Ferraris mainstream model...

I have to seriously disagree with the 308 part. I can remember back before the car went into production, and I remember a great deal of the consensus about the car from all the major car magazines. R&T pitted the 308 against everything in its class, and a few that wernt anywhere near its class in some category or another. But to sum it up, for the first 8 to 10 years or so there were no real complaints. Basically, it didnt do any one thing perfectly, but it did so many things well it was always a big hit. The Porsche 944 was its nearest competitor, and in most articles that compared the two cars, the only factor that kept the 308 from running away with victory was its cost. And most of that cost was Italian Government tax.

Probably the single greatest complaints about them that we hear so much, are its reliability. Yet it seems really odd that the car magazines of the day never had any problems. They didnt spit and sputter, or puke all thier coolant, they didnt overheat, break down or quit. The problem is that far too many magazines and enthusiasts refuse to admit the 308 is an OLD car. And its been an old car for quite a long time. In a few more years, the newest 308 will be 30 years old and the oldest will be 40. My 77's are now both over 31 years old. But the 328 is only just now becoming middle aged.

So while I can agree the 328 had a lot of improvements over the 308, and many would say the cars are more reliable, I believe a great deal of that percieved reliability is maintainance based and age based. A fully restored and rebuilt 308 that is fully sorted should be about as reliable as anything, 328 included.

 

And the 512TR was a huge mechanical revision of the Testarossa, to extend your list. (Also, I'd say the 355 is a handsome car but the quality issues with that car are very significant. A very late 348 is probably going to cause you less financial grief over the long haul.)

Aesthetics aside, it just takes a small carmaker like Ferrari longer to debug and refine their cars. Porsche have spent 40 years on the 911, while Ferrari made huge changes in going to the 348, 355 and then 360/430.

Part of the problem, as discussed elsewhere on FChat, is that while Lexus may test parts for years in anticipation of producing 200,000 ES models (or whatever the number is), Ferrari is continually tinkering and learning in real time. The several revisions of the 348 'exploding' gearbox are an example, as are 355 bronze valve guides, and the differential housing that was welded in the TR and finally properly made as one piece for the later 512TRs.

 

Well, sort of, maybe, kind of... The 308 got a bit of a free pass because it was a Ferrari, a good-looking one, and the only one available in the United States for a while. The early injected models were criticized upon launch, IIRC, and even the QV didn't get raves in Car and Driver back in 1983. Then there was no corrosion prevention, because Ferrari somehow didn't understand that Italy's weather isn't worldwide. The a/c was crappy because many European cars of that era had crappy a/c, so again the 308 got a bit of a pass in that regard.

If you want to fault anything, blame federal regs for catching Ferrari off guard. Cats, smog pumps, heavy rubber safety bumpers, primitive fuel injection ... it was sort of an interrupted evolution of the car.

With the 348s, not sure what the excuse was. I know it was a big change in terms of design/construction, having more electronics and being built in a newly automated factory.

Not sure... the 328s are around 20 years old now, which is long enough for anything on them to break. Both the 308 and 328 are well beyond their life expectancies (as normal cars) at this point. Realistically, they'd all have been scrapped a while ago if they weren't Ferraris, with the expensive mollycoddling that comes with the badge.

While I like both models, I'd tend to agree with the OP that a lot of the aggravating crap from the 308s (fuse block design, power window configuration, Digiplex...) never made it into the 328. Age is relevant, but bad design is bad design.

 

Handles like a truck?
What peoples?
Possibly the US bumpers added some over-hung inertia but even here, where US members are in the majority, I don't remember any truck-like handling descriptions.
Do recall a few cart like analogies during my research reading here.

Isn't the latest the greatest by design with F-cars since Fiat ownership?

 

The 308 was one of the best handling cars available when it was introduced.

I wouldn’t call the improvements massive. A properly maintained 308 is one of the most reliable Ferrari’s ever made and the 328 is even better.

I agree, but the 355 had some very costly issues that weren’t present in the 348.

There’s a long thread in the 360/430 section that compared the two and most preferred the look of the 360.

 

as for me, 360 modena along 456 are the best pininfarina projects of last 30 years

 

yes, the 360 is definitely a huge step in the looks department for ferrari..

the 456? I am curious what you happen to like about the 456?

 

And is unfortunately a step they seem to have abandoned recently, what with all these thin vertical headlights and awkward creases everywhere (distributed over various models). What I mean is, the 360 was simple. It flowed. The CS even more so. Like a naturally beautiful woman who can get out of bed without anything on her face and still blow your mind. In comparison, the 430 looks like a woman with too much makeup on...

It's simplicity. It's non-Ferrariness. It's the woman behind the newspaper at the coffee shop, with slightly out of date clothes...but when you look twice and catch her eye you smile...and think to yourself, I'd like to know her on the regular.

As far as the original topic, I like the point made, but it all just makes me want to shrug my shoulders and say, "That's Ferrari." And we still want them, we still buy them, we still pay for them when they break down. Trying to figure these things out is about as pointless as putting a hundred snowflakes under a microscope to see what makes the one "special" or "different" from the other. In the end, they're all beautiful in their own right, and they're so complex that you just resign yourself to staring.

 

its design is pinnacle of automotive elegance and it's absolutely timeless, it'd be regarded the same way 40 years ago and will impress the same way in year 2050. it doesn't need any spoilers or wide body to prove it's power. and still, it's a 2+2

 

I happen to agree with that. 355 is a close second to the 360. CS the best looking of all.