Guys, I am living in Dubai and currently driving a 2004 Carrera 4S. I am considering to sell it and buy a red 1996 355 Spider. There is one available here at a cost around 40,000$. But negotiable... It's 32,000km. Imported from US. I saw the car, seems like ok, tires and brake pads were brand new. No scratch on the car, but I am not a car expert. We couldn't open the top. The hand brake was not working,driver's window was not properly fitting. There is a risk of leaking... The car is a gift to the owner therefore she has no idea about the car. And since it's manual she can not drive it. No service history book!!! Can anyone advise me on the way forward? What are the things I should check? How is the price? How can I know the history of the car? Or you think I should keep the Porsche? Thanks, Ibrahim you may see the car at: http://www.dubizzle.com/classified/autos4x4s/2009/4/11/stunning-ferrari-355-spider-for-saleexchange/?from_search
Ibrahim, welcome to FerrariChat. Posting the VIN might help with history if someone here was a previous owner - but there's no guarantee. Since it's a US car, you can also run the VIN through CARFAX.com for some insight into ownership history and any possibility that it's been wrecked. But CARFAX isn't bulletproof either. If you're really interested in purchasing the car, the first thing you should do - and the most important thing - is to get a PPI. A PPI is a pre-purchase inspection. Pay to have the car sent to a reputable, knowledgeable shop that knows about Ferraris. Pay them to go through the car - front to back, top to bottom - and detail all of the issues and potential issues. This will give you a much better impression of what the car is worth, how much you should pay, and whether or not you want to buy it at all. Good luck and keep us posted on your progress and decision.
Heart = Buy spider Head = keep Poorker Like anything in life, if you go with your heart, take sensible precautions
Hi Ibrahim, It's an exciting time. Like NNO said, you should have the car inspected by an independent and respected mechanic, not the shop where you are buying. That inspection will right away be able to tell you the answers to your three mechanical questions, brake/roof/window, and a whole lot more, for instance whether the car has ever been in an accident. It will also establish that you have a mechanic near you that can work on the car. Some thoughts as I have just gone through the purchase of a car with a similar lacking history and some questions about mechanical problems: The ad for the car states that the belt service is due. As you may or may not know, this is at least a $5000 service. And probably more like $7500. It requires the removal of the engine. I don't really know what prices are like for 355s in Dubai, but right away you are probably going to be adding $7500 to your cost. Regarding the roof, there is a sequence for getting it to work. You don't describe the problem. I can tell you from researching mine, that getting it to work can be very minor like you not following this sequence, to a fairly inexpensive repair involving topping up the hydraulic fluid and straightening out a slightly bent bar in the roof, to a major repair involving much more money. In my case, I could have described my car exactly like you did yours. I had it inspected before purchase and they found no major mechanical issues. After purchase I had the emergency brake adjusted, it wasn't working, it's fine. My roof wasn't working, it required hydraulic fluid and some tuning, and it is now fine. I didn't have all the receipts for the car, but the few I had showed that it had had the belt service. And that was confirmed by both the PPI and the post purchase work. You should use the search function and you will find incredible information. Example: Click on search, advanced search, type spider, make sure on the right to select the 348/355 section, so you only search that section. Here is a thread I found extremely useful regarding the roof. http://ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=178284&highlight=carpet Good luck. Carfax is a $20 investment that might yield a lot of information. These cars have some specific areas of weakness that are well documented if you use search. During your PPI, your guy will do a compression test. But they also need to do a leakdown test. These cars are prone to valve guide failure that can be picked up by this sort of test (I think/don't quote me). So a knowledgeable mechanic will really help you. One final thought: With this model car, I felt that I needed to have between $5-10K available for service post purchase. It turned out that I spent just over 2K to fix everything that was wrong. In my case I knew that I was not going to have to do a major belt service before driving the car. You are going to have to do this service. Your car is available for probably $37.5K, possibly lower. But if you can find another example that has had the service for $45K that may be a safer option.
