I have been lurking here for a little while, and have been shopping for a Ferrari since I was 12. It's finally time to buy. I have looked at a few 348s and found one that looks good. Everything works, books, records, tools, etc. The only thing I am concerned about is the gearbox. A shop owner warned me about the issue of weak dropgears which I did realize was that big of a deal with these cars. The question- Is it worth the time and money to pull the plate off the gearbox and inspect the gears during a PPI? Is that even possible in the first place without dropping the whole gearbox out? It's a '90, red/tan, 28k miles, with 2 year old major service. The price hasn't been fully sorted out but I think it will be around $49k, which I think is reasonable. Hopefully all will be well, I am looking forward to fulfilling an almost lifelong dream! Thanks to The Brotherhood for all the knowledge in finding the right one.
348's built before 1993 may have weak bearings in the tranny (though there is some debate about assembly torque/locktite being the cause of tranny failure instead). I'm not sure that there is any viable way to check for bad bearings other than the obvious: proactively drain the tranny gear oil to inspect for shrapnel...or reactively wait until you hear the tranny whine while driving. Apparently the potentially problematic tranny bearings are not in a location that can be viewed with a flexible borescope. I'd advise that with a well-running 348, your biggest potential pitfall will be avoiding "duplicate" titles, salvage titles, titles not in the Seller's name, etc. $50 for a clear title guarantee via autocheck.com is smart money there in my opinion. See www.club348.com for more. They are GREAT cars! The engine management system alone (Motronic 2.7) on the newer 348's is what was used in the F50 supercar.
Having just bought a 348 myself, one word of advice. Keep $10K in the bank regardless of what you buy. Always expect the unexpected. Don't get me wrong, they're great cars. They do need TLC to remain great. Buy the best example you can find. Cheers.
Your not wrong My clutch pressure plate failed just a few months into my ownership, got a quote for AUD$6K for a genuine clutch kit from Ferrari, ended up getting a friend from the AUST Forum Section 'Ferrarifixer' to make me a race clutch version for half the price http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=93933 http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=86136
I guess I should feel "lucky"? I bought my 348 Spider, put 2,000 miles on it with no problems? (I had the cat lights come on the first week, but that seemed to be due to lack of exercise because it never happened again)
True, NOT! What kind of discount would you expect for a car needing service in say 2 years? Do the next service yourself. You have plenty of time to learn about the car and get set up for it. The price seems okay to me if the car is in excellent condition. Service history is important as well as overall condition. Don't worry about how old / new the car is, focus more on the condition of that particular car. I had a few electrical problems and A/C problems when I first got my car, but about $3k later all is good, and has remained good for about two years. Defintely get the car checked out (even though I did not) for better peace of mind. BT
I think the advise about making sure the car has a clean history is great advise. As for value? buy the BEST car you can ...NOT the cheapest price. I did the FIRST service on my 348ts ..at 13 years and 9800 miles. Cam belt was like new / kept it ... not a crack in it. What went bad was the water pump and timing BEARING. Which was a defect in earlier f-car and fixed in later cars. I have no intention on doing belt again for at least 10 more miles, which took the previous owner 13 years to get to. What I will do is change oil more often. Its funny ... f-car owners will consider buying a muffler for 3k ... but the vehicle they put it on they don't want to pay a lot of money for.... Us owners can keep the values up if we don't keep knocking them down. IMO My car is now 17 years old. It has been as reliable as my daily driver...and I use it very little ....so that is really saying something.
