Whiter the Spider?

Dale, this is a great thread!! Old skool

The 360 is a big advance on construction as well, all alloy for 1st time. I expect it to be a profit center, and I agree it was underpriced, so to stem the tide, keep buzz up and order books full, you limit supply. And do small upgrades ie CS, 420, etc., while creeping price up to real point.

Also, amongst the money swirling around in 99-01, there is still an element of thrift there...'I don't need the most expensive Ferrari, it is still a Ferrari' mentality. The fact is is a great car, and had few competitors during it's 1st few years has indeed awakened a sleeping giant.

GT, Gallardo, Conti GT, GT2/3, DB9, AMv8, sl55/600 all are clamoring for same 120-160k. Some have 'brand', some don't. All are nice cars in different ways. All will poach from Ferrari...why do you think there are Gallardos immediately available? Several people from the board have bought them, and are content, Banana boat cancelled his CS order. Not good for FNA, methinks.

Spider is an extremely usable convertible, draft free, great drive, fast. I liked mine, but kept my Z8, not as a better car, as in some ways it isn't. I couldn't pass the $ and justify keeping it.

The Enzo brings up another point. I was 'encouraged' to buy the Spider to get on Enzo list as 'current owner'. Despite long history of ownership, it was a 'what have you bought lately' proposal which rubbed me the wrong way, but I still wanted one, ugly or not. I was not in position to get 288, f40, or f50 when they came out, and I wanted to start with the Enzo. Wife even said OK, but i'd have to drive it a lot. OK.

Then I was told when I didn't make the final cut that only 'special customers' would get one. OK, I'm not special, I bought a Spider I didn't really want to get a car I did. Hmmmm. They should have just made them for a year or 2 like was suggested, priced 'em 750-800, and killed the spec from 'special customers'.

Guess I'll just drive my Maranello and buy an old car, FNA gets zip. OK by me. Been in most of the halo cars, still want to drive Enzo though.

FWIW
Lee

 

Here's the breakdown from NADA (nadaguides.com)

1999 360 Modena- MSRP $138,225 / current avg. retail $129,000 / 6.7% depreciation

1999 550 Maranello- MSRP $212,000 / curr avg. retail $139,700 / 34.1% depreciation

1999 456GT- MSRP $224,800 / curr avg. retail $123,500 / 45% depreciation

 

One thing for sure that we should all be aware of now I think-

past performance is no guarantee of future value.

The 360 coupe was not as well liked by the majority of ferrari owners and would be owners as per my recent poll on here.

In the UK we have a point where the early 360 coupes are almost at parity with a good 355 ( well about 7% more)

I think the spider and 360 values are going to take a huge hit when there is the realisation that there is not the strength in residuals and we must bear in mind that we have strong competiiton like never before from aston, lambo ect that will have high initital depreciation and these will be competing in the sh market when the 360s will be traded

 

I agree with you, although i'd say NADA is much better than Edmunds which is usually very unrealistic. That said, the 360 price for '99 MY seems pretty accurate at least according to advertisements. Looking in the back of a current issue of Autoweek I see a few places selling '99s for ~$130k. These are of course their asking prices, and im not sure what these things are actually selling for in the end but I doubt $100k as previously mentioned unless it has very high mileage or damage.

I think there are two reason for the success, one because it's truly a fantastic car and secondly because I believe more Ferrari buyers want a sports car versus a GT.