You forgot about the fires due to a poorly designed fuel distribution system that the factory was well aware of and did nothing about until just a couple of years ago when legal action was finally taken. And your last sentence, it is also not good in the long run for the reputation of the entire work product of Ferrari Spa. While they have never produced a perfect car we need to call a spade a spade to be maintain any level of believability.
I would add that the HVAC controls can be glitchy and wonky. They are pricy to replace as well. -My car had the guides done under warranty at 15k miles back in 2000. -The original headers were also replaced at 15k miles under warranty in 2000. I have since replaced them at 37k miles with Fabspeed units. No sign they were failing. -I have not had issues with the throwout bearing. Might have been addressed prior to my ownership. -The cats were replaced by a prior owner at 22k miles. At 37k miles I installed test pipes with the cats still working (just passed emissions). -I am DIY fixing the stickies slowly now. My total cost will be under $100. -I had all the shock actuators rebuilt by captainZ for $125 each. 2 had the plastic gears fail, 2 were still working. I bought metal gear tops from Ricambi and captainZ installed metal gear internals. -My HVAC controls go full cold or full warm. No middle temperature select. I haven't had a time to look into it with wife/child/job. It is on the list though. No other serious problems. I think one of the cat thermocouple ECU's is on the fritz. I would love to just build a circuit to disable the system like some here have done but that will require me learning a thing or two. Overall it does require more maintenance than a Camry or 350z but it is totally worth it to me. FYI the 355 is NOT for the average car enthusiast. I have no delusions about that. But it is and always will be my dream car regardless of value or cost to run. I'm not concerned about what people say or think about it just hear to share my experience with other owners and other perspective owners.
Ahh I just subscribed to Forza Actually Brain is one of the few folks here I understand what he's talking about. I am sure I will enjoy the reading. Now back to farting in my wetsuit
And that is a perfect response but the deny,deny,deny that goes on with many is in the long run detrimental to the model and the make. Ferrari themselves do enough of that to go around.
Wow bud .You just did us all a great service with that right up for re/sale value. All high performance cars have problems that are run hard.I think you were abit hard on the 355. The only problem i had on your little speal list was the motor mounts ....but my car has 87000km on it now. ive had a few other small problems but nothing that sent me to the poor house. I think that cars that sit have far more problems than cars that are driven. Just my two cents.
Gee's it boils down to one man's pleasure is another mans pain. Leave it at that. And therein lies the rub.
$20k in two years? Try $20k in one visit to the shop. If you own your car long enough or put enough miles on it, you will have at least one bill like that. It's not a thing with problem cars, it's a thing with the 355. If you haven't had that visit to the shop, one of the previous owners almost certainly has. I had several and I know that many of the guys on here have also had invoices like that, if not MUCH higher. You won't hear about most of them though for fear of "ruining the reputation" of the car. I think there's a reason there are so many threads worrying about values and trying to pump them up. Gotta get your money back somehow when it comes time to sell eh? This thread seems to come up every few months so I feel like a broken record poo-poo'ing the 355, but I really do like them. I just think that being realistic about what potential owners are getting into is a good thing.
The most the prior owner spent on my car was $10K for a major with new tires and some stickeys, etc. I'll never spend $20K in one visit because I do all of my own work. Unless the car is crashed, I'll never see a $20K bill.
It's funny, people here batch about spending $3k on something like new headers but will spend $4k-$6k on an exhaust system.... because it sounds better and give them x% more HP, that they will never use. Or what ever on a 360 steering wheel because it looks better, or God know how much on carbon fiber BS that does absolutely nothing. Talk about miss appropriation of funds. Some of the F355 owners are only exceeded by the US government. It's all good. We all do what we please. But if you spend k$'s on accessories you have little room to batch about the cost of real maintenance.
Before I bought my car the previous owner had spent a lot of money getting stuff fixed as in approx $30000 over three years and herein lies my logic. A lot of people would have went I'm not buying this car it's been through the ringer and continue to be a nightmare! I thought well the last owner has burnt a heap of money so hopefully a lot of the work that has been done will give me hassle free motoring for a while . Total bills for me so far less than $1000 in 3 years so all I can say is yee haa!! The car is due it's major towards the end of the year which I will attempt myself as I'm pretty handy with the spanners so I hope I can depend on you guys for guidance and I am going to re bush the whole car at that time.i figure $3000 and some cut knuckles should do the job. At the end of the day it's just a car and if you are prepared to get dirty and learn I think they are pretty reasonable to look after.
+1 I'd love a cappy,hyper flows,carbon sills,big brakes, etc etc but the truth is I haven't got a six figure income I'm just an ordinary bloke who saved for over ten years to buy his dream car so I spend my money on the things the car really needs! Any donations of the above mentioned would be greatly appreciated hee hee
Two points. $30k in receipts does not automatically condemn a Ferrari as a dog. People always want records when they buy Ferraris but few actually read what the records tell us. It is unusual in that you can have one owner bled over years $30k and the next owner spend almost nothing. Second why do owners of 355 challenge cars seem to either not have these (header,guide,) problems or not talk about the problems? The 355c are spanked much harder than the 10,000 mile garage queen.
Glad someone is saving up like this. A+ in lifes rewards! What a great plan to shoot for a ferrari over a decade, awesome! I have had the large F40 schematic poster in the garage for 5 years now.. but how to save on that.. lol, cool as hell though.
I'm going to add this so you can understand my thinking. I just purchased a 2014 Ram Dually 3500 for work. Had I gone off of what all the internet posters said about the truck on the Cummins forum (because they have issues from manufacturing or just parts breaking) No one would ever buy one of these trucks. When I was shopping I checked the forums and had I just listened to all of the negative I wouldn't have bought anything because the majority of posts on the internet for cars and obviously trucks as well is Negative experiences. Most people don't post anything positive. SO anything with tires and tits will cost you cash that's all I'm saying. I also believe that the 355 is getting more and more into the hands of DIYers and we are not scared of the issues.
With the previous owner spending 30k on my car on looking at the history the work was done on things that had just reached the end of their life over time new radiators etc. with my car it was used all it's life on a regular basis hence now it has 70000 Kms on it. I honestly believe in the theory that cars sitting in garages for extended periods of time does not do them any favours! I also imported the car from the uk to Australia as there was a considerable saving. The locals here cringe when you tell them it an import from the uk and reckon ur r buying trouble because of the weather conditions but in OZ most people live beside the beach so u still get salt in the air which can do the same damage as UK roads.
I never saw a CH car not get guides and often. Not if they wanted to go fast. As for the manifolds. How many miles did they get put on them racing? Not very many. You are concentrating on two issues that are so well documented we are wasting bandwidth talking about it. Denying a valve guide problem and a header problem are like denying the Holocaust. Can it be fixed, sure, you can fix anything. It should never have happened to begin with. Sticky knobs can be fixed, spider tops can be fixed, piss poor electrical systems can be fixed. poor engine management systems can be fixed. You seem to miss the point. Ferrari did not sell a very expensive kit of parts that can be, at great expense made into a car that only breaks at a tolerable level for the most addicted Kool Aid drinkers. It was supposed to be a finished product. It was far from that and over a 5 year production period did not get any better. They just replaced old problems with new ones. By the time the cars are made OK they might as well peel the Ferrari emblems off because there ain't too much Ferrari left.
Thanks for that! I left school with no education worked 3 jobs unto I got married at 21 then spent the next 10 years living in a truck,moved to OZ 11 years ago and started all over again with me and the missus workin night and day and finally life is getting good. Sometimes when people see you out for a drive they think flash prick! Then you tell them what you did to get where you are today and their attitude changes straight away. In Perth there is an official f club which I won't comment on and then there is about 20 of us with our own little workin mans f club which is great!! Who says supercars are only for the rich n famous!!
Most people don't post anything positive. SO anything with tires and tits will cost you cash that's all I'm saying. I also believe that the 355 is getting more and more into the hands of DIYers and we are not scared of the issues.[/QUOTE] AMEN especially the tits!!
AMEN especially the tits!![/QUOTE] Right now as 50F is becoming the regular temp in my area it is difficult to work a regular week and not drool at waiting to drive the ferrari. What a syndrome we go through for free roads and Ferrari drives.
Anyone every own or consider Esprit V8? Great looks, performance, interior. I'm sure it has maint issues too but couldn't be more expensive than 355.
Frankly I think this is one of the problems. With 355 prices where they are many end up in the hands of guys who want a Ferrari but really can not afford to maintain them. DIY is fine but it takes more than mechanical skills to keep these cars running right. There is a big difference between "can do" and "knowing what to do". I'm certainly no expert, but at least my background allows me to understand some of these things and even better, know my limits. I know the difference between when to open my tool box and when to open my wallet.
