Help! - I'm considering buying my first Ferrari...

[BrendonJ]

After spending enough on the beemer in the last year to buy a nice place on the costa del sol for the local bmw mechanics, I thought if I'm spending that kind of money on repairs and maintenance I might as well be spending them on a Ferrari. So I am going to bite the bullet, and sell a kidney or whatever is neccessary to get my dream car.

I'm looking at a 355 spider 96/97.

Any tips as to what to watch out for.
I have read here that a tubi system sounds great but will it affect my resale value?
What sort of guarantee should I be try and get, an official Ferrari one (will I be able to get one for a 7 year old car?) (I will be buying it from foskers, kent high perf cars etc). oh yeah and does anyone know the diff between a formula and power warranty?
How often does the cambelt need replacing?

All comments/help greatly appreciated.

Cheers.

[kenyon]

Simon355 has his spider for sale around £46,000 mark.
Its 1996 red, with creme interior with red carpets. He is getting a Murci...

[burriana500]

BrendonJ said:

I have read here that a tubi system sounds great but will it affect my resale value?

Yes - it'll increase it

Seriously though, I am in the process of getting a 348 Spider, and if it has a standard exhaust I have to straight away factor in the £1500 cost of getting a Tubi or similar fitted.

[tonyhopkins]

A cambelt change is required every 3 yrs. Tubi is a VERY desirable extra and will cost min of £1.5 k.
A formula warranty is normally sold with a car from a main dealer. I don't know what a [power warranty is.

[Badapple]

I took a old post from fchat which may be useful to you:

markcollins said:

Where to Buy Official Dealers, regretfully they're just as useless as any other Marques! I bought my 355 from Meridien Modena in Lyndhurst for one reason which I'll go into later, be aware that some dealers charge much more than others for a car of the same spec Specialists, I've dealt with Talacrest (<a href="http://www.racecar.co.uk/talacrest/index.htm">www.racecar.co.uk/talacrest/index.htm</a> in Egham and Kent High Performance (<a href="http://www.theferraricentre.co.uk/">www.theferraricentre.co.uk/</a> in Maidstone, bought my 328 from KHPC and had it serviced at Talacrest some very good guys there who know their stuff and are enthusiastic about the cars. Others that have a good reputation are Nick Cartwright Sports Cars and Foskers. Privately, As in any other car market you'll get it cheaper but lacking the dealer facilities, without doubt if you go this route you MUST have the car inspected by a specialist before you buy, there's some ropey cars out there some of which have been rebuilt from write offs! Good place to look for private sales is <a href="http://www.ferrariownersclub.co.uk">www.ferrariownersclub.co.uk</a> where the for sales section is a free access area. Warranty As I said earlier I bought mine from an official dealer because I wanted a good warranty and it paid for itself when it covered a £5k bill in April!, however the renewal cost in May was too high so All official dealers will sell you a car with Formula (1) warranty included, this covers engine, gearbox, electrics etc however there is a £10k limit to any individual failure, an new engine will cost you around £30k. When I asked to renew it they wanted £2,100 for Formula (2) for another year which was still limited to £10k but excluded all the electrics inc ECU etc (circa £5k for a new one!). If you buy privately or from a specialist and the car is under 6 years old at inception you can get a factory warranty that is unlimited for two years for around £1,400 inc vat, you have to have a dealer check the car and that costs around £300 and it must have a genuine official dealer stamp on all the services. Obviously Specialists can offer third party warranty. Personally I wouldn't have one without a warranty that you know you can rely on. F1 Gearboxes/Clutch The 355 F1's are renowned for excessive clutch wear, the dealer will tell you that it's because people don't drive them properly and treat it like an Auto but history has shown that 3.5k miles out of an F1 clutch is good going!, fortunately it's only a £500 job to change it (£350 parts) however I would be inclined to go for the manual for the above and the following..... the general view being that the F1 is good for the track but almost dangerous on the road, Tiff Needell showed a scenario on Top Gear a few years back, you start to pull out of a junction, realise there's an Artic coming towards you, you need to reverse, stop car, press Neutral button on dash, engage handbrake, move lever to reverse, release handbrake, somewhere in there the truck has hit you!. General Earlier F355's (Changed around early1996 and have Bosch Motronic 2.7 ECU) are known to have problems with valve guides and bore wear, easy to identify as they have no airbags and on the induction system the pipes from the air filters go straight in to the air intake castings, the later cars (Bosch 5.2) have a convoluted arrangement to improve emissions and also have some tricks to beat the drive by noise restrictions, the later ones allegedly have 5 BHP less however sound better. Also Cats are expensive they've stopped making the ceramic ones which lasted about 20k miles and replaced them with a Metallic one, All of them suffer from failed Exhaust Manifolds, £1,400 each new but can get rebuilt ones for £600, maybe worth looking one htat has new Manifolds and Cats.

>> Edited by Badapple on Sunday 1st August 14:24

>> Edited by Badapple on Sunday 1st August 14:25

[murph7355]

The Power warranty is the unlimited claim one, for cars less than 6yrs old. It canbe had from dealers and if you ask, you should find that it's at least as cheap as the Formula one if not cheaper.

The only hassle is that you have to have the car serviced by a main dealer. Hence the costs are also higher each year.

Most independents will also be able to supply warranties. Just make sure you know what's covered - electrics, suspension, gearbox, engine are all expensive to replace/repair if they go pop, so be fully aware of claims ceilings, exclusions etc.

Other than that, and the advice already given above, go for it!

[BrendonJ]

Great advice guys, many thanks all!

[355f]

F1 Gearboxes/Clutch

The 355 F1's are renowned for excessive clutch wear, the dealer will tell you that it's because people don't drive them properly and treat it like an Auto but history has shown that 3.5k miles out of an F1 clutch is good going!, fortunately it's only a £500 job to change it (£350 parts) however I would be inclined to go for the manual for the above and the following..... the general view being that the F1 is good for the track but almost dangerous on the road, Tiff Needell showed a scenario on Top Gear a few years back, you start to pull out of a junction, realise there's an Artic coming towards you, you need to reverse, stop car, press Neutral button on dash, engage handbrake, move lever to reverse, release handbrake, somewhere in there the truck has hit you!.

General

Earlier F355's (Changed around early1996 and have Bosch Motronic 2.7 ECU) are known to have problems with valve guides and bore wear, easy to identify as they have no airbags and on the induction system the pipes from the air filters go straight in to the air intake castings, the later cars (Bosch 5.2) have a convoluted arrangement to improve emissions and also have some tricks to beat the drive by noise restrictions, the later ones allegedly have 5 BHP less however sound better.
Also Cats are expensive they've stopped making the ceramic ones which lasted about 20k miles and replaced them with a Metallic one, All of them suffer from failed Exhaust Manifolds, £1,400 each new but can get rebuilt ones for £600, maybe worth looking one htat has new Manifolds and Cats. [/quote]



>> Edited by Badapple on Sunday 1st August 14:24

>> Edited by Badapple on Sunday 1st August 14:25[/quote]


Some people do put some rubbish on here!! 3.5K miles from an F1 clutch?? dangerous to drive where do you come from???

For the record I have had 3 F1 cars and my collegues have had 2 between them Im on 17K for my clutch , friends are on 22K and 28K still no new F1 clutch!

Dangerous to drive!! what ballony!!

[chwhite]

I agree total rubbish re the F1 box. No need to apply handbrake when go into reverse. And just as quick as putting a manual into reverse.