355 Spider Buying Advice
Discussion
My brother-in-law had a 355 for 3+years and 13k miles, it was a beautiful car without doubt but an absolute money pit with the odd reliability issue thrown in, he went all Germanic when he sold it and bought a 12 month old 911 turbo which in a further three years and 20k miles hasn't missed a beat and cost a third of the money to run.
Firstly, congratulations to the OP on a great choice of car!
As others have said, go in with your eyes open, don't fool yourself that it will be cheap motoring, there will be bills and parts aren't exactly cheap.
Yes you could go germanic, I'm sure there also great cars but as my pal with a 911 (with engine trouble, requiring impending rebuild) says 'there a reasonable, mid range car!'
I bought my 355 F1 spider from a dealer in the west midlands with rooms full of supercars, paid the deposit just before prices really firmed up, thats the point my problems started, dealer increased the price, twice! delivered the car with some minor points that were supposed to be attended to untouched, but they still 'spent' 12K on the car in their workshop, belt service, tyres, F1 actuator, cats...........
My point a month after collection, I melted a manifold, apparently not uncommon. The dealer then reneged on the 15 month warranty, just offering me all my money back as 'thats the best thing to do' I guess the best for the garage, as they can then resell the car for quite a bit more than I paid for it....
My story, as with anything be careful who you deal with, some dealers are better than others, and the problem with internet opinions is there are too many sites where negativity is not tolerated, resulting in distorted reviews. Understandable when the dealers sponsor/pay for advertising on the sites we frequent.
Anyway, enjoy the car, the 355 is epic. Regarding your exhaust question, mine has a tubi box (not manifolds) it sounds amazing, check out 'that' clip on you tube!
Regards,
Chris.
As others have said, go in with your eyes open, don't fool yourself that it will be cheap motoring, there will be bills and parts aren't exactly cheap.
Yes you could go germanic, I'm sure there also great cars but as my pal with a 911 (with engine trouble, requiring impending rebuild) says 'there a reasonable, mid range car!'
I bought my 355 F1 spider from a dealer in the west midlands with rooms full of supercars, paid the deposit just before prices really firmed up, thats the point my problems started, dealer increased the price, twice! delivered the car with some minor points that were supposed to be attended to untouched, but they still 'spent' 12K on the car in their workshop, belt service, tyres, F1 actuator, cats...........
My point a month after collection, I melted a manifold, apparently not uncommon. The dealer then reneged on the 15 month warranty, just offering me all my money back as 'thats the best thing to do' I guess the best for the garage, as they can then resell the car for quite a bit more than I paid for it....
My story, as with anything be careful who you deal with, some dealers are better than others, and the problem with internet opinions is there are too many sites where negativity is not tolerated, resulting in distorted reviews. Understandable when the dealers sponsor/pay for advertising on the sites we frequent.
Anyway, enjoy the car, the 355 is epic. Regarding your exhaust question, mine has a tubi box (not manifolds) it sounds amazing, check out 'that' clip on you tube!
Regards,
Chris.
ZeroH said:
Interested in why would yellow be considered more difficult to sell? It looks great on so many open top ferrari's... f50, 355, 16m.... its not really an unusual or disliked colour is it?
genuinely curious about tbis comment !
Ring up a dealer and ask him to bid you on a 355, one of his questions will be what colour? Why does he ask that, everybody wants rosso/crema followed by TdF, yellow is not a quick seller, almost 30% of 355 for sale at present on pistonheads are yellow, these are the bottom of the colour barrel as dealers find it hard to get stock so they will end up with just yellow to offer the punters.genuinely curious about tbis comment !
Yellow 355 seem to go about 10% cheaper than rosso/crema , still a great car, you just need sunglasses on to look at it :-)
Thanks for all the advice, which has been greatly appreciated.
I have now bought the car and I am immensely pleased with it.
Luckily, it turns out the previous owner had a Capristo exhaust fitted a year ago. I can't believe the sound!! It's like two superbikes with open exhausts.
I had just sold my AC Cobra due to lack of practicality and was mourning the lost of amazing exhaust sound. But now I am relishing this amazing sound track!!
What I am so amazed about, is how easy the car is to drive. It feels a lot smaller to drive than it appears and all the controls are very light and easy. ( I suppose anything would be easier after the Cobra!! ) It's not quite a day to day car to drive as my 911 but it's not too far off it.
And I am also very please with choosing yellow. It sets itself apart from the crowd.
I have now bought the car and I am immensely pleased with it.
Luckily, it turns out the previous owner had a Capristo exhaust fitted a year ago. I can't believe the sound!! It's like two superbikes with open exhausts.
I had just sold my AC Cobra due to lack of practicality and was mourning the lost of amazing exhaust sound. But now I am relishing this amazing sound track!!
What I am so amazed about, is how easy the car is to drive. It feels a lot smaller to drive than it appears and all the controls are very light and easy. ( I suppose anything would be easier after the Cobra!! ) It's not quite a day to day car to drive as my 911 but it's not too far off it.
And I am also very please with choosing yellow. It sets itself apart from the crowd.
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