When is enough enough???

Yes it is

But Corvette have had some home runs

The C6 ZR1 for instance is a hell of a car

Sure the interior needs a little help compared to a Ferrari but other than that the ZR1 is amazing

and for the $ the ZR1 is UNbeatable by Ferrari

 

Factory support, as in for 328 driving lights and vent/climate control switches?

No problem...

 

+1

 

Choice #3.

"It takes a LOT OF MONEY to race F1."

 

Stuff like that on the older cars is more likely to be available from other aftermarket sources. Ie; Birdman fuse boxes or can be replaced with like or similar items from other model Fiats.
The dedicated electronics on the later cars are less likely to be.

 

Nobody deserves to be nickel and dimed to death by a toy. Every car has it's prescribed maintenance. Every car has it's common points of failure. We buy these cars expecting to get enjoyment out of them. Enough is enough when the fun is stolen from you by unexpected expense and downtime. If you cross that threshold before reaching the amount you can reasonably expect based on the model's maintenance schedule and majority of common failures for the model given it's age, then probably an unwise purchase to begin with. But when you buy a car, do the maintenance, absorb the occasional known issue, and still the thing is in the shop all the time, costing you money while you're not driving it, well, that just sucks.

 

Well the 360 is now 14 years old 99-2005. We have a number of 99-2000MY 360's that we service, coupes and spiders and both F1 and 6 speed. They seem to be holding up quite well. Average mileage between them is about 45k. One being close to 90k. Biggest issue we have seen are obviously the exhaust manifold issues. The earlier cars had gearbox issues, but most of these were fixed under warrenty from Ferrari.

The electronics, have seemed to held up quite well so far. I have only had to replace one ECU due to a phantom code that kept popping up. The usual F1 pumps and relays, which really are a wear item, and some door lock issues, which are usually caused by streatched cables in the doors.

 

What's amazing to me is my 2002 Maserati. It uses a variation of the F430 engine and other similar parts.

The car starts and runs and runs. I've jump started it many times without worry. I do the annual service which runs $400 (my Mini costs $275). It has never dropped one drop of oil.

The first major repair I had to make was a month ago when I replace both fuel pumps (about $1500). I've driven it from LA to Vegas many times without worry or incident. The interior doesn't look "new" but looks no different than a similar age Mercedes with some stretching of the leather in the driver's seat. The color of the leather, dash, etc are like new.

Clearly, Ferrari can build more reliable cars. My F430 had no problems in the 3 years and 5K miles I drove it.

Unfortunately for the 355's, they were at the very end of their life cycle before a more modern approach to reducing costs and maintenance took hold at Maranello.

 

The new Vette is beautiful. Take a look at this months covers for Car & Driver and Automobile magazines. F12 and Vette. Very similar. I know, I know, it's not a Ferrari but still, nothing to be ashamed of.
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F12
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I just finalized my order for a C7 convertible. Should be delivered in Feb.

The reason? Well, I'm a bit tired of the "mileage game" (aka: my mileage is less than yours!). That's not Ferrari's fault. That's Ferrari owners fault. For some reason, they like to keep them in the garage instead of on the road.

The Vette, like Porsche, is a great daily driver. That's how I intend to use it.

The first thing I'm doing is picking it up in Kentucky and driving it 2000 miles home in it's first few days. I think that would be darn rare for most F car owners.

Is the Vette an F car? No. Is it a great car for driving enjoyment everyday? Absolutely.

 

The thing too, is that for pre Ferrari 360's, parts are getting hard to find. Yes you can get a 308 / 328 for an "affordale" price. But what happens when you need to replace a door mirror, US version, or a windshield? Will be costly or impossible to find, then what? You have to have the funds to do what you need to do to keep them up. You can't be on a budget with these cars, because then you'll have a very expensive paper weight. At least with most American cars, parts are readily available no matter the year or make.

 

Thanks.

 

Parts are readily available for my 355. They aren't Corvette cheap, though.

 

When parts are that "rare".. I've always contended that you have to be creative with the repair, essentially fab a part or make it fit. It does drive up the cost of the repair, but it becomes a game of small batches. Hint: one of my brothers friends makes armor for SCA fighting. He's so good with his metalwork that I've told him he should make components for FCars and exotics that are NLA. He refused citing he doesn't want the pressure and wants to keep it a hobby craft. IF I ever need a part fabbed, he'd be the first guy I'd call (as a friend of course)

 

I'm really starting to like these Maserati's. The 2008 and up model years are great cars. And I really like the Grand Tourismo model. Probably one of the best all around sport GTs on the market. They have the entire package, good looks, great sound, comfortable to drive, good handeling, and really not all that expensive to service

 

Loving mine.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I317 using Tapatalk 2

 

Agree with the above strongly.

Go older or newer. A 328 is a joy to drive and reliable. A 360 has engine-in belt service and a 430 has no belts (chains) -- both are reliable. 355's are beautiful cars, but it takes all the fun out of it when reliability issues make it impossible to enjoy the car. It's not just the $$$, it's a drag when you can't count on the car to work when you want to use it or to get you home.

To get the 355 sorted, you probably will be better off if you can find an expert independent with more specialized knowledge about this model's issues.

 

In 6 years of 355 ownership and 12k miles I have spent 14k or so. I have saved by purchasing parts from Ricambi and using independents. For comparison my 1984 911 I have owned for 8 years driven over 40k miles (daily) and have yet to spend 3k on it.

I feel a lot of the maintenance and parts dealers are recommending are not strictly required and quite frankly the cars have gotten to the price level where its not worth spending the money to keep them perfect if all you want is a Ferrari to drive now and again. I think you can do the basics for way less than a lot of us are paying. Since I adopted the "spend less on maintenance" on my 355 I am actually enjoying ownership more as well.

 

From where I sit there is a whole other issue here. Why is it that you guys in the USA pay over twice as much for F parts and service compared to here in the UK? Rather than blaming the car for being expensive to run why are you not questioning where all this money is going?

Looking at the OPs list of costs, all the items are at least double, and there is even a huge cost for not fixing a problem. Why? If a dealer tried to charge this much for fruitless work here they would get such a bad rep their business would suffer. I know several 355 owners here and none of them have had to fork out anything close to the amounts in this thread.

There seems to be an acceptance over there that Fs are just expensive, parts for them are somehow special and therefore several times the price of parts for other cars and outrageous service costs must be paid without question.

The owners here in the UK will shop around on price and the specialists offer menu pricing and exist on quality of service and low price, and that includes not charging full rates for abortive work and also not charging a full hourly rate for a routine procedure such as a 355 engine drop. Even the main importer here (Maranello Sales) does menu pricing on 355 which ends up being half the actual hourly rate because they appreciate that if they charged more, people would go elsewhere.

Where is all this money going? Some people must be getting very rich as the cost of running a business is lower in the USA than here in the UK, with lower taxation, rents and energy costs etc.

Maybe I should move to California and set up a Ferrari specialist. The weather would be better too

 

You are probably right. The Ferrari shops blame Ferrari of North America who is charging through the nose for older parts. But the $100/hr and higher labor rates don't help either. Outside of maybe the greater NYC region and parts of California, there is a thin market for Ferrari service. There are only a few cars in each city, and there are only a few shops capable of servicing them. So depending on the situation, the few major services that need to be done end up really costing someone.

I can only guess that the UK being much smaller geographically, but having a rather large population and high GDP, it lends itself to being more competitive on Ferrari service.

 

All you say is true. Dealers and Ferrari USA try and sell service on fear. You don't have a service every year, belts etc and your car isn't worth anything etc.