New to the site please advise on this car

Hi all am new to the site and would like your help and advise in with a 348 I have looked at today.

Ok it is a 348 TS 1991 LHD with 50,000 miles on the clock and is damaged to the rear bumper, rear light and a crease in the rear quarter. The car is up for £17k and on the Hpi it is not recorded. The overall condition of the car is OK say 6 out of 10 but it is showing signs of wear and tear here and there (see list).

Problems I can see
1 no service history with the car previous owner not know (Car being sold by a dealer)
2 Window buttons in drivers door hanging off
3 Drivers interior panel lose or flapping
4 Front bumper has scrape marks on the corners and where the number plate fits
5 No tool kit
6 Crack in driver’s door louvers and maybe rubber seal worn?? (Can see rubber exposed on the horizontal bars)
7 Roof centre section may be leaking (water on the passenger seat)
8 Front of side lower side skirt has a split on it where it wraps around the front inner wheel arch.


MY plan is to buy it a repair it and spend some time and money to bring it up to A1 condition and do all the service work myself.

As this will be my 1st F car I know i have started at the lower end of the scale but my way of thinking is this at £17k I can afford to spend £4-5 k on it and end up with a car I know inside and out if you get my drift. I could spend say £30k on a 348 or say £45k on a 355 and be frightened that I would devalue the car buy servicing/ repairing it myself. I have wanted a F car since I was around 5 and now and said by the time I was 30 I would have one! I am now 32, I have had opportunities before to become an F car owner but have always reinvested my money into my business or property. With this car I can afford to buy it out of my own pocket and it will get me on the Ferrari owners ladder.

What I would like your Feed back on is
1What are parts like to get for these cars
2 Do you think is worth the money (not really a issue but would like your view)
3 Are the above problems normal for this age/ mileage of car?
4 When I go back on Monday to have another look what should I look for?

Regards Paul Vetere

PS i have Attached some photos i took on my camra phone.
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Paul m8 dont do it ,find yourself a car that has full history and at least looks like its been cared for From the list i think you know yourself it aint good You can get an honest l/h drive car for around £20 grand this will end in tears I dont know where you live but you sure do need somebody to look at for you Karl Verdi is a good guy By the way the wheels are handed and that front ones wrong (put on list) I have one and they aint cheap to look after properly

RAY360M

 

Paul

Firstly welcome to Fchat.

At the risk of putting a downer on your dreams I think there are 2 things you seriously need to consider;

1. If the car has been this badly treated on the surface, how neglected has the servicing etc been on all the things you can't see?

2. Which leads on to the complete lack of history on the car. There are plenty of more experienced Fcar owners on this forum who wouldn't touch with a barge pole an Fcar without any history whatsoever.

If you are still hankering after this car I seriously suggest you get a very thorough PPI done by one of the Ferrari specialists in your neck of the woods.

Cheers Kevan

 

Paul

Ray who has posted above is one of the most respected members of this forum.

His 348 is that good he keeps it behind a glass panel in his front room - seriously.

Unfortunately all Rays old pics of his car have been lost when we had some server problems on Fchat a little while ago - but I'm sure if we ask him nicely he will post some pics of his concours winning beauty.

So do as I am still doing - listen and learn. You have done the right thing by asking before buying, now heed the advice.

Sorry if it sounds a bit 'heavy' - but I'd hate to see someones first experience of these great cars ruined.

Kevan

 

paul take rays advice, if he dont know it aint worth knowing, ray has the best 348 in the country (multiple concours wins) and if he advises against buying dont buy.

keep us up to date with yer progress

 

Thanks Ray and Kevan for your Reply

I know the car has been used or maybe treted bad but i am a bit of a nit picking person and i think that for £17k you will have these sort of problems.

I have been looking at 348 prices for some months / years and i canot find a 348 for less that £24k

Hollingworth at Ombersley has a Ferrari 348 TB LHD
1991 H, 3 Owners, 59000 Km, Rosso Red with Nero Hide, Air Conditioning, CD Player, Cat 1 Alarm, Cam Belts and Service March 04, Lovely Clean Example, Priced to Sell

£24,995.00

Or Verdi
Ferrari 348 TS/Red/Black/LHD 1992(K) £27,275


67,000kms, Red with black hide & black carpets, FSH, Left hand drive, Clifford alarm, Tubi cat pipes, comes fully cambelted & serviced by us on purchase, one of the cleanest 348's around, MOT till March 05, massive history, pristine condition....

I do take onboad what you guy say and a i am truly thankfull for you taking the time to respone to me, but do you think the car is worth £17K ?? as it is And i can spen the next 12 months working my way though the car You see that is what i like doing working on my cars to make things better bringing cars back up to scratch and if spent say £30 k on a good one i would still find somthing to do to it!!

 

Ray your car must be very nice any chance of some photos ?
Did you buy your 348 in concours condtion ? or did you bring it up to that condtion?

 

I wouldn't touch it with a barge pole.

I think your budget of £4 -£5k is on the low side to get this car in tip top condition bearing in mind the panel damage.

The one priced at £25k seems much better value. You're thinking of spending £21 - 22k on a car that has been clearly neglected and it suddenly seems like a poor deal when you can get what you say is a nice car with a history for only a few grand more

Have you considered what else might be wrong with it that you can't see or how you're going to feel if your repair bill is more than you've estimated?

You only buy your first Ferrari once, get something that won't spoil that moment.

 

Listen to what the guys are telling you.You will more than likely be spending alot more thatn 4-5k in doing the car up. The last thing you want to find out is that you have spent 10-15k repairing it when you could have a well sorted car for the overall amount that you have spent.

You will be a big fool if you do buy it.
Daz

 

Paul

Some wise words have been spoken.Think of this:-
2 cars 1 @ 17K and 1 @ £25K,if you spent the £8K difference on the £17K car could you turn it into the £25K car.The answer would be NO,and even if you could that car would still have a questionable history.

Steve

 

DON'T DO IT!!!!!!!!

Everything that the fellers have told you is very true mate.

This is NOT an "MGB" your talking about It'll end in tears and you'll more than likely run out of money before youv'e got it finished.

Best thing to do is buy the £25 grand one.

Best of Luck whatever you do mate.

 

Welcome Paul a man from the west midlands that must be three or four now on f-chat,

Dale.

 

Paul,
It's all been said already. I just wanted to add (as I love Fcars, and my first was a 348) that I'd hate your dream of Fcar ownership and enjoyment to be shattered by buying anything that turns out to be a pig or give you problems.
Whatever you decide - good luck and welcome.
J.

 

Hi all just come back from a very nice meal with the family. 1st let me that you all for your coments and for your warm welcome on here.

I have took on boad what has been said and will be looking at a 348 at around the £25-27k mark to see what they are like. The problem is i have always had nice clean cars and always renewed things that look worn or tatty so i don't want to look and a £25k car and think i will have to spend money on replacing items to bring it up to my spec if you get my drift.

My love for F cars has drove me to buy all the Brochures and videos on the 348 and in 2002 i drove to to the Ferrari museum in italy to go and look at a 348 but they did not have one there!! and today is the 1st time that i have seen one in the flesh and i liked what i saw and i also did not find the seating or the pedels to be a problem.

If any one knows of a nice 348 let me know

Regard Paul V

 

Hi Paul,

Welcome to f-chat. I have been at Verdi's today and noticed that they have two black 348's that might interest you.

Carl's a good guy, you have to keep on top of him but if you buy from him you'll be getting a good, sorted car.

http://www.verdiferrari.biz


Regards

Stewart

 

Hi Paul here are some picsof mycar Also if that 348 has done 50,000 MLS how many did itdo on its original kilometer speedo? I bought the car new in 1990 it has done 28,000 mls been on most tracks and raced in the PMFC challenge twice and is better now than when i bought .Before anybody thinks i spent a fortune on it ,no its just regular looking after and EFFORT

RAY360M
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Paul - welcome to the board first up.

Second, you'd be very seriously advised to listen to everyone's advice here.

It's not really what you would do with the car that counts, unless you can categorically say you'll be keeping it for a long time.

When you come to rsell, it's poor history is going to do you no favours at all. You'll get nailed on price and may not even be able to shift it. 348s aren't that rare yet, and prices are hardly in the stratosphere.

"Buy the best you can afford" never applied to a car so much as on these.

 

Paul

To answer your question, the car isnt worh £17k, 14 or 15 possibly, my guess is the car will end up being tarted up by a non specialist trader and sold on for £20k by that dealer, who isnt going to drive the car at all, ignoring the bodywork issues I think you'll find that after a couple of thousand miles with this car you WILL have at least one or two major mechanical issues, if the car is near you you could do a lot worse by asking Dale to PPI it

 

Paul,welcome My advice like the rest is DO NOT TOUCH this car.

 

And as its in this weeks autotrader in the salvage section for £16995 the salvage yard would probabley take £16k if not less when they've had it lying around for a couple of months

 

Thank you for the photos Ray very nice they are to. I think i will pass on this one and look for one better on the advise of pepole on here. Can any one give me some links to F car dealers here is the ones i alredy have

Verdi
Meridien
Hollingworth at Ombersley
Talacrest
Foskers
Kent High Performance Cars
Rosso Corsa

Yours Paul V

 

Welcome. Already been said many times but don't do it. You are very likely to end up spending way in excess of what a good honest car will cost you from the off, but will have major resale issues due to the lack of history (current and ongoing if you are doing the work yourself).

Plus why buy the car and not be able to enjoy driving it properly for the first few months of ownership.

 

Paul,

If my geographies right, try Nick Cartwright Specialist cars in Derby, he isn't that far from you. They recieve good comments on here. Tommo348 bought his from there and has nothing but praise for them. I've seen his car and its a beauty.
Do as the rest say on here, buy from someone who knows about the marque.

 

paul there all in this thread & more

http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=12393&highlight=specialists

 

What these guys say is totally correct.

Don't fool yourself - your not really achieving your goal. I had exactly the same goal (i think it's quite a common one) and for the sake of waiting another couple of years you will achieve your goal in style. I had to wait until 34 - but is has been worth it - and if anything, it made me even more aggressive in business and I made even more profit - double whamee!!

One thing i would also say - buying the car is one thing - running it is another. Make sure you can afford to keep hold of your achievement - nothing would be worse than having to sell it 6 months later because it was stretching you financially. You need to put a good sum to one side and forget about it.

I recently did a damaged repairable bmw myself - thought i was going to earn a couple of grand - i ended up losing £600 and could only sell the car on ebay because no garage would buy it and there was no interest from the classifieds. Common sense should have told me that if there was money to be earnt in repairing the car the dealer would have done it. Selling a car like this would be nigh on impossible.

Ps. The weird thing when you eventually do get your ferrari is the goal thing. I lived with the 'goal' for 16 years, eventually achieved it, and thought s**t, what now! A speed boat, a private jet, a swiss opear? Think i might work for helicopter by the time i'm 40. Watch this space!!! My wife will be soooo pleased (6 years of 'helicopter weekly' mounting up in the lounge)!