Would you trade your 993 for a F355?
10-12-2015, 07:09 PM
#61
Race Car
Thread Starter
Originally Posted by Madturk
The question that was never asked is will this be your only car? If it is and you are planning to use it as a daily driver I too would keep the Porsche. If not don't be afraid to take the Ferrari on long road trips or stop by at the grocery store on the way back home and even if it rains. It won't melt.
BTW, the 360 prices are already lower than the 355 in most cases.
BTW, the 360 prices are already lower than the 355 in most cases.
10-12-2015, 11:58 PM
#63
Three Wheelin'
I dropped the idea of owning a Ferrari (360 was my target) when I started digging into it and discovered the maintenance costs involved. That, combined with the fact that I would have to drive almost 3 hours to get that service was a deal killer. But I do still love them.
10-13-2015, 12:27 AM
#64
Burning Brakes
the 355 with capristo exhaust is mind blowing. If it had the maintenance schedule of the 430 without engine out belt services I would have one in my garage. I just cant justify the amount of cash it can leave you out of pocket when something goes wrong.
10-13-2015, 01:30 AM
#66
Three Wheelin'
10-13-2015, 01:52 AM
#67
Not sure what it is. No one seems to be able confirm it. I'm having gothspeed build me a custom system like that with headers. Expensive but it'll be worth it at the end. It'll be here soon. Can't wait
10-13-2015, 09:15 AM
#68
Race Director
Sound is overrated on ferraris, unless you like that high pitched sound.
Torque is missing. 268lb ft at 6000rpm? I get that you need to rev the nuts off ferraris and people think thats cool, but I far prefer having useable torque at a non stupid RPM figure.
Parts. Availability is ****, prices are stupid in the little yellow box, and the parts are just not made to porsche standards. Cat ECUs and tensioner bearings are decent examples.
Issues: Valve guides, exhaust headers, interior leather that shrinks if you look at it funny, sticky interior parts, paint cracking by the buttresses, throw out bearing, tensioner bearings, cam gear gates (could be the 348, can't remember).
Lets not even talk about the quality of the paintwork, fit and finish of the body panels, sturdiness of the interior etc.
of course, every ferrari owner will come in here and tell us that their car never had any of these issues and that its all a myth...and they are full of ****. These cars, especially the 355, don't have the reputation they do because of a few anecdotes. There's plenty of owners out there with records showing $20k repair bills.
Now, the 355 is a beautiful car, but they are simply not that great to drive in my opinion (except the cool clack of the gated shifter). Combine that with the dodgy reliability and repair costs, and its a non starter.
I would, however, trade my 993TT for a F430 with a 6 speed manual, but I'd be about $80k short, and that I'm not going to pay.
Torque is missing. 268lb ft at 6000rpm? I get that you need to rev the nuts off ferraris and people think thats cool, but I far prefer having useable torque at a non stupid RPM figure.
Parts. Availability is ****, prices are stupid in the little yellow box, and the parts are just not made to porsche standards. Cat ECUs and tensioner bearings are decent examples.
Issues: Valve guides, exhaust headers, interior leather that shrinks if you look at it funny, sticky interior parts, paint cracking by the buttresses, throw out bearing, tensioner bearings, cam gear gates (could be the 348, can't remember).
Lets not even talk about the quality of the paintwork, fit and finish of the body panels, sturdiness of the interior etc.
of course, every ferrari owner will come in here and tell us that their car never had any of these issues and that its all a myth...and they are full of ****. These cars, especially the 355, don't have the reputation they do because of a few anecdotes. There's plenty of owners out there with records showing $20k repair bills.
Now, the 355 is a beautiful car, but they are simply not that great to drive in my opinion (except the cool clack of the gated shifter). Combine that with the dodgy reliability and repair costs, and its a non starter.
I would, however, trade my 993TT for a F430 with a 6 speed manual, but I'd be about $80k short, and that I'm not going to pay.
10-13-2015, 10:07 AM
#69
Drifting
Sound is overrated on ferraris, unless you like that high pitched sound.
Torque is missing. 268lb ft at 6000rpm? I get that you need to rev the nuts off ferraris and people think thats cool, but I far prefer having useable torque at a non stupid RPM figure.
Parts. Availability is ****, prices are stupid in the little yellow box, and the parts are just not made to porsche standards. Cat ECUs and tensioner bearings are decent examples.
Issues: Valve guides, exhaust headers, interior leather that shrinks if you look at it funny, sticky interior parts, paint cracking by the buttresses, throw out bearing, tensioner bearings, cam gear gates (could be the 348, can't remember).
Lets not even talk about the quality of the paintwork, fit and finish of the body panels, sturdiness of the interior etc.
of course, every ferrari owner will come in here and tell us that their car never had any of these issues and that its all a myth...and they are full of ****. These cars, especially the 355, don't have the reputation they do because of a few anecdotes. There's plenty of owners out there with records showing $20k repair bills.
Now, the 355 is a beautiful car, but they are simply not that great to drive in my opinion (except the cool clack of the gated shifter). Combine that with the dodgy reliability and repair costs, and its a non starter.
I would, however, trade my 993TT for a F430 with a 6 speed manual, but I'd be about $80k short, and that I'm not going to pay.
Torque is missing. 268lb ft at 6000rpm? I get that you need to rev the nuts off ferraris and people think thats cool, but I far prefer having useable torque at a non stupid RPM figure.
Parts. Availability is ****, prices are stupid in the little yellow box, and the parts are just not made to porsche standards. Cat ECUs and tensioner bearings are decent examples.
Issues: Valve guides, exhaust headers, interior leather that shrinks if you look at it funny, sticky interior parts, paint cracking by the buttresses, throw out bearing, tensioner bearings, cam gear gates (could be the 348, can't remember).
Lets not even talk about the quality of the paintwork, fit and finish of the body panels, sturdiness of the interior etc.
of course, every ferrari owner will come in here and tell us that their car never had any of these issues and that its all a myth...and they are full of ****. These cars, especially the 355, don't have the reputation they do because of a few anecdotes. There's plenty of owners out there with records showing $20k repair bills.
Now, the 355 is a beautiful car, but they are simply not that great to drive in my opinion (except the cool clack of the gated shifter). Combine that with the dodgy reliability and repair costs, and its a non starter.
I would, however, trade my 993TT for a F430 with a 6 speed manual, but I'd be about $80k short, and that I'm not going to pay.
Well Quad, you can call me full of **** if you want, but your list of problem areas is not universal to all Ferraris. If one wants to play that game, there are plenty of examples of Porsches with long lists of issues. (the list of major issues I had with an '87 Carrera was staggering). Regarding maintenance costs and build quality, if you search some of my previous posts about real-world Ferrari ownership experiences, you'll find one where I compare the actual maintenance costs of my 993 vs. my 360. Guess what? The 360 hasn't cost much more to maintain than the 993 over a period of 10+ years. I additionally do a side by side comparison of the build quality and specifically the paint quality of my 993 vs the 360. I even invite anyone in the area or anyone passing through the area to stop by my house and see for themselves.
The common theme in all these Ferrari-basing posts is the vast majority of people have never even driven a Ferrari, much less owned one or more (as I have) and believe the internet nonsense they read or hear, or apply the exception as the rule. However I know I'm wasting my breath in such threads. I have never really understood how people who supposedly love sports cars can be so negative to one of the two most iconic marques. As I've said before, it must simply be Ferrari-envy. I consider myself fortunate to be able to own both great marques.
Usually I agree with your points of view Quad, but not this time.
Cheers.
10-13-2015, 10:45 AM
#70
Three Wheelin'
Ironically enough I saw a 355GTS around the corner from my house yesterday and Wow I always loved them but can't stop thinking about them now.
Great thread and only reading into comments on owners that actually had one.
I always wonder how much truth there was to a engine out service every 3 or so years.
So for the owners of these cars what would you say the annunal service costs would be on average on a F355 over a 10 year period?
Great thread and only reading into comments on owners that actually had one.
I always wonder how much truth there was to a engine out service every 3 or so years.
So for the owners of these cars what would you say the annunal service costs would be on average on a F355 over a 10 year period?
10-13-2015, 10:57 AM
#71
Race Director
Well Quad, you can call me full of **** if you want, but your list of problem areas is not universal to all Ferraris. If one wants to play that game, there are plenty of examples of Porsches with long lists of issues. (the list of major issues I had with an '87 Carrera was staggering). Regarding maintenance costs and build quality, if you search some of my previous posts about real-world Ferrari ownership experiences, you'll find one where I compare the actual maintenance costs of my 993 vs. my 360. Guess what? The 360 hasn't cost much more to maintain than the 993 over a period of 10+ years. I additionally do a side by side comparison of the build quality and specifically the paint quality of my 993 vs the 360. I even invite anyone in the area or anyone passing through the area to stop by my house and see for themselves.
The common theme in all these Ferrari-basing posts is the vast majority of people have never even driven a Ferrari, much less owned one or more (as I have) and believe the internet nonsense they read or hear, or apply the exception as the rule. However I know I'm wasting my breath in such threads. I have never really understood how people who supposedly love sports cars can be so negative to one of the two most iconic marques. As I've said before, it must simply be Ferrari-envy. I consider myself fortunate to be able to own both great marques.
Usually I agree with your points of view Quad, but not this time.
Cheers.
The common theme in all these Ferrari-basing posts is the vast majority of people have never even driven a Ferrari, much less owned one or more (as I have) and believe the internet nonsense they read or hear, or apply the exception as the rule. However I know I'm wasting my breath in such threads. I have never really understood how people who supposedly love sports cars can be so negative to one of the two most iconic marques. As I've said before, it must simply be Ferrari-envy. I consider myself fortunate to be able to own both great marques.
Usually I agree with your points of view Quad, but not this time.
Cheers.
Of course there will be good and bad examples of every car due to tolerance stack, parts variability, supplier issues, etc. That said, I believe Ferrari simply fails to engineer certain parts to the standards expected of street cars.
For instance...headers. From 1995 to 2011, or 16 years, Ferrari produced headers that cracked, which could potentially result in cylinder/piston damage. You can't tell me that someone along the way couldn't have corrected this.
Now then, this thread was about the 355, which is known as a bit of a trouble maker out of all the v8s. The 360s, cam variators and headers aside, are pretty solid. F430s are generally reliable and much faster to service with chain driven cams.
The 355 unfortunately has more than its fair share of issues, some of which I will gladly attribute to people not using their cars regularly.
so lets put it this way.
on average, f355s have more issues than 993s
on average, f355s are quite a bit more expensive to service/maintain
on average, f355 build quality is a bit lacking in comparison
Now, to some people, they are willing to put up with this "charm" (it annoys me to no end when people call serious flaws as charm), for the driving experience. These people tend to be either ferrari diehards or F1 enthusiasts. They need the screaming exhaust and the massive redline, and ignore the fact that the 355 makes as much torque at 3000rpm as a toyota corolla. Thats not me.
Its all cost benefit in the end. If you love the driving experience, then the expense may be worth it. For me, that was not the case.
430 with a manual...yes.
10-13-2015, 10:59 AM
#72
Race Director
10 year service costs on a 355 is impossible to tell. There are so many variables, including how **** you are, how much you drive, whether you bought a car that was already well sorted.
short answer, it could be between $10,000 and $100,000.
10-13-2015, 11:03 AM
#73
Three Wheelin'
10-13-2015, 11:04 AM
#74
Race Director
