Buying a 360? Know the facts.

Let me first start off by saying when I bought my Ferrari 360 I looked at thousands of 360's over the internet and looked at over 100 cars in person.  I live in Southern California so the inventory and selection is fairly abundant.  Over the years it has become fairly obvious to me there are two types of Ferrari owners, those who take care of their cars and those who don't.  Hopefully the below review will help and other comments can shed better light on how to get the best car for the money.

What’s the best 360 to get? Some years are better than others?

An A or a B.  This is disclosed in the VIN on the 8th number of the VIN and simply means a car with an A is a car manufactured for the USA and a B was manufactured for Europe.  Of course, if buying a B make sure all your ducks are in a row.  Certain changes have to be made of European models to bring them up to code here in the US.  If something is missing or incomplete you could be screwed.  Also not all DMVs are created equal.  The California DMV (where I live) is super tough and once they discover a problem they can make your life a living nightmare.

European cars you look at are generally less expensive.  Usually around 5% to 10%

Is a certain year better than others?

In my opinion it is all about the maintenance.  There is no doubt that as every year goes by improvements are made as problems are discovered.  Ferrari recognized some of the defficincies in earlier model cars and has had numerous recalls to fix apparent problems.  I am currently attempting to get a list of recalls from my local Ferrari dealer and will post it once I get the recalls.  My particular 360 is a 2002 and the prior owner dilligently handled all the recalls.

My 360 is a manual stick shift because when I did my research I did not want to ever have to replace the Transmission Control Unit (TCU).  A total rebuild can be north of $10,000 ouch!!!


Low miles or high miles
OK, Let the debate begin.  Cars as a rule are depreciating assetts and with rare exception do cars appreciate or go up in value.  Ferrari happens to be one of those rare exceptions.  Those cars are usually limited production or much older.  My personal spin is I drive my cars and I understand that by putting miles on the car the value further decreases.  With that being said, if I sell my 360 it would have high miles and be discounted accordingly.  Bottom line is it all about the records when it comes to higher mile cars.  The latest Cavallino had values for a Ferrari 360 at $60k to $90k and a Spider getting $75k to $100k. The difference being primarily miles and pride (records) of ownership.

Beware of bargains because generally you will discover they are absent of routine maintenance and the savings will quickly be spent bringing your 360 up to par.

My mechanic has also told me the worst thing you can do to your cars is not drive them.  This allows for drying out and unwanted residul by products to complicate your cars life.  Like my Doctor says do 30 minutes of excercise every day, same for the Ferrari get it out for some excercise!

Also make sure you get an inspection.  This can be a little tricky because a lot of dealerships and authorized Ferrari mechanics have moved away from doing inspections because if they say it looks good and then their is a repair the buyer wants to blame the dealership.  The dealer locally by me will do not do inspections.  They will run specific test.  The things you must do before buying a 360 are:

Run a compression test

Run a leak down test

check cluth life

check brake and tire wear

run a carfax to make sure records jive with carfax

What are some different options available for the Ferrari 360

Wikipedia is where I was able to collect fairly accurate information to share some differences and options available.

Colors

Challenge Grills Front and or back

Caliper colors

Side panels and stitching options

Seats Daytona or

Stick or F1

Fender Shields

Wheels

Coupe or Spider

Two keys

4 digit engine and radio codes

Owners Manual

Records of work completed

Get an Inspection

This can be a little tricky depending on who you are


Is an inspection really necessary?

General stuff check oil,

leak down and a compression test

body check