360 Mileage depreciation

Too many owners that do not have the time to drive their cars enough due to other priorities. As a result there are many low mileage cars available for sale and not too much premium.

 

I suspect there may be two main things at play here.
1) "collect-ability". Many people associate collect-ability with ANY F-car, and so they find additional miles detracting from that. I find this a bit odd, unless you have an example with fewer than 1000 miles or so, in absolute perfect, better-than-when-it-arrived condition. Even then: Only the right car (something with low production numbers or very unique provenance) should be valued that way. The Porsche community doesn't seem to suffer from this same myopia, as I see very little premium for low-mileage examples compared to others. I saw a comment the other day that said in the F430 market, you deduct $2/mile to valuate a car. That's just INSANE, yet seems to be quite accurate.

2) Vestiges, or genetic memory of extreme maintenance costs. Talk to any uninitiated, or newly-initiated and invariably you'll hear a comment surface regarding the cost of maintenance. Everyone has heard stories of $20,000 engine-out-annuals, or $15,000 clutch jobs. We've also all heard about the guy who spent more in his first year of used-Ferrari-ownership on maintenance than he paid for his car. People (particularly those with little mechanical knowledge or ability) incorrectly assume that a low-mileage example will cost them less than one with higher mileage. In fact the opposite may actually be true. In my case, I purchased my 13-yr-old F430 with 42k miles on it, so "fully-depreciated", haha. But I have a full, comprehensive maintenance history with the car which indicates that because the car was driven regularly, all of the issues were taken-care-of quickly and correctly. If I go back 6 years and 26,000 miles, there's a combined total of $48k in maintenance done on the car. That's $8k/yr or $1.84/mile. Those are costs which shouldn't need to be done again for a long time, or never. (Things like cracked exhaust headers, for instance).

Ultimately, My friend Larry H. Miller (some may recognize the name from his extensive collection of very rare & exotic cars) used to tell me that "if ya don't drive it, it ain't a car". I can't imagine Enzo would've been too keen on seeing one of his cars sitting on a marble floor taking-up space and collecting dust.

Anyone who has ever driven one should know they belong on the road.

 

The educated buyer buys on condition rather than how many miles have been traversed. With proper care, a 100K mile 360 can be a show winner.

Once a 360 reaches 30K miles, depreciation flattens and doesn’t decline in any meaningful way.

 

Well said. I would add that, for me when I was shopping, it can be an issue of cosmetics. Leather wear, scrapes and bruises on the body, and an unsightly engine compartment can all be what a lot of folks object to with a higher mileage Ferrari. But with that said I looked a one 360 3 pedal with less than the 25,000 mile threshold that was a "rat". Completely un-cared for.
As it has been said over and over again; It's the records. It's the proper upkeep-- not so much the odometer.

I also think that you are correct in that most folks are all thinking of the horror stories they heard years ago about the finicky, temperamental, engines that need to come out for even the simplest of maintenance (as I still get asked this at the local Cars & Coffee get togethers). When in fact, the 360 and 430 have completely moved on into a new era of reliability. And the cost of maintenance for an "exotic" Ferrari is not a whole lot more than that of a new decked out F-150 out of warranty-- and probably would shock a lot of folks to see the bill for a major repair to what they consider their daily driver.

Anyone who cares to search will find there are plenty of 360's and 430"s that are in remarkably nice condition, running strong, and showing over 50K (properly maintained) miles.
But for most, that "resale" issue is something that always creeps into their thinking. Always worrying about what they can sell their car for "if and when" is what seems to rob them of actually enjoying what they have by simply driving the damn car!

 

Good points. And even if you have a 2000 360 with 50K miles, that’s still incredibly low miles. About 7 miles per day - not much driving!

 

Exactly. Which is why I think the cosmetic thing is more of a buyer's concern.

 

Yup. And to add, one has to think about these consignment cars that sit and sit for months and sometimes years with no miles accrued, or very few miles added while they wait for a new owner. Personally I shied away from any 360 with less than 10K miles on the clock.

 

48k miles on mine right now and it's running great.

High mileage is always 25k more than whatever you have

 

Ain't THAT the truth? My daily is a JEEP Grand Cherokee Overland Summit. I've spent over $7k on the Air-Ride in the last 10 months. It's a killer.