The market for private sales of Ferraris seems to be non existent. I presume this is because the average punter wants the security of a dealer warranty & backup rather than "sold as seen".

Let's take a "hypothetical" F430. If it would be on a specialist forecourt for around £80k, how much might the dealer offer for it to buy it into stock? If there is a private market to sell it, how much below dealer price would you need to offer?

I'm assuming £forecourt > £private sale > £dealer stock price

As you might guess I'm trying to evaluate an upgrade...

Cheers

Well I've both bought and sold Ferrari privately without any bother (touch wood).From what I've seen, there's not much private activity because people either can't be bothered to try (understandable if you're loaded) or price their cars so close to retail that it's just not worth the additional perceived risk.

If a given car is £80k at a dealers, some people seem to think they can offer at £78k and be providing a good deal. I think you need to be pricing part way between trade in and retail. So for an £80k, the trade offer might be somewhere around £67k-£69k. Offer at £74k or thereabouts and you can still come down a bit and everyone is better off.

What I've seen quite a bit - and done myself before I woke up - is people asking close to retail, getting no interest and then capitulating and giving it away to a dealer for several thousand less than a private buyer would have paid if they'd (I'd!) been more realistic.

From what I have read on various forums its because many private buyers of Ferrari Cars, especially under or around the £50k mark are, well, complete wussies.

Too much intent on worrying about a Warranty, and, perhaps more importantly operating under the false belief that just because it is being sold by an indie or main dealer it will automatically be better car.

I think it is a pschycological issue.

I bought my 355 privately after viewing a few from dealers, GrayPaul and DK being amongst the dealers whose cars I saw.

The private car I found was in a completely different league to all those I saw, and, was seriously cheaper because it was being sold privately!

Absolutely crazy.

The car had been looked after by Adam Eyre for the four years before and so I called and spoke to him, looked over the car myself, calmly, and in no rush looked at the history carefully.

And then, albeit with butterflies in my stomach bought the car.

I still cannot believe how much I saved. GrayPaul had an F355, two years older, and nowhere near in as good condition externally, albeit marginally better inside for £13,000 more and needing a belt service in 12 months time.

Granted you get a warranty, but £13k.....???

As with all cars, buy solely on condition and history.

Personally I would hesistate (and didn't) to go private when I bought my Ferrari.
I saw 5 cars in indies, and the private car was better. Hence I bought after a PPI.

PPI didn't reveal everything, but what do people expect - buy a £150k+ car, that is X years old, and a warranty or PPI guarantees it will be as reliable as a 2012 brand new Mini ? come on, get sensible!

Thanks, the Blu Mirabeau one isn't the right colour blue, and I'm not wild about the Daytona stripes on the other. Yes, I'm picky! TDF Spider with "pure" cream is what I'm after, think they look great.

I would buy one privately - no worries.

Would I sell one privately again? Not a chance!!

SOR at a reputable place (avoid certain obvious ones) will only set you back about the same as an average service (£3k odd?)

However, if you like to waste your weekends with ther type of time waster weirdos Ferraris over 5 years old attract then be my guest ;-)

+1

I kind of agree to be honest. I think often the sort of people who are looking at that sort of price range (often not always) are potentially looking at their first "supercar" purchase. In which case they most likely don't have much experience with the cars and have heard horror stories of £10K bills, engine rebuilds etc, so a couple grand more for a warranty and peace of mind is a must to them. I completely understand where they are coming from to be honest.

I guess the other thing to keep in mind is that there is a perceived "safety net" in buying from a dealer. For example if you go buy a car from Joe Bloggs, drive down the road and then engine blows up then you don't really have a comeback. Whereas, with a dealer they have a reputation to uphold so if they screw over a customer then they know in the long term it could be a big mistake. It can also be a nice experience buying from a dealer, they look after you, they pamper you they sort everything out etc it's a very nice process.

As I said before I don't mind who is selling the car, if it's what I'm after & the history etc checks out them I'm happy. At the end of the day, there are good cars & bad cars for sale privately and at dealers, if you like the car get it checked over and if everything is ok then just go for it!

it's the reason i didn't buy a 360 last year, came mega close but it just never came together.

almost everyone had priced their cars within a couple of grand of what dealers were asking (in some cases more).

This thread has come at a good time as I'm looking at selling my 360. She doesn't get used due to family commitments so I thought I'd sell at this time of year to get the best price. I was worried about selling her privately because of the threat of timewasters and test pilots. Dove House Cars are down the road from me and have offered SOR for £2k commission so that sounds like the best bet.

Unless anyone wants to offer me £38k for it...;)