I really need help on this before I finalize the purchase!

Other than the previous owner must have used this car to learn a stick shift (clutch replacement at 12k miles?) it seems like a nice car.

Norwood has a great reputation, by the way.

Hopefully the 355 guys will chime in.

ZFFXR48A7X0113304

http://www.carfax.com/VehicleHistory/p/Report.cfx?partner=UCL_0&vin=ZFFXR48A7X0113304&source=CFX

 

Here's last November's ebay ad

1999 Ferrari 355 F1 Spider Silver Black Leather Only 12K Miles | eBay

"This 1999 Ferrari 355 F1 Spider #113304 was sold new on August 29, 1998 by Ferrari of Houston to its first owner here in Houston, TX."

"Its first timing belt service was performed by Ferrari in January of 2007 at 9,824 miles."

So there's your service history if you include the recent one as well.

 

I buy to drive and enjoy, not an investor in cars at all. So I really can't help you with that.

 

Needing a new fly wheel? That seems odd for a car with 12k miles. Ouch on that price too. Nice of them to include the Stroke @ $95 for the previous owner!

Great that all that service is fresh done. Lots of good boxes checked in that $24,000 service. Pretty car.

Now for some observations.....

Looks like from the photos it was missing the metal passenger side engine bay cover. That covers the passenger side rear shock and has the emissions decal on it. Mirror of the one on the driver's side of the engine bay.

Tires have been replaced all around from new. Bridgestone Expedia were OEM and now discontinued. Check date code.

I don't think the interior plastics have been done yet. They do look in fairly decent shape from those pictures, with the exception of the air conditioning overlay. They will all need done. Looks like they already sprayed the paddles and did a poor job on the UP and DOWN painting. Also the gear selection gauge needs repaired....burned out segment in the 'N'.

Comparing the ebay pics to the new dealership pics, I don't see the tool kit in the dealership photos and it was there in the earlier ebay photos. And now, the passenger side headlight is not closing completely in the new photos. Need to insure that the cover, cover bag, owner's manuals and pouch, complete tool kit, floor mats, and tire inflator are all there.

As the new owner, you can get a copy of the previous repairs if you know the dealer it was taken to. Norwood is good for a PPI. I would recommend one if you are in the 70K range for this car. I don't see a value concern going forward.

Plastic refinishing is around $3000 if you use one of the services. It can be done DIY if you are competent with paint work.

The car is probably on its initial headers. Those could be leaking. That's $2500 in parts if you have to go down that road. A good PPI will find those issues and do a compression and leak down test. The headers will need to be done at some point.

Ah....you can change the radio backlight from orange to green like the rest of the car by holding SEL and then press 1. That annoyed me on mine!

Looks like a decent example with the typical issues. Get a PPI.

A few more thoughts....does the top go up and down like its supposed to? The key pictured is a replacement. Does it have the original keys? Does it have the three fobs to disable the alarm (two black and a red)? Does it have the code for the alarm? Is the top boot with the car?

 

The best way to preserve resale value is to leave it in the garage and polish it weekly. Annual belt services also preserve resale value.
Above all, don't drive it.
Failure to observe any of those items will harm resale value.
If you decide to enjoy the other aspects of ownership, we'll see you around on the local roads or at a Stooge-in! Welcome to ownership!

 

I am no expert when it comes to purchasing used Ferraris, but I would not forego a PPI no matter what services were recently completed. Just my opinion, but I'd rather spend the 200 or 300 bucks on a PPI than buy the car and find out it had compression issues or some other problem that was going to cost me a mint.

 

It comes with some papers? And 25K in service from last month? What are you waiting for?

 

Fyi The up/down on f1 paddles is not painted.

 

On the tires, what ever they are just make sure to look at the date code. Some very strange people will own these cars and not drive them so you might get a car that looks like the tires have a ton of tread left but the tires were made 10 years ago. 10 years old is the super max to me that I would think about driving any type of car on.

Having all the fobs and the PIN code is a luxury with these cars, very few of us have them. If you limit your search to cars that have all of it then you are going to make yourself a very small pool of cars to choose from. It's something we all struggle with a bit. It can be very expensive to sort out if you insist on having the whole setup. There have been people spend the money and then not be able to make it work too so its not a guarantee you can even get it all working with your car.

If it only has one fob research the cloned fob from guys like user name Gobble. Do a search and you will find pages and pages of info. If it has two fobs consider yourself lucky.

 

Right, from what I've seem of the 360 ones it is engraved through the paint and the aluminum shows through. Probably very hard to get to look right again if you do your stickies and repaint them yourself.

 

Great post John M!

Steven- search user name Gobble- he can help with the key fobs- and if you have the code with the paperwork that helps! I had only the red fob and code, and he cloned a black fob for me (meaning if I don't use it for a while I have to hit the button a bunch of times to re-synch it with the car). I may sent it back to him because I think he can now recalibrate my black fob so it's not a clone but a true second fob that doesn't need to be re-synched between uses. If that sounds a bit confusing, just search his name and you'll understand how these things work

 

If you're not buying for resale don't worry about it. Even if you do decide to sell at one point, the fact that the car has such a recent and BIG invoice shows it was taken care of. One can slightly assume that if the car needed anything else it would have been taken care of. That is an assumption though so a PPI would help there.

I'm still hurting from just looking at that invoice total...

 

Yeah, over $10,000 for clutch replacement? Holy crap. 5 grand for a new flywheel? How often does a flywheel really need to be replaced? Even if it did you could have found a perfectly good used one and had it resurfaced ready to go and bought a new clutch and pressure plate and not had 1/4 that much money into it. Some people just love spending money.

 

Welcome. On the tires, probably one thing you don't have to worry about as they are not the originals and have been replaced. Just check the date codes to see how fresh they are.

Yes, you can replace all of them for around $700. Or get clones for around $250. Helps to have that code. The original keys...$450+ if you can find them. If they are missing, these are all negotiating points.

The community is a great resource. You will have plenty of support. Now get the PPI to understand this car's condition fully before laying the money on the line.

 

Someone must have drove the original clutch to complete failure and kept pressing the gas thinking it will go eventually. Perhaps it was the smoke that convinced them that logic was incorrect.

I bet that clutch light was flashing away and they were like, I can make it home in this stop and go traffic. Huge mistake. We had a local guy in his Alfa Spider try to make it a few miles to the assistance of his cars and coffee buddies with his low oil pressure light on. We all know how that turned out. Locked motor. Obviously, the last thing any of us want to do is pull over and wait on the side of the road for the tow truck in a Ferrari. This previous owner unfortunately learned a big lesson that is exactly what you should do when something goes south.

 

Hi there, when I purchased my spider i was able to track down the previous service paperwork from the shop that did the work, they were very accommodating so a quick call may give you what you need to piece together a history. I too was missing the cover in the engine bay so the dealer put one on that did not have the labels and was coated in a black textured paint. I ended up ordering one on eBay that is customized with plates riveted on to match the year. A quick search should provide you with this same seller as they are still active; I think it ran me about $250.

If you buy the car, you can either search eBay for the proper replacement or shoot me an IM and I will sell you the cover I have for a reasonable price.

Good luck, car looks nice.

 

24k $ for a major service seems ridiculously steep...someone overpaid for some bits.

 

It is steep, but there is an F1 Clutch job with Flywheel on top of the service. That alone is $12K. If the clutch was needed, and the flywheel too, then that is ... what it is.

 

I initially missed the part about the F1, is/was there a system failure that could cause premature clutch failure? I'm asking because I don't know.

 

Steven,
It looks like most of the heavy lifting has been done, but don't be shocked if you spend $5K in the next year getting it up to your personal standards. I've NEVER bought a used car that didn't need some help. Fobs: I went the "Specialized ECU" route and eliminated the need.

 

Go for it. Sticky Rx just did my paddles and they came back perfect. Laser engraved Up & Down.

These cars don't have to be expensive to maintain. You just can't go to the stealership and have to use the search button on this site. That said, it's not a Honda.

Don't fret....