CS-How really important is mileage??-could be not much

I can uinderstand some of the issues relative to mileage when selling an older car. But isn't it just one of many things (to some degree minor) that one should consider?
Case in point, I have recently sold my CS which had 9,700 miles on it (it was a late car built in July, 04). I had alot of interested parties and some were very put off with the "high" mileage opting for cars with 3-5,000 miles. When I found the right buyer and the PPI was done on the car it turned out that there was only 2% brake wear and 10% clutch wear. The tires were brand new. Of course the car was never tracked and here in Florida, all the roads for the most part are straight and flat with little opportunity to do hard braking into turns. The buyer got a really primo car and a very good price. My point is, there are cars out there with just a few thousand miles that have already had the clutch replaced (or heavy wear) with lots of brake wear. I am assuming we are talking about cars that were kept cosmetically almost perfect.
Therefore I think that although mileage is simewhat important, my advise to potential buyers is to find the car that is pristine in appearance, get the PPI done and if the mechanicals check out, the mileage almost becomes a non issue.

 

True dat!!

 

I've always wished one could do a PPI on the driver as well as the car. The attitude of the former is often more important than the mileage on the latter.

 

My Aug 2004 CS had 12500mls when last checked it had 20% brake wear & 12% clutch wear it has done a fair bit of track work.
Looked at one with 9700mls dealer said never tracked......... brake wear 35% mmm!

 

I'd have taken your car over a 4000 mile car that was tracked. Good point you make.

The hard part is verifying the story of the seller.

 

Market value and mileage are correlated for modern Ferrari....period. With regard to desirability, it depends on the buyer. Someone looking for a "trailer queen" (Ferrari, Porsche, Ford GT, etc.) will pay huge premiums for ultra-low miles and "plastic and tags" still in place. I buy cars to drive and would rather acquire a car with a solid history of maintenance and enthusiast ownership.

 

If your car had not been on the other corner of the US, I would have seriously been interested. I recently sold a CS with mileage similar to yours. I took immaculate care of it and it ran like a champ. In fact it was purchased by the owner of the local Fcar dealership as his own personal car. He was familiar with my OCD carings of this particular CS from the beginning. Someone said its just as important to know who the previous owner(s) are. That could be true.

The CS I eventually purchased again came out of California................where the owner is a retired physicist. To me that spoke volumes about how the car was cared for. Other then a perfect ppi out of an authorized dealership that was the clincher for me.

 

so very true, non issue, except for price! smart drivers buy great miles rigs like yours [or some of those i sold] and save big money. the pricing contours with mileage are very steep in F's, compared to P's e.g..

let's take a nero strad undamaged red/blk al and here's what it'd price at 3 months ago [down since then due to market drop]:

1k miles 235
3k miles 225
5k 215
7k 205
10 k 190
15 k 180

so a 10k rig w/ 6% clutch wear and 5% pads [like my first argento when i sold it years ago from new] and no other issues at all, or your car, is the way to go..... IF you're gonna drive it and not look at it, enslaved by this market dynamic that charges big depreciation for a few miles and perpetuates the queen

 

In my eyes it is a s h a m e to own a CS and never track it!!! These cars are built and ment to spend their lives or at least part of it on racetracks because you will never ever see what they are capable of on the street alone. If they are serviced properly and regularly they are bullet-proof (if costy...)!

 

I agree, if you never tracked your CS you have missed to enjoy 75 % of the cars potential. not many things can be compared to a few laps a nice day in a CS. I will track all my future cars, F40´s, Enzos, Zondas or whatever it might be. It´s so much fun.

You can never experience the brakes unless on a track for example. Breaking from 150 mph to 50 before a turn still impresses me.

 

I purchased mine with 6800 miles on the clock. I have turned the trip odometer on so I can't see the actual mileage. I drive it, enjoy it every time, and I do not worry about the mileage. The CS is a "keeper" Ferrari, and that's why I wanted it.

 

As with most things, valuation is never really as simple as one parameter. There have been cream puff high-mileage cars and abused low-mileage cars. Throw in options, color, interior, number of owners, damage history and so on and you have the range of valuation. The fact is most buyers scan for candidates within a range of parameters; if their initial filter is too narrow, they might miss exceptions like yours that they ought to consider. Generally this benefits smarter buyers, but a smarter seller could highlight such exceptional points as part of their sales blurb and encourage more buyers to consider their car. Despite all that, it would never completely equalize or nullify the mileage factor as there are buyers who will still weight miles more than they should or believe that they should just because they foresee a similar problem in turn on their future sale or because the pool is large enough to give them a choice of low-mileage and good-history cars so they don't have to consider a high-mileage car. In the end, if you put miles on the car, it will be worth less; how much is negotiable depending on facts. The priority should be to drive and enjoy.

 

Everything else beeing equal, Id say the mileage always will matter for most buyers. I know its ridiculous when buyers are distinguishing between a 5k vs a 10 k miler, the latter being labeled a "high mileage" e.g. But it is what it is. On the other hand, I'd say most strads are safe buys (even the ones with stories) because who doensn't religiously maintain and service their CS'? My car has a story (resprayed bumpers and rockers) and it has probably been tracked by its first owner. I found this out when E pointed out that the tires looked like it had been tracked a bit. Could be aggressive driving, don't really know and don't really care. Life's good.

-Peter Oh