you compare them to other Ferrari's they tend not to have the advantages of the others. The look is unique and I personally like it. But if you are constrained by price then the 328 and the 348 are in the same price level. If you had to choose between the two on the grounds of reliability and maintenance. The 328 would be a better choice. If perfomance is your top priority than the 348 would be the choice. Style being with held as a deciding factor, because style you can not argue with which one is better it is subjective.

If price is not an issue the better choice would be to go with the 355 for the performance, and reliability advantages. Because the the 348 and 355 have about the same maintenance costs. Again style not being an issue.

The 348 can be a great car if you have a properly sorted example or you have the money to make it properly sorted. But if you are going to spend the money you might be in the 355 price range and most people would want to go with the 355 over the 348.

If style is an issue and you just like the 348's style and do not care about the other issues than the disadvantages do not matter.

It all comes down to what car you like best.

 

I also think the later 348's (from mid 90' and on) are the better cars, I absolutely love both 348's I owned (90 and 91's), they are the best buy for the money these days, and the sound just doesn't compare to even the Modenas and 550's. I won't be selling mine for a while, it is too much fun to drive, and it gets almost as much attention as the Diablo I had.

Stephane
Scaledetails

 

Dangerous thing, trying to rationalize a Ferrari...

If the 348 is your dream car then get a well-sorted one from the later years, after the initial bugs were worked out. I think it's seriously great looking car, especially in blue (for some reason I love that color).

But the market does look down on them - prices are similar to the 328's, which might work to your advantage. I've had 2 or 3 dealers warn me to go for a 328 or 355, and stay away from 348's (two of them had a 348 for sale.) Maybe they're generalizing too much, but Ferrari newcomers like me hear that advice often enough that it's gonna matter.

If you do a search here, you'll see that early 348's aren't usually recommended. That will also be the case if/when you go to sell the car in the future. So, be extra diligent in research and inspections. And post pics when you get one!

 

I like the insight my mechanic had "people with 348's seem to actually drive them". I don't know what it is, but on average, I do think 348's are more consistently driven. I love my 348 spider. So what if it costs more over the long run than a 328 - $2k extra in labour to drop the engine every 5 years, big deal - shouldn't be enough to sway one model vs the other. All these cars can bite with five figure repair bills - buy right, and buy what you want.

What other people think only matters when it's time to sell.

 

I had a 1990 348tb and enjoyed it thoroughly. Not a single mechanical or quality problem during the 2 years I owned it (bought it new).

I think the 348 got some bad press for two reasons: (1) The very first (1989) cars were nervous at extremely high speed, which Ferrari fixed by 1990 by readjustment. (2) The 348 happened to be the "new car inna showroom" when the 1980s' Ferrari price bubble burst and the whole market tanked. That's all.

The good side of this is that if you're thinking of buying a Ferrari, you can get a lot of car for the money in a 348. The caution here, already mentioned by others, is that it may be a slow car to sell, even at "market price".

A few incidentals to think about ...

The 348ts/tb seats were a little on the pinchy side. If you're slender, no problem, but make sure your wife/girlfriend is OK, because ladies have wider pelvic bones. When the 348 spyder came out, it included more comfortable seats.

If you're looking at a 348ts, take the targa top off, store it behind the seat, and then see if you fit the car. It's a tighter situation than in the 328.

Some have said that the wind buffeting in a 348ts with its top off is annoying. As I had a tb, I can't testify to this.

 

I can't speak for the TS, but there is precious little wind inside the cockpit of the 348 Spider.

I've owned 3 convertibles (not counting Jeeps), and the 348 Spider with the top down is stunning, absolutely stunning, in that you can carry on a conversation with your passenger...with the top down...at freeway speeds.

Your hat doesn't blow off, either.

It's the best effort at engineering a disturbance-free top-down experience that I've seen. Pure art.

Lesser convertibles, even models out this year, require a wind blocker or wind screen behind the driver and passenger seats...not the 348.

 

I know Im going to get flamed for this, but it's just my opinion. 348's are junk. They rattle like an 80's Camero, ugly, underpowered and looks like a Fiero kit car. Not to mention that due to their age, they have probably had a bunch of shady tree mechanics wrenching on it. There's not much "Ferrari" about it. No performance. No looks. No respect. Probably a model Ferrari wishes to forget about.

You should save your money for something more modern.

 

I've heard a few people make those claims (not all sarcastic), though not from owners.

Ferrari only made the 348 for 4 years (5 "year" models), yet sold more than 9,000 of them (a large amount by Ferrari standards.

Quicker in the slalom than the 355, the Enzo prototype was based on the 348 chasis and steering column.

The 348 Spider was even engineered with perhaps the lowest wind buffeting with the top down of any convertible, ever.

There's precious little to go wrong with them, too. They don't have power tops. They don't have power seats. They don't have electrically-adjustable shocks. They don't have automatic (oops, F1) transmissions. They don't have power steering.

Granted, new 348 owners should disconnect every electrical connection and coat with Stabilant 22a before re-connecting...and Red Line's "no shock" gear oil should be put into the 5-speed tranny.

Do the above and your 348 will be stellar.

 

Which model years have you owned? How many miles did you roll? What kinds of failures did you experience? Just curious...

 

Unless you're in a high speed spin
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LMAO!!!

The 348 is a GREAT car! PERIOD!!!

 

"Most people" would indeed go for the 355......and that's another reason to go for the 348

Plus it just looks so darned sexy! 348 Spider is one of the best looking Ferraris EVER....not that I'm biased or anything
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More modern = more boring. Nothing like the rawness of the older cars. The 348 is a little b i t c h that loves to be driven. Newer cars put you to sleep.