Thanks for the info stigmechanic. You seem to know your stuff. I have been concerned with these issues. Everthing you said mkes sense. Thanks again

 

Ouch that hurt. We actually do not replace many 355 manifolds. Most of the cars we see have very long service historys with us and the emissions are monitored at every service. High emissions due to incorrect cam timing or worn valve guides quickly overheat any manifold and cause failures of the manifold and cats. It is rare for a timing belts service to go over 10K even with extras if we have seen the car regularly. Ebay or out of area cars on the other hand we love to see, big money every time. As I like to tell peaple in the market for a 355 "a nice 355 is 50-60K if you find one for 30 plan on putting 20K in it minimum." I see four or five a year off ebay bought with no PPI or service records, its not fun to be the person who crushes a new owner excitement about a new car, it sucks. This ussually happens when I have a one or two owner car with every record from new sitting on the floor for 50-60K. Of all the modern ferrari's the 355 does have the highest maintenance cost to car value but that is changing quickly as there are more and more reasonable priced options all the time as these cars age and Ferrari just recently cut most of the 355 service parts costs by 50%. Catalytic converters used to be $3800 each and are now $2800 for a pair of factory catalysts as an example.
Yes I have tracking to do but I need a sugar daddy, no budget this year until the house sells but the new cars arrive this month, we have two of the 430 Challenges available with spares and set up sheets, perfect for you H2O I'll even loan you the tools but I get to watch, it would be like watching me try to sell your product, not pretty.

 

You are starting to act like you know what you are talking about. Who is this masked sub 100 post stig?????


I've typed in google everything I can to find "ferrari working in my own garage tools" and have found nothing so far. Maybe one more round with a trusted local mechanic might have to happen.

I'll still try to find the doohickies to do said work.


There's nothing more expensive than a Cheap Ferrari...I believe you might have been the first to tell me this Stig

 

So basically what im to take from all of this is depending on the level of incompetence varies the costs associated with fixing said Ferrari.

One would expect for such a prestigous name plate And cost- only the finest Techs would be allowed to touch a Ferrari.

Guess not so much.

 

go to sleep asshole

 

I don't think that's what has been said at all. 355's are car with tons of costs associated. If you ever go on fchat you will see very quickly it's a hot button. If you search there you will most likely find 100's of threads started about 355 service issues and the costs associated.

You can't group these cars in with the 360's and 430's we are discussing here.

Most guys that take their cars to the cheapest place end up spending more at a real Ferrari mechanic later.

Last year an Fchatter dropped his car at a local shop because he didn't like what the Dealers had told him. It sat for 2 months (during the summer up here and it was a convertible 355) with the local shop not spending a large chunk of time on it but never finding his issue.

Said Fchatter took it to our local dealer and the car was fixed by the 2nd day. Competence is found if paid for. I'm not condoning some of their PRICES but if you have the correct SMechanic on the job it gets done correctly.


Stoppie we have 3 Porsche dealers in our state and only 1 imho is worthwhile in the service department. Hell even the Audi/Porsche salesman I bought my newest car from asked me what type of car I was driving when I stopped in to pay for it. I was in my CGT Chris so incompetence is spread amongst all types of dealers

 

ridiculous

and 355's are ludicrously expensive to maintain, the 360/430 era cars are miles apart from them in this respect

 

And in the performance department as well. They KILL the older cars yet find a 355 owner that doesn't think their car isn't the best made and I will give you 5 bucks.

 

I have never really discussed how much any of my cars cost. But I am a pretty small fish in a big pond here so what the hell.

When I approached the Ferrari market back in April of 2009 I had my mind set on a 360 Modena coupe. I lusted after an F430. But - at that time - they were still going for around $175,000 for a clean, low-mile car in anything later than a 2007 model year. The market for the F430 was still very strong.

Nevertheless, I noticed a sharp drop in 360 prices at the time. The 360 had dropped almost $30,000 on average in the past 12 months. So, I figured that the 360 was more fully depreciated than the F430. Being the frugal guy that I am - ahem ahem - I set my sights firmly on the more reasonably priced 360. I had purchased a brand new Porsche 997TT less than 1 year before and wasn't going to go nuts on a second car that I knew would only be driven occasionally. But I had a real desire to take the Ferrari plunge, so I set a spending limit and went shopping.

I must have seen and test driven 25 different cars priced anywhere from $90,000 up to $125,000. I had a certain options list that I wanted. At a minimum I wanted power Daytona seats, F1 gearbox, shields, challenge grills all around and leather rear shelf/headliner.

I found out pretty quickly that I didn't want anything to do with the 1999 or 2000 model year cars. They had a major ECU revision that worried me and the cars I saw had too many owners, too many miles and too many stories. Most of these were running between $85,000 and $90,000 at the time.

I found the 2001 and 2002 model year cars to be much cleaner and without the ECU recall issues. They had fewer owners, less miles and a lot less complicated histories. Interestingly, these were going for around $95,000 to $100,000. I would have expected more of a premium. So I thought this would be the sweet spot to dive in.

Then I started looking at the 2003 and 2004 models. These were costing a premium - -particularly the 2004 because it was the final year of production. Obviously, these model years were - on average - newer, cleaner and with lower miles. But they also cost more - anywhere from $110,000 - $120,000 at that time.

I talked to many people about the price disparity. My most trusted pals who owned Ferraris suggested that - if I could swing it - I should pick up the latest model year with the fewest miles and no stories. They all said it would be worth the extra jack in the long run. I listened and narrowed my search to only 2004 models with fewer than 8,000 miles.

After a while I came across a very clean, two-owner car right in the mileage range I was looking for. It looked like new and drove perfectly. An independent mechanic gave it a thorough inspection and gave me an enthusiastic thumbs up. In fact, he said that of the hundreds of 360s he had inspected, the one I was interested in was among the best he had seen.

So - to make a long story short - I bought that 2004 360 Modena. I probably paid about a $15,000 premium over an earlier model with more miles. But I could live with that.

The first weekend I owned the car I took it to our local Cars & Coffee meet. There I met another guy who had bought one of the 2000 model year cars that I had looked at but passed on. He had saved a boat-load on it for several reasons that made the car unattractive to me. He kept gloating about the deal he had made. I was happy for him, but still felt good about my choice.

I didn't see him for a couple of months. Then - out of the blue - he PMs me on F-Chat and gives me this laundry list of problems the car has had - just a maintenance nightmare. He paid much more to get it working properly than he saved making his great deal.

The moral of the story is that what Mark and Stig say is absolutely correct: there is nothing more expensive than a cheap Ferrari.

You can keep your 2000 360 with 28,000 miles, 3 owners and a salvage title. It might only run you $70,000, but it will put you in the poor-house in the long run.

 

But its red