Discussion
Hi guys, I'm posting this on behalf of a friend of mine whos looking at buying a 1985 308 GTB. He's currently driving a 2000 Elise Sport160 with various modifications (great car actually) but can't resist the prancing horse for much longer!
His main queries are (unsuprisingly)servicing costs on a 308, the car is at a Ferrari Specialists for 29,995 with extrememly low miles and is apparently like new.
The mileage he covers in the Elise is less than 4K a year and isn't going to be any more in a Ferrari, plus it's garaged and just a weekend toy really so to me it seems the ideal situation for older Ferrari ownership.
Basically if any of you have any other good advice that I can pass on then I'd be gratefull.
His main queries are (unsuprisingly)servicing costs on a 308, the car is at a Ferrari Specialists for 29,995 with extrememly low miles and is apparently like new.
The mileage he covers in the Elise is less than 4K a year and isn't going to be any more in a Ferrari, plus it's garaged and just a weekend toy really so to me it seems the ideal situation for older Ferrari ownership.
Basically if any of you have any other good advice that I can pass on then I'd be gratefull.
Nev Pugh is your man for this Neil; don't know that much about 308s. One of my neighbours has a 328 that he says costs him £1K a year to run. The flip side is a chap I met karting, who bought a 308GT4 which went pop on him after he'd driven 300 miles in it.
I wouldn't believe the mileage, and even if by some fluke it's genuine, it's not a good thing. The main concern is that it's an old car and stuff may have perished. An engineers report would go some way towards minimising the lottery element. If it were me I'd buy one that has been used regularly for the last couple of years.
I wouldn't believe the mileage, and even if by some fluke it's genuine, it's not a good thing. The main concern is that it's an old car and stuff may have perished. An engineers report would go some way towards minimising the lottery element. If it were me I'd buy one that has been used regularly for the last couple of years.
Well, I'm no expert but I've had a 308 (1980 carb car) and a 328 (1986 pre abs). The 308 was bought from a 'name' garage in North London and inspected by a company that I also can't mention the name of, but were meant to be independant.
To be fair it (the 308) wasn't a concourse car and I never expected it to be. The inspection raised quite a lot of issues, but missed a lot more. After being supposedly 'sorted' the car suffered oil, water and petrol leaks that had plainly been missed.
After that it was great. I really liked it. It never broke down even in silverstone traffic. It was a bit of a rusty heap if I'm honest, and not that fast either, but somehow it was a bit special.
I had it serviced at DK engineering in watford, who were very professional. Cost: about 2k, including sorting out a lot of the long term niggles that the inspection had missed. Afer that the running costs should have been about 1k to 1.5k a year, ignoring the bodywork which would also have needed some work. I sold it to buy a house so that was the end of that.
The 328 I bought from Kent High performance. They serviced it for 2 years, nothing went wrong or fell off, then I sold it through them when I need to buy another house (bit of a recurring theme there unfortunately). All in all, although the car didn't quite have the character of the 308, the 'ownership expirience' was much better.
So, I'd say the most important thing about buying an older ferrari is where you get it from. Can you say (I don't want to get anyone into trouble here!) where you're looking ?
For a good sorted car expect 1 to 1.5k per year for maintainence from an independant, but if it needs bodywork I'd walk away. If you can, insure it on a limited milage policy (I used AON + paid about 400 quid a year for 3000 miles).
I did hear from someone that lot's of 308s have had their speedos disconnected between services to keep the mileage down but I'm not sure how reliable this is.
Good luck !!
>> Edited by dougt on Tuesday 24th December 08:35
>> Edited by dougt on Tuesday 24th December 08:37
To be fair it (the 308) wasn't a concourse car and I never expected it to be. The inspection raised quite a lot of issues, but missed a lot more. After being supposedly 'sorted' the car suffered oil, water and petrol leaks that had plainly been missed.
After that it was great. I really liked it. It never broke down even in silverstone traffic. It was a bit of a rusty heap if I'm honest, and not that fast either, but somehow it was a bit special.
I had it serviced at DK engineering in watford, who were very professional. Cost: about 2k, including sorting out a lot of the long term niggles that the inspection had missed. Afer that the running costs should have been about 1k to 1.5k a year, ignoring the bodywork which would also have needed some work. I sold it to buy a house so that was the end of that.
The 328 I bought from Kent High performance. They serviced it for 2 years, nothing went wrong or fell off, then I sold it through them when I need to buy another house (bit of a recurring theme there unfortunately). All in all, although the car didn't quite have the character of the 308, the 'ownership expirience' was much better.
So, I'd say the most important thing about buying an older ferrari is where you get it from. Can you say (I don't want to get anyone into trouble here!) where you're looking ?
For a good sorted car expect 1 to 1.5k per year for maintainence from an independant, but if it needs bodywork I'd walk away. If you can, insure it on a limited milage policy (I used AON + paid about 400 quid a year for 3000 miles).
I did hear from someone that lot's of 308s have had their speedos disconnected between services to keep the mileage down but I'm not sure how reliable this is.
Good luck !!
>> Edited by dougt on Tuesday 24th December 08:35
>> Edited by dougt on Tuesday 24th December 08:37
Hi all. Well, here I am, back to work, full of cold 
So if any of the following is slightly odd or bad English then blame the cold and fly remedy which I'm currently pumped full of ...
ahh-chooo!
Out of any prancing badged car, the 308 has got to be one of the less painful ways of getting into ownership. Just to reiterate some of the comments above, find yourself a nice friendly specialist first of all (can recommend Shiltech in Loughborough, cannot recomment a Derbyshire based specialist I'm not going to name). About 1000 to 1500 per year is about right I guess, but like anything you get peaks and troughs. I do 80% of the work on my car myself (leaving the difficult stuff to the specialist) which helps keep costs down. Servicing is every 3000 miles or every year, and will cost about 500 quid a pop. Belts cost between 500-700 quid a go, and that's every 3 or 4 years, or 12000 miles or so (check, I forget).
Whatever you do, and whereever you buy the car from ..... SPEND 200-300 QUID ON AN INDEPENDENT INSPECTION BEFORE PURCHASE. I cannot stress this enough. Get someone who knows the cars too.
I seem to have got a good car (which there are plenty of out there, so if you find a bad car, walk away). In my 2+ years of ownership I've spent about 800 on servicing (parts), 800 quid with the specialist (usually in 200-300 quid "bursts"), and 400-500 on odds-and-sods repairs. The only things that have really gone wrong with the car are : plug lead started to break down (caused slight misfire when cold), bit of dirt blocked a jet in a carb, speedo sensor went pop (90 quid from Ferrari), a couple of heat shields (60 & 120 quid) ... and I think that's about it. She's even been fairly free of minor electrical niggles.
Low mileage : can be a boon, and a pain. Boon coz generally the low mileage cars are usually in better condition, body and interior wise. Pain coz the cars that get run every day really do run a LOT better. BY the way, 29995 sounds a bit steep .... I've not seen a 308 for sale above 28000 for a while now, the prices have been hit a bit because of the stock market etc, plus the fact that it's winter at the moment. I personally wouldn't pay more than 27500 for a minter, in the current market. If it's a dealer he's buying from, make sure he gets a decent warrenty.
I'll add more to this at a future time, I feel a bit odd at the moment (head = porriage)
So if any of the following is slightly odd or bad English then blame the cold and fly remedy which I'm currently pumped full of ... ahh-chooo! Out of any prancing badged car, the 308 has got to be one of the less painful ways of getting into ownership. Just to reiterate some of the comments above, find yourself a nice friendly specialist first of all (can recommend Shiltech in Loughborough, cannot recomment a Derbyshire based specialist I'm not going to name). About 1000 to 1500 per year is about right I guess, but like anything you get peaks and troughs. I do 80% of the work on my car myself (leaving the difficult stuff to the specialist) which helps keep costs down. Servicing is every 3000 miles or every year, and will cost about 500 quid a pop. Belts cost between 500-700 quid a go, and that's every 3 or 4 years, or 12000 miles or so (check, I forget).
Whatever you do, and whereever you buy the car from ..... SPEND 200-300 QUID ON AN INDEPENDENT INSPECTION BEFORE PURCHASE. I cannot stress this enough. Get someone who knows the cars too.
I seem to have got a good car (which there are plenty of out there, so if you find a bad car, walk away). In my 2+ years of ownership I've spent about 800 on servicing (parts), 800 quid with the specialist (usually in 200-300 quid "bursts"), and 400-500 on odds-and-sods repairs. The only things that have really gone wrong with the car are : plug lead started to break down (caused slight misfire when cold), bit of dirt blocked a jet in a carb, speedo sensor went pop (90 quid from Ferrari), a couple of heat shields (60 & 120 quid) ... and I think that's about it. She's even been fairly free of minor electrical niggles.
Low mileage : can be a boon, and a pain. Boon coz generally the low mileage cars are usually in better condition, body and interior wise. Pain coz the cars that get run every day really do run a LOT better. BY the way, 29995 sounds a bit steep .... I've not seen a 308 for sale above 28000 for a while now, the prices have been hit a bit because of the stock market etc, plus the fact that it's winter at the moment. I personally wouldn't pay more than 27500 for a minter, in the current market. If it's a dealer he's buying from, make sure he gets a decent warrenty.
I'll add more to this at a future time, I feel a bit odd at the moment (head = porriage)
I've just done a bit of a brain dump on buying a 308 to my web site. Go to
www.fugazi.co.uk/
and follow the links (308 site, buyers guide)
Nev
www.fugazi.co.uk/
and follow the links (308 site, buyers guide)
Nev
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