Hi Tech (Hi-tech!!)

I guess part of the answer depends on how skilled you are as a mechanic,
if you can service a Ferrari, you're going to save *some* money,
however the real costs are parts, and Ferrari parts prices are... well,
hilarious. Basically everything costs about five times what it would for an
'average' car. Of course this varies according to the part in question, but
the
difficulty is that so many parts must be Ferrari supplied, so you have to
pay
their prices.

Tightly coupled to this unfortunate fact, is that you're buying an 'old car'
and
even Ferraris suffer over the years. Now most people who actually own a
Ferrari will tell you that they seem to survive better than most cars -
however
a lot of this can be put down to the fact that most people don't put that
many
miles on them.

My experience is based on owing an '84 308 GTS, which I have had since
1995 and which gets driven hard (no, I don't mean smoking the tyres at
traffic lights - I mean touring extensively up and down the Alps!) -
I've had various problems over the years and these include
(in ascending order of severity):

Seized callipers (three, over the years)
Worn differential
Worn rear shaft
Synchro failed on third gear
Corroded oil cooler (which 'took out' one of the petrol tanks)
Rust.

As you can see, most of these are simply 'wear & tear' issues, which you
have to expect on a car which is 20 years old.

Bottom line - a typical annual trip to the garage (specialist, but not
dealer) costs me ?1,500 - ?2,000 (double that for dollars).
BUT that can double if something expensive needs replacing.

You also have to budget for a host of silly little things that
nonetheless will cost you big. for example - the other week a
side light (running light in the US?) failed. 'That'll be a bulb'
I thought - nope. 'Ok, the contact is a bit rusty, I'll clean it' -
nope. 'Ok, I'll remove the bumper, take out the light unit and
have a look' - turns out to be no more than a broken piece of
the plastic mounting for the bulb. I call Ferrari UK, and yes,
the have one in stock, *but* the 'part number' covers the
plastic mounting, the connectors, a set of screws and the lens!
and they'd like ?100 for it.

Shite.

I decide (since I have the bumper off) to take a look at the
other unit and yes, its 'on its way out'...

so, that will be TWO units, then.  In short, it went from a one
dollar light bulb to about $400 in about twenty minutes...

...and THAT is what Ferrari ownership is like.

Check out my web site for the rust story, and other pics

I hope this helps, Phil will be along in a minute to give you
more information.

Paul

P.S Its worth every penny!!!!!
--
Http://www.redmist.freeserve.co.uk (Now featuring the a.a.f. directory)

Sounds like you are in 328/348 territory with that kind of money - I doubt
you would get into a 355 for that but I'd imagine you'd get a good 328/348.
You might get into a Testarossa if 12 cylinders is your thing - I'm not that
up to speed with the market prices.

328s are at least 15 years old now, 348s, 10 or so year's old

The maintenance bill you get will depend on how good the car is when you buy
it - unless you get very lucky you should expect to spend several $1,000 on
bring it up to spec & sorting it out to where you want it to be -  and
secondly on the mileage you intend to do (and of course the mileage the car
has done). That said they are fairly simple cars without too much in the way
of electronics and , in many respects, pretty bomb-proof. What you "hear"
about needing a mechanic living with you is most likely from people who
"heard  it" somewhere else !

I've had a 328 for the last 5 years - in that time I've put about 10K miles
on it & it hasn't needed anything other than basic, scheduled maintenance &
a set of brake pads. Overall its a fallacy that properly maintained Ferraris
spend half their lives on a workshop ramp.

One or two of our residents here do their own spannering - on 308s & 328s -
whether you can depends on the facilities you have & your own
capabilities/inclintion to do so!

348s tend to be more expensive to maintain - changing the cambelts (every 3
years) involves removing the engine because it's mounted "North-South".

There's been a lot written here about this kind of stuff in the last few
years - have a Google & see what you can find

rgds

Iain