Buying first Ferrari

Hello everyone. I am looking at purchasing a Ferrari 360 in the San Francisco CA area, I test drove the car and it felt planted/sorted out. The car has 50K miles on it and seemed to be well taken care of outside of some interior cosmetic blemishes. Car had a new clutch installed in 2022, heat exchanger done in 2023. Anything else major to look out for? I believe belts were also done recently, but will double check. Thank you, any feedback is greatly appreciated!

 

What MY is the car?

Early cars 99-01 had some relatively serious issues that needed to be sorted but by now most all of them should be, especially with that kind of mileage.

This is a great video that points out a lot of solid advice when buying a used 360:

 

Thank you, agreed, watched this same video a couple of times. The MY is 2001. Checked Carfax and car has 5 owners who seemed to have each owned it for a few years

 

Get a PPI (pre purchase inspection) if possible.

 

While I agree a PPI can have value, I'd put more stake in complete service records and the feel of the car. A 50k mile car with proper service has likely had issues addressed as they came up, vs a low mileage car that needs attention in numerous areas. I looked at a sub 10k mile 360 for example, and the cost to bring it up to driving condition was too much for me to consider.

 

Definitely make sure there is a papertrail for service. There are a couple of good independent shops in the bay area that would do a solid PPI for you. A good number of owners that might be willing to go with you to see the car and look for common faults as well if you post in the local section.

 

Fuel pumps are an important thing to keep an eye out for. The caps on the top of them are plastic and get brittle/crack with age causing fuel to pool up on top of them when they run. Probably worth trying to get an eye on them on a new to you car, but if one goes bad you'll be able to smell fuel pretty easily. If it dose happen you'll want to take care of it quick since that's a huge fire risk for the car, but it's generally its not the worst thing you could have to fix on it ether.

 

Another thing that's probably more of an annoyance that a real risk is if if the car is being moved to a different/hotter client when you buy it that might accelerate the deterioration of some of the materials of the car. When I bought mine last summer I moved the car 1500 miles from the north west to a long 100 degree heatwave and within 2 or 3 months the foam/adhesive that holds up the headliner gave up the ghost and fell on my head one day. That's a pretty common issue and would have happened at some point anyway, but I do think the heat accelerated the failure.

The good news if that happens to you is that anything you replace the factory foam/glue will almost certainly be better than the OEM stuff and hold up much better. The bad is that foam gets everywhere and now that the heat wave is back foam is appearing in the car again even though I thought I scraped all the old stuff out last year.

 

ball joints, motor mounts, side bolster wear, fuel pumps, books, records, all keys and fobs, radio card, etc. There is an excellent sticky on FAQ re buying a 360 on this forum that was VERY helpful to me when i was in my search. I will try to find it and post it here. PPI is imperative. Looks are one thing, but mechanicals in these italian cars are a different story. Get a PPI so you can sleep well at night...

 

https://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/threads/faq-shopping-for-a-used-360.191837/

 

Ymmv but I agree with buying a high mileage car if you’re actually going to drive it a lot both from a depreciation standpoint as well as the fact that it probably won’t have as much to do as it would coming out of a low mileage multi year slumber.

I would take your max budget and spend 80% of it on the car. Then you have the extra money for when something breaks. If you get lucky and nothing breaks then you’re that much further along to fcar #2 [emoji1]


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Just 2 more cents from me then I'll shut up. My first 430, I did a PPI with a very reputable company and they missed quite a few little things I needed to address. My current 430 had service records from the selling dealer from cradle to 2k miles ago. I know everything that was done the car, and the first owner serviced it with an open checkbook. With that, I didn't bother with a PPI as I trust the records much more.

 

I do plan on driving it as often as I can, at least about as much as I drive my Quadrifoglio which is about once every week.

 

My thoughts as well, the car comes with extensive service records and although appears to have been driven somewhat regularly, it also drives very nice. I pulled a carfax report as well showing the car had been driven somewhat regularly and kept for years at a time by each owner. That last part gives me some piece of mind with the thought that if a car is driven regularly and kept for some time, it had little issues. At least, I hope that is the case.

 

I plan on financing the majority of it and having cash reserved for future repairs/maintenance.

 

Thank you all for your feedback and insight, it is greatly appreciated!

 

I live fairly close to the coast, where it is consistently in the 60's to low 80's. so luckily heat won't be an issue.

 

Stuff happens....be prepared for a 10K bill....might or might not come knocking...worth every penny. I have owned a 2004 spider for gosh...10 years...it will cost you some bucks but worth it. BTW, I do all my annuals myself, brakes, leather care, top care, have replaced everything from carbon canisters to battery tenders to whatever...if you don't do any car work then it will be more expensive...tons of good info here so buy it and love it.

 

We need more information: Spider? Gated? Any options on the car?

What service records do you have?

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I owned my 360 for two years and nothing major for mine but I have spent 7k thus far making it obsessively perfect maintenance wise and mechanical. I don’t drive mine often either but the car is a lot more reliable than I thought it would be and it was the perfect car to get my feet wet with the brand. I will probably step up to something big next like an F12. They have been dropping into my price range finally which is one of my dream F-cars.