355: On the precipice

[355fiorano]

They are great cars and I love it every time I drive it (which is not too often these days)

I've had mine from 2003 so its a part of the family now! Some of my orignal observations

I was gutted when i first drove it as it was my dream car but it wasn't what I expected:
- There is no low end torque so if you mash the throttle at unde 4k revs nothing happens. You NEED to rev it and it took some getting use to
- The steering was too over assisted and I could not feel the feedback I wanted. In time you realise that all the feedback is there but you need to drive and learn to feel it
- The steering lock to lock is very slow. I found a fiorano car with much quicker steering that sorted that but I'm sure you can get use to the standard
- The F1 box was slow and brutal in changes at full pelt (I went for a manual as even now I am not an F1 fan)

Once I understood the car better I absolutely loved it (but I would still prefer less steering assitance!)

Maintenance use to be very reasonable a decade ago but as car prices went up, spare parts went up exponetially so it makes some services very painful. Last 2 years I spent c £9k and did less than 1k miles. And i do attest to the fact that the less I drive it the more gremlins go wrong.

Overall however it is a superb car to own and drive so if you have the chance go for it !

Edited by 355fiorano on Tuesday 25th February 13:24

[Andyandyhall]

I've had my Spider for 9 years and had the odd thing go wrong but nothing major. I sourced it from Nick Cartwright and it has currently covered 22k miles and unfortunately I only get to do 1500 miles annually which is a shame. For me £2.5k-£3k per year is totally realistic, I'm prepared for a big bill but thus far I've been lucky. My last service was £700 and my biggest £4,300, I absolutely love it.

browngt3 said:

I heard the 355 is particularly expensive in maintenance costs amongst the Ferrari V8s. Is this true? The experience of some posters would tend to support this. I'm soon to get a nice 308 QV and am expecting (hoping?) an average of 2.5 to 3k a year. Realistic?

[650spider]

I had near 15 years of manual spider ownership...the latter one a fiorano car.

I concur with the higher expenditure camp; parts are a lot more expensive than the mid 2000's and LOTS of parts are on 'back order' at Ferrari with probably next to no chance of being made again...this means trying to find someone to repair old parts or sourcing parts from around the world.


By the end each journey without something going wrong was an absolute result, and mines was a corker with no expense spared on it.

I personally feel any car someone is managing to spend between £500 -£1000 a year is a car to avoid as its had the absolute basic of tlc, unless it is someone like fezspider whom can do almost everything himself, but looking at some of the F355s out there, so i suspect his car is definitely in the minority.

As with MDL, i bought and sold and bought again at low 30's then selling in the near 6 figure bracket. Could they go down to the £40s and even £30s again...i see no reason why not.

The high maintenance costs were justified as the huge rise in value traded it off, however, now the prices are softening its hard to justify....there are still about 45% of the same cars for sale as when i sold mines about 18mths ago.

There are a lot of ropey clocked F355s out there, so you really need to get whatever you are considering inspected by one of the really trusted specialists out there.

Sorry to not sugercoat it.

As much as i still love the look and the sound, i would not consider revisiting the 355.

[67Dino]

I had a ‘98 GTS, low mileage car, that I used every couple of weeks at weekends. I was somewhere in between other posters on bills: normally £2k pa main dealer service with occasional bits needing doing, and £3-4 every 3 years for the cams, so I’d say estimate £2-3k pa.

That said Ferrari ownership is a bit of a lottery, and I certainly wouldn’t want to promise anyone that they definitely won’t get a £5k+ bill at some point. It does happen.

[PushedDover]

Aaaaand - out



But ache to own one

Edited by PushedDover on Tuesday 25th February 23:26

[carspath]

Bought my 1994 , 33,000 mile GTB in Rosso with black interior in 2006 .

All the cars on sale then seemed to have between 15,000 and 35, 000 miles .

Sold my car in 2014 with 54,000 miles on the clock .

My car was one of the , if not the , highest mileage cars on sale at that point in 2014 .


I totally understand having multiple supercars , and not having enough time to drive them , and also the fact that it is increasingly difficult to find decent roads ( principally un-camera'ed ) on which to drive these cars ( get an alarm clock ) , so appreciate that some owners only drive their cars very little each year .

But even taking these and other factors into account , there is a huge disconnect between the odometer readings these 355s were showing in 2006 vs what they are showing in 2020 .

Buyer beware .

[Andyandyhall]

My final point would be to buy a well sorted car with good history from a respected dealer.

I wouldn't touch a car where and owner had a spanner anywhere near it, cheap can be work out to be very dear on these cars.

[cgt2]

I can recall at least one 355 I knew well that belonged to a club member. As we were both 355 owners we often compared running notes. He sold it around 2007 with 40k-ish miles, I remember because mine had similar mileage and we had similar running costs. I noticed the same car up years later with sub 20k. It's ludicrous to think the mileages some of these cars are now showing are genuine and the assumption should be they have been tampered with. It's harder to do now with MOT history checks but until that system came in it was rife.

[ANOpax]

650spider said:

I personally feel any car someone is managing to spend between £500 -£1000 a year is a car to avoid as its had the absolute basic of tlc.

I don't understand your logic here. My car had all its servicing done by a respected independent and the cost of all work including the advisories was a little over £500 a year during the three years I owned it. Why spend money to fix something which isn't broken?

Clearly I had bought a good example and the sheaf of invoices from the same independent showed that earlier owners had paid a higher price while owning it (valve guides and manifolds). But I did my homework (as I expect the OP will do) and bought a car with revamped sticky plastics, valve guides done, challenge manifolds, a fresh cambelt change and a brand new F1 actuator. It never let me down and I had absolute confidence in it.

If owners like 67Dino choose to pay c.£2k for the privilege of having the annual done at a main dealer, that's their prerogative; but in the immortal words of the Blow Monkeys, "it doesn't have to be this way".

[67Dino]

Don’t doubt there’s an amount of clocking going on. However, equally wouldn’t assume that most people with these cars really do use them regularly. You only have to look in the Used section on PH to see new supercars with very low mileages that haven’t been clocked.

The fact is, the owners are asset rich and time poor and the car is treated as a work of art as much as a mode of transport. Totally get that real enthusiasts would wonder why on earth people would buy a car like this in the first place if they don’t drive it, but that is often the reality.

[Cactussed]

My usage has been tied to life events.
when I first bought I was singe and did 5-6k miles pa.
then met the future wife and mileage dropped to 1-2k.
then got married and had kids - dropped to <1k pa.

The last 2 years have been mired in house rebuild, job uncertainty and kids having to go here there and everwhere and I think mileage has been close to zero. Not for lack of desire, but time just isn't available.

And IMHO the car has suffered as a result so currently doing an engine out and once its back together will make a concerted effort to use it more, even if its just early sunday mornings...

[650spider]

ANOpax said:

I don't understand your logic here. My car had all its servicing done by a respected independent and the cost of all work including the advisories was a little over £500 a year during the three years I owned it. Why spend money to fix something which isn't broken?

Clearly I had bought a good example and the sheaf of invoices from the same independent showed that earlier owners had paid a higher price while owning it (valve guides and manifolds). But I did my homework (as I expect the OP will do) and bought a car with revamped sticky plastics, valve guides done, challenge manifolds, a fresh cambelt change and a brand new F1 actuator. It never let me down and I had absolute confidence in it.

If owners like 67Dino choose to pay c.£2k for the privilege of having the annual done at a main dealer, that's their prerogative; but in the immortal words of the Blow Monkeys, "it doesn't have to be this way".

Look at your post; does it sound like your F355 had £500 a year spent on it before your purchase?

I had 2 F355 spiders, selling a standard one to buy the ultra rare fiorano one....one was 'ok', the other a corker.

It does sounds like your independent had some fantastic price structuring there if for 2 services and then the cambelt service it cost you a total of £1500 for your 3 years of ownership..unless of course the cambelt service was never carried out which would then fall into the category i mentioned of the bare minimum of tlc, and as a prospective buyer, i would then wonder what else was 'missed' as it 'wasn't broke'.

Each year i had 3 categories of maintenance; essential, preventative and cosmetic. It all depended what the 1st category was going to cost to determine the budgets of the other 2.

The youngest F355 is now 21 years old and needs tlc; not oil, filter and what's broken.

[rat rod]

Cactussed said:

My usage has been tied to life events.
when I first bought I was singe and did 5-6k miles pa.
then met the future wife and mileage dropped to 1-2k.
then got married and had kids - dropped to <1k pa.

The last 2 years have been mired in house rebuild, job uncertainty and kids having to go here there and everwhere and I think mileage has been close to zero. Not for lack of desire, but time just isn't available.

And IMHO the car has suffered as a result so currently doing an engine out and once its back together will make a concerted effort to use it more, even if its just early sunday mornings...

Sounds a familiar story when owning a ferrari or supercar before marriage but you are a lucky man although not getting to use your f355 that much you still own it which a lot of owners bend with the pressures of what you mention above and sell because you think that's the right thing to do at the time, well done you !

[ANOpax]

650spider said:

Look at your post; does it sound like your F355 had £500 a year spent on it before your purchase?

I had 2 F355 spiders, selling a standard one to buy the ultra rare fiorano one....one was 'ok', the other a corker.

It does sounds like your independent had some fantastic price structuring there if for 2 services and then the cambelt service it cost you a total of £1500 for your 3 years of ownership..unless of course the cambelt service was never carried out which would then fall into the category i mentioned of the bare minimum of tlc, and as a prospective buyer, i would then wonder what else was 'missed' as it 'wasn't broke'.

Each year i had 3 categories of maintenance; essential, preventative and cosmetic. It all depended what the 1st category was going to cost to determine the budgets of the other 2.

The youngest F355 is now 21 years old and needs tlc; not oil, filter and what's broken.

I take your point about the total life cycle of the car when it comes to ‘average’ maintenance cost. But my point is that you can run a 355 for a modest outlay. I’m not advocating banking on it but my experience shows that it can be done. Take the indy vs franchised servicing cost for example - that's a 1.5k difference straight there.

I bought the car knowing that all the major work had been done on it. I also knew (as does the OP) that cambelts need doing every 3-5 years (depending on where you are in the world). I chose to sell before doing the cambelts so I avoided that expense.

As for TLC, what would you advocate beyond oil, filter and what’s broken? Mine had already had all the cosmetics done (spotless engine bay, repainted cam covers, no leather shrinkage, buttresses in fine fettle). If you buy one which is in good condition, then the cost of TLC is minimal and in my case, non existent. One of the silver linings in the cloud of an engine out every 3 years is that a lot of other things get checked and attended to while it’s out!

Edited by ANOpax on Wednesday 26th February 12:35

[MDL111]

2013 MOT of my old car (R448 VLK) - a few years after I sold it. Some of that stuff sounds expensive (corrosion, shocks, probably needs cats [I took them out as they had failed], play in steering rack)

Reason(s) for failure
•Nearside Registration plate lamp not working (1.1.C.1d)
•Nearside Headlamp aim too low (1.8)
•Offside Headlamp aim too low (1.8)
•Nearside Windscreen washer provides insufficient washer liquid (8.2.3)
•Exhaust emissions carbon monoxide content at idle excessive (7.3.D.4)
•Exhaust emissions carbon monoxide content after 2nd fast idle excessive (7.3.D.3)
•Exhaust emissions hydrocarbon content after 2nd fast idle excessive (7.3.D.3)
•Exhaust emissions Lambda reading after 2nd fast idle outside specified limits (7.3.D.3)
•Exhaust engine idle speed too high (7.3.D.1)
•Offside Rear Body or chassis has excessive corrosion, seriously affecting its strength within 30cm of the body mountings (6.1.B.2)
•Offside Front Brake pipe excessively corroded (3.6.B.2c)
•Nearside Rear Shock absorber has a serious fluid leak (2.7.3)

Advisory notice item(s)
•coil spring corroded (2.4.C.1b)
•Rear Anti-roll bar corroded but not seriously weakened (2.4.G.1)
•wipers smearing
•offside air cleaner insec - mountings broken
•Oil leak
•all brake discs pitted
•Play in steering rack inner joint(s)

[67Dino]

ANOpax said:

...
If owners like 67Dino choose to pay c.£2k for the privilege of having the annual done at a main dealer, that's their prerogative; but in the immortal words of the Blow Monkeys, "it doesn't have to be this way".

For that, they don’t just do the annual service. They give you a cup of coffee too, sometimes with a biscuit.

[MDL111]

67Dino said:

ANOpax said:

...
If owners like 67Dino choose to pay c.£2k for the privilege of having the annual done at a main dealer, that's their prerogative; but in the immortal words of the Blow Monkeys, "it doesn't have to be this way".

For that, they don’t just do the annual service. They give you a cup of coffee too, sometimes with a biscuit.

they also have to buy the Poltrona Frau furniture via Ferrari, not allowed to use non-approved couches...)

[67Dino]

MDL111 said:

67Dino said:

ANOpax said:

...
If owners like 67Dino choose to pay c.£2k for the privilege of having the annual done at a main dealer, that's their prerogative; but in the immortal words of the Blow Monkeys, "it doesn't have to be this way".

For that, they don’t just do the annual service. They give you a cup of coffee too, sometimes with a biscuit.

they also have to buy the Poltrona Frau furniture via Ferrari, not allowed to use non-approved couches...)

That’s true, and they also provide up-market magazines. It really is good value when you look at the whole package.

[Bispal]

ANOpax said:

650spider said:

Look at your post; does it sound like your F355 had £500 a year spent on it before your purchase?

I had 2 F355 spiders, selling a standard one to buy the ultra rare fiorano one....one was 'ok', the other a corker.

It does sounds like your independent had some fantastic price structuring there if for 2 services and then the cambelt service it cost you a total of £1500 for your 3 years of ownership..unless of course the cambelt service was never carried out which would then fall into the category i mentioned of the bare minimum of tlc, and as a prospective buyer, i would then wonder what else was 'missed' as it 'wasn't broke'.

Each year i had 3 categories of maintenance; essential, preventative and cosmetic. It all depended what the 1st category was going to cost to determine the budgets of the other 2.

The youngest F355 is now 21 years old and needs tlc; not oil, filter and what's broken.

I take your point about the total life cycle of the car when it comes to ‘average’ maintenance cost. But my point is that you can run a 355 for a modest outlay. I’m not advocating banking on it but my experience shows that it can be done. Take the indy vs franchised servicing cost for example - that's a 1.5k difference straight there.

I bought the car knowing that all the major work had been done on it. I also knew (as does the OP) that cambelts need doing every 3-5 years (depending on where you are in the world). I chose to sell before doing the cambelts so I avoided that expense.

As for TLC, what would you advocate beyond oil, filter and what’s broken? Mine had already had all the cosmetics done (spotless engine bay, repainted cam covers, no leather shrinkage, buttresses in fine fettle). If you buy one which is in good condition, then the cost of TLC is minimal and in my case, non existent. One of the silver linings in the cloud of an engine out every 3 years is that a lot of other things get checked and attended to while it’s out!

Edited by ANOpax on Wednesday 26th February 12:35

There is no way you can run a 355 for £500 pa unless you are a mechanic and do everything yourself or don't do anything. Every respected Indy charges between £2 - £2.5k for an engine out every 3 years and that's without any of the extras. Every service I had was over £2k. These cars eat alternators and they are £300 refurbished with fitting on top. I went through 3 in 12 months! And then there is the service where you need 'Ferrari Grease' smeared on your flywheel at £50 per finger smear! I suspect you were very, very lucky and perhaps it wasn't an independent but a local garage doing an oil and filter change and nothing preventative.

I bought mine from a trusted friend just after a major engine out service at possibly the most respected Indy in the south of England with nothing needing doing but it meant diddly squat as anything can go wrong at any time and it did.

I stand by my initial post that you need to set aside at least £5k pa average excluding petrol / insurance / tax to keep a 355 on the road with a mediocum of preventative maintenance included. Anything other than that and you are exceedingly lucky and you are the exception not the rule.

I came to the conclusion I would rather spend the £5k pa on a McLaren warranty so that's what I did. The 355 is an excellent car but it comes with its downsides and chief amongst these are the running costs and they are significant so any potential owner needs to be fully aware of this.

Edited by Bispal on Wednesday 26th February 14:21

[MDL111]

67Dino said:

MDL111 said:

67Dino said:

ANOpax said:

...
If owners like 67Dino choose to pay c.£2k for the privilege of having the annual done at a main dealer, that's their prerogative; but in the immortal words of the Blow Monkeys, "it doesn't have to be this way".

For that, they don’t just do the annual service. They give you a cup of coffee too, sometimes with a biscuit.

they also have to buy the Poltrona Frau furniture via Ferrari, not allowed to use non-approved couches...)

That’s true, and they also provide up-market magazines. It really is good value when you look at the whole package.

yeah that is what I told myself when they sent me the 13k service bill recently
in all fairness, while they do charge a lot per hour, I have always found the staff at my dealer very helpful and generally very nice. Plus being invited to stuff like the Lusso Courmayeur event last year certainly makes for a very nice trip/experience. So overall I think it is ok [of course if I still lived in the UK and had a 355, it would go to an independent]