To steer clear of.. http://www.sportauto.cc/inventory_ferrari/january06fer73dino/index.htm I had a PPI done on this car last week. Conservatively it needs $25K to get it to "good" and $40K to get it to "very nice". I passed on this car at $80K, figuring I'd be inside out by $15K when I was done fixing the "little" things it needed. DM
Hmm. Paint was good, but wrong on the top and the wheels. Motor was pretty good, but compression was a little low at 135. Leak down was over 10%, as I recall. Gear box was a little rough, can't remember the specifics, but it had an ominous noise. Interior is ratty. Pictures make it look WAY BETTER than it really is. Needs carpets, seats need repairs to just be ok, and it's not a Daytona interior. door panels are shot. Suspension. Bushings all around, shocks for sure, maybe springs. Steering had a very bad feel off center, maybe a resuly of the bushings, might be the steering rack. electrical hodge podge. Wiring had been jumped in and out of several circuits. Ferrari badges mounted through the metal on the rear, so to remove means a rear repaint. A/C doesn't work. Wrong steering wheel and clock. Ammeter jumps all over. Clutch had a hitch in it, maybe just the cable, but that's not cheep to fix. There's more, but my lovely bride needs the computer. DM
Hmm. And for those that see the glass as half full, and are looking for a reason to buy this Dino rather than looking for a reason to pass: Paint was good, not perfect, but what 33 year old car has perfect paint? Someone took the time and trouble to paint the wheels. Probably a little off color from original, but actually looks better. Motor was pretty good, and compression was good at 135. Leak down was 10%, which will likely get better as you enjoy driving it. Gearbox was good for a Dino. Interior needs some TLC. Sometime in the future you might want to replace the door panels with leather, just for fun. Suspension. Drives good for a 35 year-old car. Steering is off-center, but likely because someone took the time and trouble to realign the wheels. Electrical has standard previous-owner adjustments. Looks like someone added a radio in the past. Ferrari badges mounted through the metal on the rear. Seems everyone did this during the 1970s. Kind of makes it a period car. Wouldnt bother removing them unless you paint it for some other reason. A/C needs to be charged, or perhaps the fan belt is slipping. Original steering wheel and clock are in someones collection. Not yours. Alternator is working great and ammeter shows good charge and discharge. Clutch cable needs a drop of oil. It clicks owing to a twist at the pedal end. First add oil, clutch cable not to big a deal to replace if necessary. Drive it for a while and see. ........ The above is just for fun. I can't tell you how many times each day I kick myself for not having purchased a Daytona several years ago. I came up with a whole bunch of reasons not to buy it. The simple fact is that if you are looking for a reason not to buy, you can find them. If you are looking to buy, you will see past these issues. In the grand scheme of things, a few thousand dollars here or there or the equivalent in needed work will amount to a hill of beans as these car rise in value. My thoughts. Jim S.
Jim. I'm not going to pick apart your posting. Well, actually, yes I am. I drove this car, I had a mechanic spend quality time with it. I passed on this car for a reason, it's overpriced. The paint is about a year old, it should look good. Painting the wheels isn't gonna be cheap, and they look funny. BRIGHT SILVER isn't right on those wheels. Painting the top correctly is gonna cost some bucks, and I don't like the way they look with a matching color top. The owner had the opportunity to remove the badges when he repainted, he chose not to. It got painted, and then sat right back outside where it came from. The rest of the car is beat up. It's not really safe to drive. The brakes don't work properly. They stop the car if you use both feet on the pedal. They need to be worked on and probably need major attention. The car smells like an old car that has had very little use. Approximately 400 miles in the past several years. That's not 400 per year, that's 400 total. The interior is ratty. the seats are saggy, the leather is dry and coming apart at the seams. A good interior guy could put them back together, but that's not cheap. The door panels are torn up with large speakers hanging from them, I'd fix 'em just so I don't have to worry about them coming off while driving. THERE'S NO CARPET TO SPEAK OF IN THE CAR. Just a couple of floor mats over the remnants of carpeting underneath. the dash is in need of attention. A steering wheel and radio that are correct will set you back $2K, that's not small potatos either. The steering is stiff off center. The wheel is in the right place, the front end geometry is wrong. The gearbox is not "GOOD FOR A DINO" I own a dino with a good gearbox. This is not a gearbox that's destined for greatness. It's destined for repair work. The suspension is bad. Rides like a 70's Cadillac (that's an exageration, but it needs to be replaced, not driven on.) The car was SCARY to drive into a turn, scarier to drive out of, and I wasn't pushing the car at all. The valves were very noisy. That can be a VERY BIG DEAL. Almost all the other rubber in the car is disintegrating. Except for the windshield rubber, front and rear. A/C needs more than a charge. The fan doesn't run, the compressor doesn't turn, and getting it fixed is not a simple recharge. The "added radio" includes an amp that gets in the way of your feet when you drive it. It's mounted next to the accelerator pedal. The wiring was not just tweaked, it was jumped out of several circuits, and there were wires running everywhere. Clutch cable is a flat cable. They twist, it's a $300+ part, and takes some time to replace. A "drop of oil" and hope you don't get stranded is not a fix, unless you carry wheel ramps and a spare cable with you on the road. Oh, and NO BOOKS, NO TOOLS, NO SERVICE RECORDS except for the last 18 months. Books and tools are now in the $15K range. Not a small expense. If a two hour PPI turned up this many issues, imagine what you're going to find when you take the car apart more carefully. Or drive it for more than the 50 miles a year it's been driven. My point was that to pay market plus for a car with a lot of issues is crazy. This is not a driver car that needs a little tweaking to be a nice driver car. IT'S NOT IN SAFE DRIVEABLE CONDITION, and will need major work to get there. There's no such thing as a minor repair on a Dino like this. As some of the folks here know, I am in the market to buy a GTS. I'm looking for one for me, and/or a good friend who is a serious collector who owns his own shop. Even after we looked at his cost for many of the repairs, we passed on this particular car. He's not afraid to pony up $115-$125K for the right car, but he and I both don't want to spend more than market for a car. In this case, significantly more. Still want to pay $95K for it? Someone will, but it won't be me. The point of my post is the listing is wrong, beyond what I would consider a normal "Buyer beware" situation. DM
Dave - Sorry for poking fun, although it was not directed at you, but at the concept that I see frequently on F-chat. As you know (owning a Dino), these cars are often 30+ years old. I read about compression tests and ratty seats, but to this observer these are to be expected. Furthermore, I find these defects the "fun" part of owning the cars. The challenge, for me, is to find a car at market price and fix it to my satisfaction. I have yet to find a car that someone else has fixed to my satisfaction. Thus, when I look at a car, I expect to find defects associated with 30 years of use, misuse, or non-use. This is not surprise. One can always find a reason to buy or not to buy. Again, not poked at you, but sorry that it was received that way. Jim S.
Just out of curiosity, are you buying now because you think these cars are going to continue climbing?
I'm in the market because I'd like to add a GTS if I can, to what I own. I've NEVER BOUGHT A CAR AS AN INVESTMENT. It just isn't a good way for me to make money. I would like to get one before they start to top $150K, which is where I think they'll be in 18-24 months. So, I guess the answer is yes, I think they'll keep going up. In the medium term, no, I don't think they will top $150K, but, I also think if they slip, they don't have far to fall. So the current market looks like a good time to buy. Dave
Correct. THe key ingredient is "Market price". This one wasn't, and yet, some unsuspecting guy is gonna buy this car, sight unseen, based on a misleading listing on the internet. As there are some guys here that are in the market, I thought I'd toss out a heads up. Understand you were poking in general, I just didn't want anyone getting the wrong idea about this car. DM
and "flagging" this one... Dino's are "tough" to buy, since the really good restored ones are top of market price and since the Dino's are old and had a really low build quality to start with and the event the current market "bottom" price is high..the market seems to attract a lot of "bad" or costly to "bring up to std"... cars. I have been looking and it is scary what is out there at 355 prices..nice cosmetics..but many or all bondo and are rusted away underneath....! I know the "market" is supposed to adjust to all of this but only if the "market" has the correct info onthe cars which is why this thread is useful.
Sold to a guy who's not going to be too pleasantly surprised when he takes his "driver condition" Dino out for a spin. Hopefully, he won't push too hard, or it will be a short spin. DM
