Why so many spiders for sale? Where's the GTB's / GTS's?

Good question, I constantly wonder the same thing...

 

I looked for over a year to find my 355 GTS. Always found plenty of Spiders to look at, only was able to try out about 6 GTB/GTS models during that time period. Seems like the people that get the "non-spiders" like to keep them.

 

Good question.......


What is your thought 285????? Based on the registry??????

 

I know what you mean----The Spiders are everywhere for sale. I believe there were more Spiders built than the GTB and more GTB than the GTS---But that still doesn't make sense when the Spiders are selling 25 to 1 to the GTB---It seems there are a pretty even mixture of Spider lovers and GTB lovers here on Fchat looking for cars---Not like everyone wants a GTB and not a Spider...Not sure if people look at the Spider as more of a seasonal car or a warmer climate car and they are tougher to sell. On top on that the GTB and GTS owners drive there cars year round---Honestly I don't know--just taking a guess... I started noticing that about the time I bought my car middle of 2006--That the GTB and GTS were getting harder to find..

 

Ya hear that Goth?

 

You see the same thing with 348s, although more in the past than recently due to the recent up-tick in 348 desirability.

For example, only some 1200 348s Spider were produced while thousands more of both tb and ts were produced. Yet one would always see many more Spiders on the market.

And the same is true for 355s. There are fewer Spiders than berlinetta or GTS, yet there are more Spiders on the market. I think the reason simply is that Spiders are more desirable cars, and so they change hands more frequently. Spiders are flashier cars, and so they are acquired and disposed of more frequently. Not to insult any Spider owners, but many of the folks who TEND (yes, tend) to buy Spiders TEND (yes, tend) to be more fickle. After a little while of ownership, these folks decide to move on. And so the Spiders appear on the market soon thereafter.

I think that folks who tend to buy fixed roof cars are a bit more purist (less fickle) and tend to keep the cars longer.

These are my hypotheses. I do not state them as the gospel, and I do not intend to suggest that Spider owners are not purists or that no Spider owners here are purists.

 

Damn.... ...................... does anyone want to trade their gtb for my spider??? Mine has hyper-flows, new clutch w/Hill TO bearing and fresh valve guides...... !!!

 

Black GTS would be pretty hard to resist... but probably next to impossible to find.

 

I spent over a year and a half looking for a low mileage '98 or '99 355 F1 GTS in red/tan. In that time, I came across two; one at a dealership that sold in a week & one from a private party, which I ended up purchasing. I would like to believe that because of: 1) the limited production, 2) the fact that it is like both a coupe & a convertible and 3) it was the last model offered in the targa format, that it will become attractive to collectors. Not sure this has much merit, but at least this belief helps cushion the impact of all my maintenance bills

 

My guess is that most of theme are located in Europe : ) Here is a list with 27 Gtb's (quick search)

http://suchen.mobile.de/fahrzeuge/search.html?isSearchRequest=true&sortOption.sortBy=price.consumerGrossEuro&sortOption.sortOrder=ASCENDING&lang=de&scopeId=C&_features=on&negativeFeatures=EXPORT&bodyStyleRadio=&makeModelVariant1.makeId=8600&makeModelVariant1.modelId=27&makeModelVariant1.modelDescription=berlinetta&makeModelVariant2.makeId=8600&makeModelVariant2.modelDescription=gtb&makeModelVariant3.makeId=&makeModelVariant3.modelDescription=&minFirstRegistrationDate=&maxFirstRegistrationDate=&minMileage=&maxMileage=&minPowerAsArray=&minPowerAsArray=KW&maxPowerAsArray=&maxPowerAsArray=KW&minPrice=&maxPrice=&fuel=&doorCount=&transmission=&country=&zipcode=&climatisation=&emissionClass=&adLimitation=&daysAfterCreation=&damageUnrepaired=NO_DAMAGE_UNREPAIRED&usageType=&makeModelVariant2.modelId=27

 

My twopence worth - I think that the main factors are climate and the age of the prospective owner.

 

And here is a 1998 Black Ferrari 355 GTS F1...Challenge grill und alles : )


http://suchen.mobile.de/fahrzeuge/showDetails.html?id=24602975&__lp=2&scopeId=C&sortOption.sortBy=price.consumerGrossEuro&sortOption.sortOrder=ASCENDING&makeModelVariant1.makeId=8600&makeModelVariant1.modelId=27&makeModelVariant1.modelDescription=gts&vehicleCategory=Car&segment=Car&negativeFeatures=EXPORT&damageUnrepaired=NO_DAMAGE_UNREPAIRED&customerIdsAsString=&lang=de&pageNumber=1

Price USD 94132. But I guess it's a bad time to import a car from Europe, the USD is only 1.45 to a Euro. Used to be 1.2.

 

This car http://suchen.mobile.de/fahrzeuge/showDetails.html?id=1794355&__lp=2&scopeId=C&sortOption.sortBy=price.consumerGrossEuro&sortOption.sortOrder=ASCENDING&makeModelVariant1.makeId=8600&makeModelVariant1.modelId=27&makeModelVariant1.modelDescription=gts&vehicleCategory=Car&segment=Car&negativeFeatures=EXPORT&damageUnrepaired=NO_DAMAGE_UNREPAIRED&customerIdsAsString=&lang=de&pageNumber=1

has been for sale since before I bought my 550 in June 2007. Very nice looking vehicle with sportseats - funny how there seem to be plenty of GTS's in Europe and they sell slowly.


Onno

 

This is not true for the 355. The GTS had the lowest production numbers. Of the 11,000+ 355s made about 2.5K units were GTS. GTB was around 5K units and Spyders were a little under 4K units. A search should give you closer numbers, this is from memory.

 

GTB & GTS maintain the C-pillar that hold the line of F355 which the original Artist of Pinafarina had intented... It's like looking at the painting of Mona Lisa painting only she is in her bikini when you dropped the top on the Spyder...///

 

Very nice, but as posted we in the U.S. will soon be bartering furs and shiny objects if the dollar gets any lower re the Euro.

Indeed. I've always loved targas. Ferrari did a nice job on theirs; Porsche (the inventor, IIRC) made a styling hash of it.

 

This is a symptom of a larger problem of over-production in response to non-enthusiast tastes. Firstly, once you chop the roof off of a car, it starts to resemble every other car with its roof chopped off. As mentioned in another post, the C-pillar is an aesthetic necessity to the car, or any car for that matter. Besides, soft-tops look cheap and old fashioned when they're up. It took me five months to find my GTS and I had to give up looking for it with a manual transmission. Remember that all of the 355s were produced during a period of massive economic expansion around the world. Most of these cars were originally purchased as trophies and not by enthusiasts. People didn't care that the Spider looked like most other cabriolets on the road, as long as it had the Ferrari badge. The Spider was also the most expensive version, so indiscriminate buyers tended toward them, lest anyone think they couldn't afford it. Seriously. Ferrari responded by producing ever more Spiders, just as they started producing ever larger cars to respond to "American tastes" post 355. I remember reading when the 360 came out that Maranello made it larger so that Americans could fit their golf bags in them. Can you imagine? I'm not a golfer and I have nothing against golfers (except those who helped destroy Bridgehampton Raceway) but shouldn't you be driving past the golf course on your way to the race track with a Ferrari? Now we're in a world where the back of a 430 is as big as that on an S-Class and pretty soon there'll be cup holders where the gated shifter used to be. So if you're looking for a GTB or GTS, keep looking. It's worth the wait. You'll have the most beautiful 355 and certainly one of the rarest.

 

The GTBs are keepers.......and Bullfighter, NO WAY I'd barter my fur! LOL!

Without my coyote stroller, I'd freeze my azz next time I was in Breckenridge or Winter Park!

 

Generalizations aside, your facts are a bit out of line. F355B 4,915, F355 GTS 2,577, F355 spider 3,714. None of the above qualify as a “rare” Ferrari!
I guess I am 1 of the “buyers” you describe. I have both a 348 spider and a 355 spider.

 

The GTS looks better in the 308/328 models.... I want an F355 GTB.................... in nero/nero.............. of course !!!!

Now who wants to trade.... ???

 

This is just speculation but here it goes:

Spider Buyers
-People that are making the leap into Ferrari's will gravitate to 355 Spider because it is a soft top and a Ferrari and looks affordable (relative in Ferrari land). Wow I have a convertible Ferrari.
-The new buyer learns that the power top process in the Spider is no bueno. (seats move way forward, and gets out of sync).
-These newbie owners start feeling the pain of maintenance. (majors, cats, headers, valve guides)
-Thus they sell it and get out after a short lease/ownership and roll over to another Ferrari or out of Ferrari ownership.

GTB/GTS Buyers
-GTB and GTS owners look at the 355 in a different light.
-They consider tracking the car.
-They think back to the lineage of the 3x8 line and see it in 355 GTB & GTS.
-They have done more research in what to buy in a Ferrari and not just hey lets dive in and get a Ferrari convertible.

 

I agree except for the "looks" affordable part... ................. when I bought mine the spiders commanded a $10k premium over the GTBs.............. though the best part of the spider, is the 355 engine howl is alot louder .... !!!