RE: PH Carpool: Ferrari 550 Barchetta

[WCZ]

£2,500 + VAT + Fitting

that's the standout piece of text from that article!

[carsnapper]

"It was an impulse buy..." Gulp! My impulse buys are *slightly* less impressive

[mat205125]

Given the rarity of the car, and the perfect (IMO) colour combo .... and trying to not sound vulgar .... how much will the car have depreciated over it's life? Is there potential for a car like this to have cost the owner £0 in depreciation over his ownership, and even with the costs of servicing and such like, therefore cost little more than a string of brand new family hatchs would have over the same time (albeit not mileage)

[MartiniBianco]

mat205125 said:

Given the rarity of the car, and the perfect (IMO) colour combo .... and trying to not sound vulgar .... how much will the car have depreciated over it's life? Is there potential for a car like this to have cost the owner £0 in depreciation over his ownership, and even with the costs of servicing and such like, therefore cost little more than a string of brand new family hatchs would have over the same time (albeit not mileage)

I'd prefer to compare it to a, say, 996 turbo cabrio or a DB7 Vantage Volante.


Nice article

[pthelazyjourno]

lankybob said:

Why does the screen crack? Does the frame bend the glass and smash it? Wouldn't want to roll one!
Nice car, saw one once I think. Bet it sounds amazing with the Tubi!

Lots of cars don't have the windscreen surround as a structural element. Lotus Elise and variants for one, and they're not horrific in a rollover.

There are roll bars behind the driver, don't forget.

[adzpz]

Sounds like you need mega deep pockets for this one, I think all the pleasure would be had from this car watching from the sidelines. Fair play to the owner for going with something a little unusual and if the deprectiation is anything to go by this could be a great investment in time.

[Happy Jim]

mat205125 said:

Given the rarity of the car, and the perfect (IMO) colour combo .... and trying to not sound vulgar .... how much will the car have depreciated over it's life? Is there potential for a car like this to have cost the owner £0 in depreciation over his ownership, and even with the costs of servicing and such like, therefore cost little more than a string of brand new family hatchs would have over the same time (albeit not mileage)

There's a low milage white one in the classifieds for £170K, so possibly not as awful on the face of it.

[Schnellmann]

I've not driven one so can't say whether having it open improves the 550 but lookswise the coupé is much nicer to me.

Neighbour has a 550 with Tubi exhaust. He used to keep it in the underground car park (now housed elsewhere to make space for his CS) and when he fired it up, it was glorious.

[fozluvscars]

Nice article. It does make me smile when someone who paid £178k for a car complains about the running costs!

[treetops]

Hideous.

The only decent thing it has going for it is the actual badge on the back and the engine.

Never has something so ruinous been so utterly undesirabale.

Good write up though!

[ZesPak]

fozluvscars said:

Nice article. It does make me smile when someone who paid £178k for a car complains about the running costs!

if the running costs include a 2,5k screen replacement everytime someone looks at it wrong, I could see where he's coming from though.

[fozluvscars]

ZesPak said:

fozluvscars said:

Nice article. It does make me smile when someone who paid £178k for a car complains about the running costs!

if the running costs include a 2,5k screen replacement everytime someone looks at it wrong, I could see where he's coming from though.

True, my angle was that even though he can afford a car that costs about the same as an average house in the UK, he still feels the pain of insurance and running costs etc like us mere mortals!

[The Wookie]

ZesPak said:

if the running costs include a 2,5k screen replacement everytime someone looks at it wrong, I could see where he's coming from though.

Never had a screen go on ours it has to be said! Only out of schedule maintenance it's had is a new set of HT leads after one bank started misfiring.

Granted it doesn't sound like it's done as many miles as they OP's one.

[tbc]

and heres another guy washing his

er

with the roof down

[Fire99]

It's a nice looking car and no doubt is great to drive.
However, in the age in which it was built, there are some unforgivable design issues for such a premium car.

[vit4]

Gorgeous machines Especially in black Having said that the hassle of ownership does seem a bit excessive. £2500 for a screen

[Bill]

tbc said:

and heres another guy washing his

er

with the roof down

Sounds like it wouldn't make much difference with it on

[rtz62]

A good write up.
But the car is like a tiger; beautiful to look at but you really wouldn't want to own one. Unless you are a masochist...

[Si_man306]

And people say lotus's are unreliable..!

Not the best looking car, quite ungainly. And to be honest I think 90% of that fun could be had in an S2 elise (inc the roof panic/ hassle).

Couldn't be doing with all those niggles on a 178k car.

[Angelp]

£2,500 for a windscreen? Do Autoglass Repair not carry these?