Does anyone have knowledge regarding Ferraris? Or even better, actually own one?

Does anyone have knowledge regarding Ferraris? Or even better, actually own one?
I'm trying to find some middle ground between dropping way too much for a new or almost new model, and owning something too old (where constant repair/maintenance is a given).
There's probably only a few models that fit this profile.

FCA A SHIT

456
355
360
Mondial
400 (though prices are really rising fast)

All Ferraris are an anus to maintain, however those in the list are roughly at their rock bottom price, so you can get one and be fairly confident that it's value will increase in the next 5-10 years

>dedicated boards and sites exist
>he asks on Veeky Forums

You could try and be less dense.

You listed off the most expensive to maintain models minus the Testarossa

Best bet is a 550 or 430. 355 and earlier V8 cars are belt+engine out so you are looking at $7k minimum every 3 years. 360 is belt but you can do the major through the passenger compartment. Spiders will cost more because you have to take the top mechanism out to do the major. 430s are the first car with a timing chain.

The Mondial and 400 are on that list for a reason, though. There's something to be said about the Mondial's practicality and how in a very Swedish way it's reliable if maintained properly, but like you said, Ferraris are a bitch in that regard.

Why someone would pass up a 355 or a 360 for the sake of a 400 is completely beyond me.

The 400 is beautiful, one of the most elegant designs Ferrari has ever made

Thanks for the help.
I would probably take the 360 out of those. But it sounds like they weren't produced after '05, so I'm dealing with an 11 year old car at a minimum.
I'm not experienced with maintenance, but wonder if that's too old already.

430 looks good from this group. It also looks like this came as a manual, which I'd long ago given up on.

360 versus 430, I guess. Are there some obvious pros and cons, other than that the 430 was produced up to '09? Looks like stick is possible for both.

I'll write a short synopsis of what I think of each of the actually attainable modern models

308- great looking, much smaller than you would expect, difficult maintenance, not fun to drive
328- addresses some driving issues but still not a great driver and a handful to maintain
Mondial- the worst of this era, not many redeemable qualities
Mondial T- MUCH better than the non T, really underrated. Still expensive to keep on the road but make a nice driver, especially the Spiders (which most are, they hardly made any coupes)
Testarossa - I love them but they are a handful to drive, and tough to work on. The 512TR and M are big improvements over the early models but getting extremely expensive.

I'll stop here because it was the end of an era of sorts even though it blends into the 348. All these cars are small, cramped passenger compartments, huge pedal offsets, your hands will hit the windshield and gauge visor if you aren't careful, they don't feel like how you probably imagine what a Ferrari is like or anything like the new cars, they are extremely Italian, they don't care about what the driver thinks.

348- terrible quality on these, IDK what was going on with Ferrari at the time.
355- this is where the V8 cars just started to grow into ones that normal people actually fit in. The 355 kind of stands on it's own though to me, it still feels "exotic" while the 360 and forward don't in my opinion. The F1 cars are cool because the trans is still very analog, it has a throttle cable so it won't invasively cut power when you shift. Not very reliable especially the F1 cars
456- another transitional feeling car, extremely comfy, the manual cars are really cool, but most are auto. Early electronic adjustable suspension has constant issues, all in all not a reliable car
360 - This is the vanilla Ferrari in my eyes. F1 still has issues but the rest of the car is extremely solid, the manual cars are one of the easiest to keep on the road and rack up miles on. They are deceptively crashy, the 355 feels hard to drive, the 360 feels easy but still doesn't have advanced traction control like would come later.
550/575 - the best and most underrated modern Ferrari imo. Great to drive, still soft enough to be a great GT car, but more than enough performance to scare yourself. Still suspension issues like with the 456 but to less of a degree, and like all F1 cars the 575 F1s eat clutches, but aside from that they are really solid and easy to work on.

I'd love a 400 with one of the later V12s swapped in

>tfw no 348 with a few simple mods
it would be great to have one with the issues ironed out, no one is gonna cry about originality on one of these and to me it looks like the archetypal v8 ferrari, only the 355 runs it close in looks.

430 - obviously similar to the 360 in a lot of ways, but you can feel that it's faster when you drive it. This is when Ferrari realized they could makes tens of thousands on options, so individual cars feel more distinct. Same story as with the 360, mostly solid and easy to maintain except the F1 trans.
599 - not a huge fan of these, they go to far down the performance road imo which takes away from a GT car. Large, hard to see out of, too stiff, it's a good car to impress a passenger on a 5 minute drive but not something I would want to live with
612 - similar feeling to the 599, just heavier and softer. I'd take the 612 out of the two, though not a big fan of either
458 - kind of like going from the 355 to the 360 this car is just on another planet than the previous cars and hardly comparable. Extremely easy to drive, trans makes the F1 look like a non syncro 3 speed on an old truck, but loaded with twice as many electronics as the previous cars. It's really a great car, just not my cup of tea.

I'll stop there, don't know as much about FFs and F12s or the 488 as very few have had enough miles on them to really see how they are going to last

Thanks for your input.
I'm leaning toward a 430, figuring I can pick up a low mileage stick for $110K or so. Any pitfalls that you know of regarding this model? Better years or some such? I'd probably want an '09 if possible, but am willing to drop it back to avoid serious maintenance issues, problems, etc.

Good luck finding a stick 430, prices are through the roof right now. There's no major changes model year wise that I remember, they were already basically an updated model on the 360. The only problem I saw a few times on the earlier models was sometimes the instrument cluster will revert back to metric and it's a few grand and a few weeks to send out to be reprogrammed. They also get the sticky interior, you can look up what that is, there's a few places that can fix it, stickynomore and stickyrx. Here's an F1 430 with 150k miles on it that did over 100 track days, developed a whine inside the gearbox. The main thing with buying a 430 or anything from that era on is make sure it has all the right options you want, if you don't like daytona seats, carbon interior trim, etc. it's going to be too expensive to change anything or next to impossible if your interior has a unique color.

Fuck, seriously?
I see an '05 for 110K, but that's about it so far.
Were you thinking more like $150K?

Although if I'm going back as far as '05, I guess I could go with a cheaper 360.

>tfw no 348 challenege

There's some drama around a dealer who saw someone posted a Challenge car that never had the kit installed, not understanding what it really was, bought it for $55k off the Fchat classifieds and turned it around for $150k a month later. Here's a complete uninstalled kit + car that someone owns, super cool. 348 and 355 Challenge cars have titles and are street legal.

How do you have so much insight on Ferraris? Are you a mechanic, owner, or a huge fan? Your posts sound pretty legit, so just curious.

Mechanic, just quit to go to another brand

Either way you'll be spending way too much.
Just get one that you like.

>Either way you'll be spending way too much.
Oh, I'm sure of that.

>Just get one that you like
It'll work better the other way, I think. I'll find out there's maybe three models that aren't 20 years old, expensive as fuck to maintain, and available in stick.
I'm guessing that picking between the three shouldn't be that hard, I can base that part on the look.

>ferrari
>not shit
Pick one and only one

Whats the deal with changing timing belts every 3 years? Are the ferrari belts made from chewing gum? Does the engine constantly leak oil all over them and degrade them? Because it sure as fuck isn't because the engine is so highly tuned.

Just go hard Miami Vice and buy a Testarossa. Initial buy-in is super low compared to others even though they've been appreciating like mad recently. They're the most prolific so parts will be available for a long time to come and you'll have an easier time finding a mechanic who can do the shit unless they've started to finally die.

The downside is maintenance isn't as low tier as it could be. Body-off tuneups are fairly regular even compared to other exotics.

But you can take it to Koenig and run 900bhp+ and be a mad cunt.

Nah, I never liked them.
I originally wanted a 328, but gave up when I figured out the most recent one would be a 20 year old car at a minimum.
And its sounding like a bitch to get a stick regardless of model.

Why not a 430?

>sour grapes

Some people push them longer. 3 years is recommended by Ferrari, used to be 5 but they changed it. If you don't follow the recommended service interval your car drops in value a lot, which is an important thing to most owners. They are interference engines so if the belt slips or breaks you are looking at tens of thousands for a rebuild.

>Asking a Ferrari forum for an honest opinion
They are overpriced fire hazards

I love the engines and styling but that's literally it

The last Ferrari I cared about was the f40 and enzo

I like the 430.
In fact, that's probably my first pick, assuming I can get it stick. That might be problematic.

>fire hazards
I read some nasty shit about the 458, are lots of their models prone to that shit?

yellow best color for ferrari 2bh
r8 my ferrari lads

The 458 had a recall campaign that fixed the issue right after the car came out. 355s also had a recall because if you put the hose clamp on for one of the radiator hoses at the wrong angle the end of it would rub on the fuel line and a few cars burned down, the recall moves the distribution block up a few inches. They are obviously more susceptible to fires than an econobox because there's a high strung engine shoved in the back of a car that they can't run in proving grounds for millions of miles before release like they can a Camry, but that's true of any exotic. Put a fire extinguisher in the car if it concerns you.

Thanks for the info, that's good stuff to know about.

Ferrari loves meddling with the used market

fucking wop trash

>interference engines
Have been reading about these.
Are they prevalent? Or are there a decent number of models that went with a less compact design?