Ownership and Maintenance??

Give me a break! Do your due diligence and you'll be fine. Assume nothing and you'll be fine.

When I did PPI's on the roughly two hundred cars that came though my shop in the last decade and a half, I saw a lot of crappy receipts from no-name independents and service stations (?!?), I saw pretty good receipts but only fair workmanship from many FNA dealers (some of which were no longer around) and same fantastic receipts from a VERY FEW recognized independents and EVEN FEWER FNA dealers.

You neglect to mention the fact that the prices fall normally over time. The newer the car is, the better people take care of them. Human nature. In the first decade, less than 20% of the cars are not maintained properly. In the second decade of ownership, the percentage roughly doubles, often due to sales to less "committed" owners.

As Dave Helms has said, people often sell cars needing service and that's no different from my experience over the last twenty-five years. Do your homework and don't buy a car you can't afford to fix and maintain! Screw the conspiracy theories!

 

Saw my fair share of fake Service Records over the years and I suspect it wont get any better. Watch the prices of the 355's and I bet you will see a change for the better. Last of the small, light, throw it around cars designed by a Coach Builder and not the wind tunnel. Each models has its own merits, it just looks like the 355 is the last of this type design.
Parts are a big problem and we are now changing what we do on Major Services in an effort to maintain items that before were simply replaced. Cant just follow the book anymore as labor and parts prices have now dictated the need for change. Never would have imagined there were so many uses for JB Weld as I have seen in the recient years.

Dave

 

I've seen the cost of parts coming down as aftermarket things are replacing the expensive items like cats and headers. Any item in demand will not sell for 50 times what it costs to produce them for very long. Of course I did pay $500 dollars for a piece of angled shaped metal that went inside my door handle. I figure it was about 3 dollars to make, but I was one of the unlucky few to break one.
I don't think there is anything to "WATCH OUT" for. If you can't afford to play go buy some other crap car.

 

How about plugging leaks in steel brake lines? I thought I'd seen everything when the same car ('64 Etype) had it covering (not very well) a crack in an external oil line.

You can't be too careful.

 

+1 for the Pininfarina 355!!!! some of the pricier things only need to be fixed once (aftermarket headers, valve guides, etc.)

 

OMG!

I've used JB Weld for a lot of things, but I think I'd stop short of using it for that!

 

I've not seen good condition 348's dropping in price......maybe a slight adjustment because the economy stinks but in general top quality cars are still going up in price..

 

I havent even seen a correction due to the economy. Top shelf cars of every model are still going up albeit it a bit more difficult to find these days.

Dave