Driving vs. Investing

Sure, any of these cars that are not in perfect condition:
308
328
348
355
260
430
550
575
456
599
pretty much any car that wasn't a limited production car.

None of those will give you a return in the next 100 years unless they are mint.

 

Just my opinion, but with just a very few exotic exceptions, NO car should
be considered an investment car. If it ends up that way, great! But I wouldn't
ever consider buying one based on higher resale expectations down the road.

Jedi

 

I doubt the vast majority of Ferrari owners see them as an investment. Collection? Yes, but investment, no.

 

I've said this before so at the risk of repeating myself:

Right now, the 360 is perhaps in it's best period of all time for new owners. Prices are cheap, supply is plentiful, the car is reasonably reliable, and it has plenty of performance and style.

Buy one that has a few miles on it that has been already depreciated, but has been well kept. Accident damage is OK as long as it's been properly repaired. You're going to drive this car so if you give it a fender bender, its no big deal.

Then, drive the heck out of it because it's probably not going to depreciate much more than if you bought a new family car for the same period of time.

As long as nothing big breaks, it's going to be the best money for fun you can buy.

BTW: I don't think many consider any Ferrari an "investment" unless it's pre-75 or one of the special editions (288 GTO etc). By the time you factor in upkeep, insurance, and repair they will most likely all lose money or at best break even --- so don't worry about it.

 

Yep

 

+1.


Ferraris are a GREAT way to lose money. Lots of it.


And they are WORTH EVERY PENNY !!!!!!


No other marque other than the origional SHELBY Mustangs make my blood boil as hot. And I could have bought a 67 GT350 for $8 Grand .... in 1983.


Damn ....

 

Or to put it another way:

If I had a penny for every dollar I've spent maintaining my Ferrari, I could
have a pretty decent dinner out with the wife, with a nice bottle of wine.

If I had a DOLLAR for every dollar I've spent maintaining my Ferrari, I could
BUY ANOTHER FERRARI.



Jedi


[sad, but true!]

 

The problem with thinking of Ferraris as investments is there is only an upside if you ever sell the car.

For many owners, they never want to sell.
Especially if the car is a rare, much appreciated model.
Which, by definition, are the ones that appreciate the most over the years.

Look how rarely a well-maintained, no-stories vintage Ferrari comes to market.
The near perfect examples tend to be from estate sales or auctions when an owner is liquidating an entire collection.

The other problem is the magnitude of the financial upside for these cars is not a large percentage of the person's total net worth.
If you can afford a $3M vintage Ferrari, then the extra $500k you could pocket when it is worth $3.5M is probably not going to be an amount significant enough to cause a life style change.

So, for us mere mortals, we're lucky to break even, or not lose our shirts, when we own a Ferrari for a 10 year or so time period.
Our best hope is to buy something like a Dino or Daytona, where it goes up enough over the next 10 years to cover our costs.

 

I think your presmise is flawed. There are many reasons to own a Ferrari, most of them are bad.

Thinking of it as an investment that might make money comes to mind.

So does thinking that it will attract attention from pretty women instead of teenage boys.

 

There are owners who do not drive them much for a variety of reasons that have nothing to do with thinking of them as "investments".

Dave

 

Buying a Ferrari to profit from the deal is like marrying for the same reason....


Yeah, it could happen. Odds? Buy Lottery tickets instead.....



Jedi

 

Exactly.

Owning a Ferrari is not about money. You can't take it with you. So enjoy.

Life is good.

 

You know what I like about cars? I like that I know for a fact I am going to lose money on them. It's not like a market where I can get my hopes up about real estate, an investment, or a stock... Only to be nailed by some rare economic storm.

if you're gonna buy a car.. pretty much assume it will lose value.

Drive On!

 

I think the two camps are: a) those that like to drive; b) those that like that they own one yet don't drive much for whatever reason. I'm sure you can make money on these cars flipping if you buy right but question the longer term investment if you're are buying right now. More than likely you'll lose money in depreciation especially after maintenance, parts etc.

 

LOL....

 

Unfortunately, those in the (b) catgegory are often under the delusion that they are "investing" by keeping miles of their modern Ferrari.

There was a 348 Spider at one of the Arizona/January auctions that didn't sell at $31K. It had 17,000 miles on it after 16-17 years, so someone was keeping the miles down in order to preserve value, as the car went from $130K (?) to "not sold" at $100K less.

There are two strategies for the newer cars:

1. Buy, drive, lose money.
2. Buy, don't drive, lose money.

 

The main problem is that the investment-mania in cars has been largely driven by baby boomers. Whats going to happen in 20 years when they are all gone? Will the old cars still be bid up? Its better to treat a Ferrari as something to be enjoyed then an investment.

 

I think very few Ferrari owners believe they are "investing" in the cars.

In the early 2000s, you could basically own one for free if you were on "the list" with a dealer and able to purchase new cars for MSRP. So I guess you could call that "investing" if you want, but that game ended long ago.

 

I think "often" is the wrong word here. Maybe "sometimes" but even that might be too strong. I know a number of people who own post 1980 Ferraris and don't drive them much for various reasons, but none of them are thinking "investment".

In 1989-90 people bought new 328s and TRs for megabucks and "put them away" with visions of GTO prices I guess. We all know how that worked out. I doubt more than a few people actually still harbor those types of illusions.

Dave

 

Yes.... As usual I'm agree with you.... But here
In italy seems that red 328gts and 360 challenge stradale will
Only increase The values !!!!!
Ciao Alex
Ps
Ubi maior minor cessat

 

Maybe "investment" is the wrong word. Perhaps "value preservation".

We see a lot of posts here about how many miles one can put on his car without devaluing it, the idea being that if you sell with 9,000 or 19,000 miles you can avoid taking the hit of being in the next bracket.

 

Even if you look at "value preservation", you still have to factor in insurance, registration, maintanence and repairs if you look at it simply as an "investment". You could have used all that money for stocks and bonds, real estate, gold and precious metals, art... whatever.

It's hard to believe any post 1975 car is going to be able to beat inflation in the next 10 years given these "hidden" costs.

 

True enough. I tell people that the more miles they drive, the less they cost per mile.

But sometimes the reason people keep miles down is because they plan to keep it forever and want it to be as new as possible for as long as possible. This thought has occurred to me regarding my current 328 with 10K miles on it. I only drove it about 800 last year. I didn't consciously keep the miles down, it just happened. Since I plan to keep it until I'm dead, I figure it will still be in great shape even when I'm 80. I averaged almost 4K a year on the 430 for the first five but now that I've decided it is a keeper, it's dropped to about 2500/year. For me at least, whenever I had a Ferrari that was not a "keeper" I tended to drive it as much as possible. I wanted to get my money's worth during the period I did own it by amortizing the sales tax and dealer mark up over a lot of miles.

Dave