550 advice

[CVP]

Gents,

Am helping a mate and need some 550 expertise to the rescue as my knowledge of these great beasts is pretty limited.

He's been offered a 98 LHD 550 (Red with cream interior), done approx 30k miles and is meant to have full Ferrari service history (being confirmed). The car was supplied direct to Germany and first registered there and has then been imported about 4 years ago. Price approx GBP 40k. Car has just had a "full" service at Lancasters, ocst approx GBP 3k including new tyres all round. If purchased he wants to be able to buy the full warranty to protect himself for any big bills but is prepared for looking north of GBP 3k a year to fully maintain and run the beast.

Mate intends to have the car for weekend and continental blast use and is happy with LHD over RHD. he intends to hang onto it for approx 3 years before selling on.

So the questions are;

1. For an inspection - who can you recommend in North London / Essex area. He's looking for a non nonsense outfit who live and breathe Ferrari and pref 550's. I want to point him in the direction of someone who is going to give this a really thorough go over as both of us are a little wary of damage pre UK importation that could have occurred.
2. GBP 40k seems all the money to me for that car in that spec (options unknown as yet) what would you realistically expect the spread to be between forsign import LHD and UK original RHD. Am seeking to protect him he when he comes to sell on after his fun.

Many thanks

Chris

[Freewheeler]

Give the workshop at Joe Macari a call. The technicians are ex Ferrari UK and the workshop is now Ferrari and Maserati Authorised.

[rubystone]

Does he want an lhd? ISTR there's a RHD car with higher miles in silver for sale at a trader somewhere at £39,995 - it's been for sale for a while and thus could be bought for cheaper money I guess....


Edited to add that Karl Virdi seems to know his 550s

Edited by rubystone on Monday 19th March 13:09

[willw]

I have been trying to find exactly this spec LHD 550 for some time, drom me pm if your friend prefer RHD so I could negotiate about this car.

[andy355]

"If purchased he wants to be able to buy the full warranty to protect himself for any big bills but is prepared for looking north of GBP 3k a year to fully maintain and run the beast"

if you are referring to a warranty from ferrari, my last experience of this with my LHD 355 was that UK dealers were not allowed to issue a power warranty on LHD cars. This only transpired months after maranello had issued it and came to light during a service when one of the fans was found to be faulty.

Verdi were always helpful to me and offer warranties, tho i have no direct experience of how good the cover is

[CVP]

Thanks for the advice guys. I'll forward this onto him.

Cheers

Chris

[basher]

Lancaster's will inspect the car ( adn if you can get a warranty they will insist on inspecting it before allocating a warranty anywhere so you might as well pay once only !!!)

I know nothing about buying left hand drive cars so that is all i can comment ..... also you want to check what the warranty covers as after a certtain age it only covers certain things .... like gearbox / drivetrain.....

[CVP]

Thanks for the help chaps. With more digging into the history of the car it's missing 2 years of history plus is a 97 build not a 98 as he was informed. He's been told by Lancasters that the full warranty he wants to buy (I think it's the Powertrain one) is only available for cars up to 8 years old and so will not be available on this one.

Given these two he's going to walk away at the price currently being offered.

Chris

[basher]

Just remember a gearbox in these babies is 10k (see HArry's evo report) ....so a 40k car sinit cheap if the gearbox goes

[nigelo]

basher said:

Just remember a gearbox in these babies is 10k (see HArry's evo report) ....so a 40k car sinit cheap if the gearbox goes

FWIW, Eurospares have a brand new manual gearbox in stock for £5,500

Hope this helps

[nioks]

More 550 gearbox horrors stories - NOT TRUE !!!!!!!!
Harry's EVO car was struggling into 3rd. All the symptoms of the synchro ring going awol. This exact same thing happened to mine. My experience tells me that the fault would have been the selector fork wearing out unduly, due to incorrect fitting at the factory - try getting anyone to admit to that though...
1,2,3+4 synchro rings plus the 3rd selector fork direct from the main dealer came to around £600. All you need then is someone to fit them all About 10 hours work. All for somewhat less than the '£10k' always mentioned in these cases.

[willw]

Chris, I sent you an e-mail.

[CVP]

Yep, that's why he's walking away. Potentially cheap to buy but still with the running costs of a £100k car. He's fully prepared for £3k to £4k per year but something like a gearbox would be too much.

Chris

[rubystone]

I would't buy one - bonnet's £10k too.

[nigelo]

nioks said:

More 550 gearbox horrors stories - NOT TRUE !!!!!!!!
Harry's EVO car was struggling into 3rd. All the symptoms of the synchro ring going awol. This exact same thing happened to mine. My experience tells me that the fault would have been the selector fork wearing out unduly, due to incorrect fitting at the factory - try getting anyone to admit to that though...
1,2,3+4 synchro rings plus the 3rd selector fork direct from the main dealer came to around £600. All you need then is someone to fit them all About 10 hours work. All for somewhat less than the '£10k' always mentioned in these cases.

Quite right - I was simply responding to the inflated cost of a completely new box but of course you would rebuild rather than replace if at all possible.

Again FWIW, the 3rd / 4th gear selector fork is around £80 whilst a full set of syncro rings is approx £105 all from the same source. Hardly expensive is it?

Hope this helps

Edited by nigelo on Tuesday 20th March 15:37

[sjw ferrari]

nigelo said:

nioks said:

More 550 gearbox horrors stories - NOT TRUE !!!!!!!!
Harry's EVO car was struggling into 3rd. All the symptoms of the synchro ring going awol. This exact same thing happened to mine. My experience tells me that the fault would have been the selector fork wearing out unduly, due to incorrect fitting at the factory - try getting anyone to admit to that though...
1,2,3+4 synchro rings plus the 3rd selector fork direct from the main dealer came to around £600. All you need then is someone to fit them all About 10 hours work. All for somewhat less than the '£10k' always mentioned in these cases.

Quite right - I was simply responding to the inflated cost of a completely new box but of course you would rebuild rather than replace if at all possible.

Again FWIW, the 3rd / 4th gear selector fork is around £80 whilst a full set of syncro rings is approx £105 all from the same source. Hardly expensive is it?

Hope this helps

Edited by nigelo on Tuesday 20th March 15:37

Agreed All these costs seem to get inflated, most parts can be reconditioned or upgraded and the new price is +++££££ more,a dealer is never likely to recondition they just replace!! even if like the previous post said a bonnet is 10k you are never going to pay that for one as euro spares or a ferrari breakers have them at a lot lower price and also if it got damaged you would claim on the insurance and let them worry bout the cost.

Edited by sjw ferrari on Tuesday 20th March 16:32

[murph7355]

Which two years of the history are missing? The last two, or the first two?

And what are the differences between a 97 and 98 (aside from someone arguably covering one but not the other with a warranty that may or may not be valid on a LHD car and may or may not be worth the paper its written on depending on what side of bed the loss adjustor got out of the morning your claim for a "10k gearbox" slaps on his/her desk).

Sub 40k constitutes a lot of car for the money IMO. Of course the running costs *might* prove eye watering, but if you're looking at this sort of car, you should know this. And if it's a concern, you need to be looking at another marque.

I don't believe the delta between RHD and LHD is as big as "normal" onn these, there being few LHDs here - Will's found this out I think, but hopefully he now has a lead on a car that'll suit him so he can drive Miss Daisy in that rather than his 348

PS Ruby - bonnet thing's a 456 isn't it. And isn't it 20k. And 70k for a new engine. And 6mGBP for the special air you have to put in the tyres. A wonder anyone ever buys cars like this

[willw]

Andy, I'm now even thinking 360 so finding lhd 550 definately haven't been easy. :laugh

But haven't got lead yet, would appreciate that thought.

rgrds,
Ms Daisy

[nigelo]

sjw ferrari said:

Agreed All these costs seem to get inflated, most parts can be reconditioned or upgraded and the new price is +++££££ more,a dealer is never likely to recondition they just replace!! even if like the previous post said a bonnet is 10k you are never going to pay that for one as euro spares or a ferrari breakers have them at a lot lower price and also if it got damaged you would claim on the insurance and let them worry bout the cost.

Also agreed but as a new bonnet is less than £5K I assumed the original poster was doing a wind-up - I guess that's how the silly rumours start.

[murph7355]

willw said:

...thinking 360 so finding lhd 550 ...

I think you have money burning a hole in your pocket and you should take your other half to look at some kicthens (it'll stop you spending anything for the time being).

The right 550 will show up. Just bide your time. Much nicer car than the 360 (but you know my thoughts on those. And if Ken from CS sees this he'll start moaning at me again so won't say much more).

You *need* a V12 Ferrari at some point in your life. And best to have one sooner than later IMO.