Buying F430 Spider - Opinion

[Rip32]

Hi Chaps – I’m currently in the hunt for a F430 Spider. Spec wise as long as it’s red and the mileage is below or around 10,000 miles, I’m not particularly bothered about anything else.

I’m a typical petrol head and have brought and sold many sports cars of the years, however for the last few years I’ve stayed away from dealers as I think the premium they charge is not value for money.

My method is to ascertain an estimate of what a dealer is offering for the car as a trade in, and then offer more than a dealer (i.e. I’m trying to beat the dealers to the cars). This has worked well for the last 3 cars I’ve purchased.

This is the sort of car I’m after
http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/3408411.htm

From my research I’m guessing the dealer would be looking to pay 67.5K.

What do you guys think my estimate is correct?

Thanks

Edited by Rip32 on Wednesday 16th November 15:52

Edited by Rip32 on Friday 25th November 14:22

[sone]

I'd personally pay that for that paticular car from a main dealer with a 2 year full Ferrari Warranty it looks very very nice.
It's great to buy cheaper but to be honest but with cars of this value I'd rather stay with reputable dealers and maintain a neat and tidy history.
Having bought a Ferrari privately before for what seemed a good price and getting burnt, I'd say never again.

Just my humble

Steve

[Rip32]

Hi Steve - Appreciate the feedback, do you mind sharing the details of what happened to you?

[sone]

Bought a 360 from a small independent, many minor niggles which were wrong with the car at the time of sale but ignored by the dealer. Had to twist the dealers arm to sort. Six months in and engine failure, top end re-build, new clutch and thrust bearing. Very expensive few weeks.
By comparison I bought a 430 from Meridien Modena, picked it up fully serviced warranted with not a single fault drove it for 6-7k miles with he reassurance that if something went wrong I'd just have to pick the phone up.
Next time I'm in the Market for a Ferrari ( soon I hope) I know where I'll be beading!.

[Mike Brown]

Same hear would only buy a Ferrari from a dealer with backup, mine came from Meridian Modena, yes a premium over private but much less worrying.

[markst]

i have bought and sold a 360 and 430 privately, and in the end it all comes down to price....if you want all the dealer back up and prep, well be prepared to lose at least £10k the moment you buy the car, then there is depreciation on top of that.....so you can easily lose £15 to 20k in 1 year.

i lost 6k on my 360, and 3 on my 430...both were great cars and i had no problems with either....the biggest problem is sellers thinking their cars are worth nearly retail..

if you buy privately just dont over pay......and make sure you get a ppi

[Rip32]

In summary so far....

Looks like the private to dealer spread is probably £10K (at least) for a F430, but people dont mind paying for this for the piece of mind. The other interesting point is that privates are pricing the cars at around the same value as dealers.

So I guess I have 2 questions

1. Has anybody recently sold an F430 privately and what sort of money did you get for it?
2. Was the dealer spread around 10K?

[FerrariV8]

And more importantly what was the dealer spend in preparation costs?

T.

[lambo_xx]

Rip32 said:

Hi Chaps – I’m currently in the hunt for a F430 Spider. Spec wise as long as it’s red (yes this is my first Ferrari) and the mileage is below or around 10,000 miles, I’m not particularly bothered about anything else.

I’m a typical petrol head and have brought and sold many sports cars of the years, however for the last few years I’ve stayed away from dealers as I think the premium they charge is not value for money.

My method is to ascertain an estimate of what a dealer is offering for the car as a trade in, and then offer more than a dealer (i.e. I’m trying to beat the dealers to the cars). This has worked well for the last 3 cars I’ve purchased.

This is the sort of car I’m after
http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/3408411.htm

From my research I’m guessing the dealer would be looking to pay 67.5K.

What do you guys think my estimate is correct?

Thanks

Edited by Rip32 on Wednesday 16th November 15:52

Yes that's probably about right in terms of what a dealer would pay for that particular car.

In my opinion and as others have already said, buying from a dealer is probably worth the extra cash. When I bought my 430 it came with a 1 year warranty (Ferrari now offer a 2 year warranty) and it was great. I had a couple problems with my car in the 1st year I owned it, nothing major but annoying little things and living about 120 miles away from a dealer is a problem if something goes wrong. Ferrari picked my car up, on a transporter, from my house anytime something was wrong (including a flat battery). Which without the warranty would have cost me a fortune. More than anything though I liked the reassurance it gave you knowing that if something major went wrong you know you wouldn’t have to foot the bill!

If you don’t buy from a dealer at least consider putting a Ferrari approved warranty on the car. It’s about £2k from memory. I think its money well spent, even if just to give you the reassurance that there’s a safety net should something go wrong.

Hope that helps, any more questions feel free to ask.

[Rip32]

lambo_xx said:

Yes that's probably about right in terms of what a dealer would pay for that particular car.

In my opinion and as others have already said, buying from a dealer is probably worth the extra cash. When I bought my 430 it came with a 1 year warranty (Ferrari now offer a 2 year warranty) and it was great. I had a couple problems with my car in the 1st year I owned it, nothing major but annoying little things and living about 120 miles away from a dealer is a problem if something goes wrong. Ferrari picked my car up, on a transporter, from my house anytime something was wrong (including a flat battery). Which without the warranty would have cost me a fortune. More than anything though I liked the reassurance it gave you knowing that if something major went wrong you know you wouldn’t have to foot the bill!

If you don’t buy from a dealer at least consider putting a Ferrari approved warranty on the car. It’s about £2k from memory. I think its money well spent, even if just to give you the reassurance that there’s a safety net should something go wrong.

Hope that helps, any more questions feel free to ask.

I should have I would be putting a Ferrari power warranty on the car.

The car I referenced in the original post is not from a Ferrari dealer, so I suspect it would come with some sort of "any car 3 month warranty".

Does it make sense to buy from this dealer who has probably made 10K on the car and then still have to pay 2K for a Ferrari warranty?

[johnnyreggae]

Doesn't it depend on if you trust the dealer and to what extent you feel the need for a warranty - surely their margin is irrelevant if you get a deal you can live with and a guarantee which suits you - from the classified here it looks like there are cars from £ 63 up and I'd guess the dealers who are more experienced in the marque will be more realistic at the moment both in their asking prices and their final deal

[markst]

will be interesting to see where prices are going......not a lot is moving unless its good value - esp 430s

[kbf1981]

markst said:

will be interesting to see where prices are going......not a lot is moving unless its good value - esp 430s

I think this is just winter.

[Rip32]

I'm going to see some over the weekend. Hardly any private ones for sale.

Looks like I'm going to be paying 80K for one.