is it possible to run an F355 as an everyday car?

[tony h]

we have an owner here www.clubscuderia.com who is on his second daily 355 and he raves about it. be aware tho that mileage is a killer for residuals and there are quite a few fragile parts on the car to go wrong. if you're going to do it , buy an early ,higher mileage car which has already worn most of the depreciation. also check out this site www.the355.com

[elms]

6000 mile a year isnt going to be too much of a killer on a 355. Nice cars to drive daily, the consumables are going to cost more than your 911 for sure, but with that mileage your doing you are still only going to be having a service once a year, and they get better the miles they do.

[ditomaso]

piece of cake, just make sure you buy a high miler with all the necessary upgrades, there are some corkers out there where owners has spent thousands on valve guide replacement, new manifolds etc, so if you're lucky, you can pick up a good GTB for £35K with 30K miles completely sorted

[ferrarispider]

If ya going to do this. Then a top tip that i will give you is dont buy the Cream but black leather. Cream just wont hold up well as an every day car. The cream leather wears its colour away to dam fast. The problem area is the drivers side bolsters, especially were one gets in and out of the car.Black maintains its look for much longer.

Edited by ferrarispider on Wednesday 5th September 10:22

[LAM_VT]

I drove a 355 Spider every single day for 3 years, very easy cars to drive even around town (stopping & starting). My bills were never that major in it either despite using it so much. The main killer price wise are the cambelts ... so if you do decide to get one make sure these have been done.

ferrarispider said:

The cream leather wears its colour away to dam fast. The problem area is the drivers side bolsters, especially were one gets in and out of the car.

True, mine was cream, but every 3-4 months i'd mix up a coctail of leather paint / dye to match the exact cream colour and with the use of artists airbrush + compressor i'd re-coat the worn areas. They then looked like new again.

[355gary]

for what it is worth, I do about 12K/pa in my 355, with no major problems. It is not an everyday car but comes out most weekends (all year), and several euro trips. You MUST check the oil regularly with this sort of mileage, but otherwise no problems. 'oh' and to get the best out of your daily ride insist on a capristo eshaust

[Murph7355]

elms said:

6000 mile a year isnt going to be too much of a killer on a 355. Nice cars to drive daily, the consumables are going to cost more than your 911 for sure, but with that mileage your doing you are still only going to be having a service once a year, and they get better the miles they do.

Spot on.

Would also disagree with Chaa slightly (and only ever from a distance! ). If you add seat refreshing to your annual regime and try to avoid sliding jeans down the bolsters, crema handles abuse quite well. I also think it makes the interior a much nicer place to be, and it gets a lovely patina to it over time.

If you buy a car in the mid-£30s (or even late £30s) and use it, no matter what the miles how much can it seriously drop in value if you look after it...and as has been implied, many of the low mileage cars out there probably aren't low miles in reality

Great cars that deserve to be used properly.

[Bebs]

I just rounded 113,000 km in my 360 yesterday

[bakes]

I've just taken the plunge and moved from years of Porsche ownership to a 355. I use it every day and so far so good (1 month in)I was surprised at how normal they can be to drive around town, commuting etc, but just how special they are on an open road. Will be interesting in the winter though! Went for the dark interior as no matter how hard you try, getting in and out, over quite a wide sill, is very hard to do gently.
Do it and enjoy it - there's nothing quite like it