The question is ... is it worth buying a Ferrari F355? I already have various views as "you will spend close to 15,000 € in the first" but has also told me "if not in the price mark is only a myth and not a reality" who rely on? worth a penalty or will soon buy a very expensive? I would post your opinions Thank you Joao Corales
Buy one with valve job or major service complete and enjoy it. If your not a mechanicaly inclided you "may" be mislead you and you will pay. I am in the same boat, F355 or 360 tuff call either way life is short buy one enjoy it.
Because people drive their cars once a month and let them sit and then wonder why it breaks? Bad luck? Because people are overly anal and have to paint their bumper everytime it gets a rock chip on it? I drive my car in the rain, I drive it in the snow. I drive it ALL the time. I drive the piss out of it, I take it road racing, I take it drag racing, and drifting. I take the car grocery shopping and I take it on my long distance trips. It has never left me stranded. I can't promise your experience will be the same, but life is too short to not drive a Ferrari. I'd rather be on the back of a tow truck in my Ferrari, paying whatever outrageous bills it can generate than driving a reliable Honda Accord.
this is the same way I've been thinking lately about my ferrari,I've had it a year next month,just yesterday I've been getting the courage to leave it in a parking lot while I'm in the store or bank,I'm normaly driving the truck or other car when doing my chores,I want to take the ferrari out more,and watch people point at me in the car "look its a ferrari" says the boy to the dad
Just because you can find a few hundred examples of 355s that perform flawlessly and have never broken down doesnt mean the cars reputation isnt true. Ive met many people that have never had a problem with their 355's convertible top...mine on the other hand was 'fixed' repeatedly and within a couple months was always back in the shop non-functional. I swear everything had been replaced by the dealer a few times over but the problems kept coming back. I was also left stranded once after a hose came loose (Im not mechanically inclined so cant tell you which hose) and the car stalled and wouldnt start. It was a zero cost fix once the problem was figured out. My post isnt to say the cars are money pits...mine, other than the top, wasnt a money pit at all. However most F Car mechanics Ive spoke to say they get a disproportionate amount of troublesome 355s. To me , the word of a professional that sees more of these cars on a weekly basis than us owners, should be taken seriously. YMMV
the 355's have known problems. to deny them is to stick your head in the sand. go to any large shop and see what's in there. 355/360, lots of em.
My friend has 1995 and he's real anal about his car. He will have his bumper repainted once a year whether it needs it or not. His last service bill was $20K and there was nothing wrong with the car.
Cars are not always the issues as much as owners are. Many mechanics of all marquees I've spoken with have said that while there is an occasional lemon and consistent problems with certain models, a large majority of problems stem from ignorance and negligence. But you are right YMMV and the one car he buys can be the one that has a 5 figure repair bill. But as with anything in life there is always risk.
Manifolds? Rebuilds or aftermarket Catalytic converters? Hyperflow or test pipes Valve guides? Buy a car that's had them taken care of. Sticky interior? OH NOES NOT THE STICKY INTERIOR THAT CAN BE FIXED BY ANY COMPETENT DIY'er. F1 Pump? Expensive but rare that it fails and there are cheaper solutions thanks to f-chats database and valuable members. So in reality if you take care of the manifolds and cats and buy the right car, what type of "known" problems should future buyers look out for? Your shop analogy is laughable at best. Go to a Honda service shop and what do you see? Honda Civics, clearly by your logic Honda Civics should be deemed unreliable. Do you randomly drop your cars off at shops or do you drop them off to get fixed?
Love my 355. The car is fantastic. Wouldn't trade it for anything else. All Ferraris have "issues." Some of the newer ones have issues that are just beginning to surface. The "issues" with the 355 can easily be fixed or found out before purchase.
This is a great time to buy a 355...yes there's issues, but they're well known and documented issues. Sure if you run to a dealer to fix everything with OEM parts it will cost big bucks, but if you can use the search function on Fchat you'll find many lower cost AND more permanent solutions.
So in reality if you take care of all the known problems, then there won't be any problems? now that is laughable. to answer your question, yes, if there are more civics in a honda repair shop, than that model would appear to be the model with the most problems. Unless of course, they are in there for routine maint and there where alot more made than other models. not the case in my scenario. thank you for agreeing with me that 355 has at least 4 known, expensive problems. at least we agree!
The biggest problem with 355s, for that matter all Ferraris, is that they are not driven regularly and/or not maintained properly. The 2 known problems, valve guides and headers are easy fixes once they are done and you drive it on somewhat of a regular basis you should be fine.
All known problems? There's really only two, cats (have some test pipes fabbed for $200 and manifolds $2,000-$4,000 WHEN they go out) the valve guides are an issue that can be avoided. I remember a year and a half ago people told me my F355 would be a nightmare and cost $5.00/mile and all kinds of crazy **** so I set aside $5,000/year for unexpected issues so far I've used $133 after 14k miles of driving. First hand experience that the F355 is a reliable daily driver is what I'm offering. The only people who blow Ferrari problems out of proportion are the ones who haven't owned them or the ones who are ignorant and take their car to the service/dealer shop and just pay the bill when there are cheaper alternatives to fixing most problems.
do you think i am blowing these problems out of proportion? review my statement. it is short, to the point and 100% truthful. "the 355's have known problems. to deny them is to stick your head in the sand. go to any large shop and see what's in there. 355/360, lots of em."
how often to these valve guides have to be replaced, it seem like they break before the car hits 20k on the odo, just wondering..I'm also toying with the idea of purchasing a 355 but if I do it will have to tolerate at least 12k a year of driving. So based on how often thse problems appear I may have to fix these issues every year or so. Am I over reacting?
I had a great 355 for 8 years. The maintenance bills are not highly correlated to the amount of driving you do. Yes the cats will go (good excuse for hyperflows) and some other little stuff (water pump, etc.) but the expensive services are the majors which are mileage or time based so you will have to do them even if you haven't driven the car (so you might as well drive). Part of the reason for the $$$ is that the engine has to be dropped for most service so you rack up the labor hours at $110+ per hour (at least in the NY region). I would therefore say that the proper metric is $ per time period and not $ per mile. Somewhere in the $6k-$8k for basic maintenance over 5 years sounds about right.
$5-8k service for 5 years is not bad, but I worry about a $30k bill because of motor issues (ie, valve guides, headers, etc) especially if the new parts are defects like the old and have to be done every 2-4 years. Still debating.
EVERY Ferrari over the years has known problems as well as every other car built in the world...So your point is....
