F430 LHD - Buying advice

[FFM]

offshoreeddy said:

I'd have thought someone will trailer it back for you for around £1500 or thereabouts.

I was quoted c.a. £1900 (ex. transport) through the IVA test including MOT/TAX and adjustments to meet UK spec (lights, speedometer).
Do you suggest going through the COC route? If you do the admin with DVLA and HRMC who did you use to do apply the adjustments on the car?

Thanks
F

[cgt2]

offshoreeddy said:

The 430 is a relatively simple car to get registered. You need the speedo changing from KMH to MPH assuming it's a 2006 or later car (over 10 yrs old it, doesn't matter). Someone like Speedofixer will do it for £400 including the part (Lockwood), and you need some paperwork from a VAT registered or MOT station/garage to say the headlights are UK spec (they'll be flat-plane Xenons) and there's two rear fog lights, both of which are standard features. So, £400 for the speedo (or £80 parts only if you want to try and swap it yourself), £100 for the VCA certificate, then registration and tax from DVLA will be another £600 or thereabouts. So paperwork-wise it's going to cost you about £800 to do it yourself, plus the cost of driving it back - hotels, fuel, flights (ryanair etc), channel tunnel. For my 430 from Belgium that wasn't much because I drove there and back in a day, obviously coming from Italy it's going to take 2-3 days travelling. In my experience, the trip is worth it. You'll do more miles that week than most other Ferrari owners do all year.

Make sure the car has a COC or that'll be another £600+ from Ferrari, plus time and hassle to get it inspected.

Edited by offshoreeddy on Friday 22 January 15:29

I bought the speedo from Lockwoods and my Ferrari dealer kindly fitted it gratis, I don't think it's more than a couple of hours labour, so it only cost me £120 to do the speedo.

Make sure you specify whether you want standard 430 or Scud speedo when ordering from Lockwoods as they have different fonts and it would annoy the hell out of me if my dials had different typefaces.