Question about maintaining your own car

If you do most of the maintenance on your Ferrari, wouldn't it be harder to sell it afterwards considering that buyers always look for maintenance records from certified Ferrari mechanics?

 

Good question, fyi: i bought mine from a mechanic who owned it for 10 years an told me what I needed, had no issues with getting a few other people to view the car and they said the same thing as the owner. Had the car 5 yrs now and never regretted it. I would buy that way again. I personally have all the bills of oil and other parts not sure why, I will never sell, I will add instead. Im sure most on this board feel the same.

 

I service my Ferraris, and find that I do a better job than the dealer!!!!!!!! When I sell a car, I avoid those buyers interested in only dealer work..........I think they are envious of the money I saved.......and the money they will have to spend!!!! Those that do buy, appreciate the fact that I can walk them through any system on the car, and tell them what still needs to be done, if anything. Of course,working on my Ferraris is one of my main hobbies.

My current 88TR was bought from someone who had EVERYTHING on the car, serviced by a dealer, for 10 years. I found panel screws missing, the oil drain plug to be stripped and barely holding..........when I did the FIRST oil change.

I would not own ANY Ferrari, if I had to take to the dealer every time.........a total waste of money, IMO. Maybe that is why people don't drive them that much. I just put 1500 miles on my Boxer, in the last 2 weeks. This was right after rebuilding my distributor. It was totally "frozen", and I needed to machine two bushings for it...........another hobby!!!!!!!!

 

I would never buy a used sports car of significant value which had not been serviced exclusively by dealers or reputable shops. Especially a Ferrari. And especially a late model Ferrari with all the computerization.

And that includes oil changes. There's a hair-raising account in the Technical section about some DIYer sucking out the oil from his 360 Challenge car while the engine was still running. It's scary.

If you want to work on your Ferrari, fine. But just don't expect to get top-dollar for it when you sell it!

 

QUOTE: "And that includes oil changes. There's a hair-raising account in the Technical section about some DIYer sucking out the oil from his 360 Challenge car while the engine was still running. It's scary."

I agree. However, I don't know ANYONE who would do this..........and never heard of this is all my years of owning cars. This has to be a first!!!!!!!! This is a 360 owner, who is just starting to learn how to work on these cars. This is NOT the car to start learning on. Maybe he paid everything he had, to buy the car, and now can't afford to have it serviced properly.........a VERY common thing seen with Ferrari owners.

 

i keep records, a journal on the car, and take MANY pics before during and after. for me its practice for when i get the DREAM ferrari later. my 308 will never be worth a bunch, but i have loved learning from HER.
i would agree that the newer cars may be above almost all home mechanics, but for me its a non issue with an older one.

 

QUOTE: "i would agree that the newer cars may be above almost all home mechanics, but for me its a non issue with an older one."

My first Ferrari was a 308, and it was an easy car to work on. I will not own ANY Ferrari, after 1995. This is due to the fact that too many things are electronically controlled, and one has NO access to the computer system needed to fix these things........one needs a computer to adjust the clutch!!!!!!!!!!!!..........forget it!!!!!!!!! Once the warranty is out, and cars have the mileage on them, where they will need repairs, I predict the newer cars to take a very large plunge in re-sale value. Just my opinion.

 

See, that's the way to do it... Get yourself a nice 308 or E-Type and use it to satisfy your mechanical hobby, with no plan to ever sell it. Keeping those Webers adjusted will keep you challenged for years!

Wish I had a bigger garage...

 

I learned to work on my E-types years ago when I found that the so-called "experts" didn't know what the hell they were doing, and managed to screw up everything they touched. Doing the work myself had been very satisfying and a lot of fun. Saving a few bucks was a side benefit. Most importantly, when I drive the cars, I know that if I break down somewhere, I can probably fix it and get home on my own, rather than watching it go off on a flatbed.

I intend to work on my new F-toy, if I can ever locate the manuals to get a little guidance on how this thing is put together (plus buying a bunch more metric tools). Maybe if I bought one new, I'd worry about resale. But I bought this car for fun and intend to enjoy it. Resale is secondary, but I do intend to document everything I do to satisfy those who worry more about "records" than they do about the quality of the work.

Steve W.

 

Franco,

I would think it wouldn't help. Your market is going to be reduced by the amount of people that will be turned off by not seeing dealer records. That said, harder doesn't mean you won't get a fair price for it. If you keep good records, picts, etc..... they can have a PPI done on the car and verify it is a good car.

I try to keep all the records and I don't intend to ever sell it.

 

I believe it's subjective. If you visit a prospective purchase car and the owner states he has done much of the service, you should be able to tell if he posesses the savvy to do such. If he documents his oil changes with receipts, thats OK. If the guy is an accountant and states he did his own valve adjustments, top-end and trany rebuild and major services, that should raise a big red flag.

 

I think for the older cars, it doesn't really matter. The older machines are usually worked on by independants anyway, mostly becuase the Ferrari dealer does not have the staff to work on the older carb cars. You guys have to remember that most of the guys working at F dealers were barely alive when carb cars were running around. And they guys that did know the older cars, most have either retired or opened their own shop and service the older cars.

For the newer stuf..yes I belive the dealer service records does have a big affect on resale, but it also will have a big effect on you wallet. So in the end I really don't see the car being worth anymore when you consider the amount of money you have spent to get that extra 5-10k, on the asking price becuase of the dealer service. You have more then likely spent that amount or more just in service costs....so where is the gain?

 

Cool! I'm sure you've made your share of learning-curve mistakes. So it must be quite a kick to drive your E-types when everything is working just right!

Is it hard to find parts and technical info?

 

I bought my 308 from a gentleman who did all his own work. I felt much more comfortable purchasing from him than a dealer. He had a lift in his 6 car, tiled garage. The Ferrari was next to the show quality street rod he built from the ground up, on the other side was the Cobra he built. The car was much cleaner and well cared for than if someone had to come up with the coin to pay for all the work that had been done.

If you can trust the person doing the work (as I did), you'll get a better car than if it was dealer serviced. Just my 2 cents.

 

I do most of the work on my Ferrari as well as the rest of my fleet. The only job I did not tackle was the timing belts, this was for a couple of reasons, I was short of time and it looks a ***** of a job. It was cheaper on my Fcar than my friends Audi by the way.
I agree that the newer cars will need much more specialised equipment and that would probably put me off buying a newer car.
My Mondial has had quite a few owners and the standard of some of the work is very poor although the history shows that it did go to specialists. My guess is that people buy them and do not realise the cost of parts etc and try to cut corners. It has taken me a couple of years to sort out most of the problems, although most of it was detailing, like one member wrote, screws and clips missing.
In the main the older cars are fairly easy to maintain on a day to day basis.

 

I would definitily answer yes for a newer car, say upto seven-ten years old
but after that most buyers are on some kind of budget and probably do some of the maintanance themselves.
Even if you buy an older car, I think you should do a PPI at a Ferrari specialist to see that the work has been done to standard.

/Peter

 

I'd think it wouldn't be a huge factor, by itself.

There are those who won't consider a car that has "DIY" service records, instead of dealer invoices.

... but those buyers are looking for cars that only have 200 miles on them.

 

Sounds like a great plan

As for DIY versus a proper shop... What matters is a qualified mechanic, not exclusively found at a dealer of course. They say no one works more carefully then the joyous owner and this is a good thing. When others work on the car, it is not their personal investment/joy. While the 308 here has been serviced by various people during her life, it amazed me the mismatch of nuts, bolts, etc on her in some places. i dare not go into details of just the cost of bolts that have been replaced so they are all new and matching.

While the previous owner did some very impressive work, my personal care has brought her up to ever higher standards far beyond that of dealer servicing.

 

Here's a good thread to ask this in: Self-servicers, how do you keep your receipts? I have a big pile building up right now, but would like a good way to keep them in chronological order. Of course, they're all different sizes & shapes. What do people do?

 

You can scotch tape them to "carrier" sheets from a yellow pad, preserving chronology if you like. You can fold larger receipts in half print side out and tape them to the carrier too. This way you end up with a manageable stack of yellow pad sized sheets which you can stick in a folder.

A couple of tiny strips of tape is all you need for each receipt. Of course, if you ever need to look at the back of a receipt, you'll have to cut through the tape strips to get it off the carrier and re-tape it later.

 

Three ring binder(s), hole punched, folded up, and in chronological order.
I keep receipts for parts bought, not oil cases bought (as I have too many cars).

 

If you buy a car that has built-in proprietary software controlling every facet of the car that only the dealer has access to is not anyone's problem but the person who bought it. I will never own a late model F-car or any other car for that matter. Dealers are getting very smart in designing against the DIY'er. That guarantees them service revenue and the power to gouge customers.

Not me.

 

Actually, I started working on cars when I was about 13 years old. A friend's father was a mechanical engineer and an auto tech, and he taught my friend and I to do everything from oil changes to engine rebuilds. I ended up going to law school, but I've always worked on my cars for fun. Compared to more modern cars, the old Jags are a breeze. Fortunately, not too many learning curve mistakes. Usually, finding the right tool is the hard part (Jag had this penchant for using Whitworth sized bolts in the most awkward of places).

Compared to what I'm seeing with the Ferraris, technical information, manuals and feedback are easy to come by for the Jags. And parts are readily available and, by comparison, reasonably priced. Plenty of suppliers of both new and used parts. I have an '84 Mondial QV now, and I'm pulling my hair out trying to find a shop manual, parts manual and a source for decently priced parts, new and used.

Regards,
Steve W.

 

I think you need to qualify this statement with "from me". Please don't include me in your universal statements, it's just nonsense. There are plenty of qualified people who work on their cars and feel it's part of the passion.

PS: I and many here have had less than satisfactory results from work done by authorized dealers.

 

Ditto, keep detailed records and receipts.