Pre-owned. How many owners are too many?

Joe. If it looks nice, drives nice, and the PPI checks out alright, who cares how many owners. They aren’t driving it, YOU will be.

 

Yeah key is professional PPI and (if available) a review of the maintenance records, and if possible a conversation with 1-2 prior owners. Eight feels like a lot but many owners of occasional use cars run through a lot of them. Doing these things should provide reasonable assurance there isn't some underlying issue causing the sales. (Also, I have also seen Carfaxes that look like multiple owners when it is sometimes the same owner moving and re-registering in a new state.)

 

How does it look right now. Mine had like 6-8 owners 10 years ago, I still bought it and she's been PERFECT. You ask about the owners to get an idea about the condition of the car when you buy it... why not do a PPI before you buy it... to get an idea about the condition of the car?

 

Fewer is better but Ferrari owners tend to be a fickle lot and always looking to move on to another car. I did that myself in my early days of Ferrari ownership. Over time, I've kept them for longer periods. I would recommend doing as much research as possible to see if there are chronic issues but barring that, I wouldn't worry about it too much.

Dave

 

A lot of these cars had multiple (2-5) owners in their first couple of years. This was back in the days when a current model (or one iteration old) car in hand was worth significantly more than its MSRP. I would say that the import thing to look at is how many owners in the past 5 years.

 

Yes. This makes alot of sense.

 

Exactly.

 

Buy for condition and records.

 

Right, buy something special that has been well maintained. Number of owners really isn’t a worry. Was it a Vegas rental car? That would be more of a worry...

Robb

 

I like this for an approach....for a 25 year old car, maybe go back and look for 10 years of stable ownership. Another concern is miles over time. It could have had just 1 owner the last 10 years, but if he only drove it 1,000 miles during that period I would be concerned.

 

Gerald Rouse of Ferrari Market Letter fame used to say only three things mattered when buying a used Ferrari: (1) Condition, (2) Condition, and (3) Condition. What happened before was not relevant. His specific reference was to vintage Ferraris. If you're looking a 275 GTB, for example, what difference would it make if the car was previously crashed beyond recognition. All that matters today was how well the car was repaired.

I think the same holds true for newer Ferraris. I would only buy a "known car," where you know what has happened and what repairs have been done. Buying an unknown car is not for me.