Wisdom of buying a high-mileage 328?

you get what you pay for. IMHO any 328 in the low 30's is going to have issues.

 

With re-sprays, no engine out service recently, and that kind of mileage--

I wouldn't buy that car for more than $24,000.

And if I were a dealer, I wouldn't pay more than $20,000 wholesale.

$34,000 is robbery for that car in my opinion. It may be very good, but that kind of mileage is almost unheard of in the Ferrari world. Sure, there are plenty of guys who have Ferraris with very high mileage, but the most mileage you ever see on a Ferrari that's for sale by a dealer is in the 20,000 mile range--maybe 30,000 every now and then.

No, the car isn't very saleable. That's why you pay a price in the $20,000 range. If you wish to sell the car in the future, expect to either be low-balled by dealers, to be rejected outright from dealers who won't want to touch the car, or to almost or even just break even by selling the car in pieces.

I don't want to sound pessimistic. If the car is good and it makes you happy, buy it--but at the right price. I'm sure that car, a Ferrari, can make you very happy.

 

start at 45 K deduct 5K for paint, 5K for major and 10 k for mileage and you get to 25K plus the body damage

 

You can tell by the respray how they treated the car! Walk away from it!

Ton

 

Of course. I have over 112K on one of my 308s.

 

run away from this 328, and find a nice 308 QV. i think Martin at Cavalllino Motors ( sponsor) may have a nice one . all the small " stuff" the 328 is going to need will keep you off the roads and cost you much $$$$ and thats if you can do 90% of it yourself!

 

I do not believe that potential problems are directly linked with the high mileage. The other conditions do not seem right to me. Why was it re sprayed? Why not the all body? Why 21.000 miles with belts?
this points toward a cheap maintenance philosophy.
Run Away...
Ciao
Eugenio

 

I heard of a guy who uses his 328 as a daily driver and has more than 182,000 miles on the car--original engine!

Just do searches on this board and on the old FerrariChat board.

 

A couple of years back I meet a guy at LeMans who had a 308 with 102000 miles on the clock. The car was pretty origial and was a daily user.
He reconed the trick was proper servicing and regular use.

 

In my experience of tracking 328 prices for about a year now, kind of as a sick hobby, you will not find any 328 car for less than say $27-28K unless it is in total disrepair, neglected service, salvage title, etc.

That being said, 328 cars have a reputation for being "bulletproof" as Ferraris go, and there are many examples of cars running well over 100K miles as daily drivers according to James at Norwoods. My thoughts (without actually owning one of these cars... yet) is that they will go on "forever" with timely maintenance, repair, and love from a consciencious owner despite what the odometer reads.

Resale is a whole different story. I personally feel that a car with 70K+ miles becomes unsellable. The key is being honest with yourself upfront when you buy one of these cars. It's a great deal as long as you plan on being the car's final owner. I would demand service records with all scheduled services, preferrably from a 1-2 owner car. Don't even need to "settle" for a 1986 car IMO. A very high mileage 1987 or 1988 car can still be had for under $30K. Case in point:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=2494161196&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT

Since the odometer becomes very unforgiving, you can reap the benefits of a later model year car in good hands that performs well for being driven daily at bargain price. Just don't expect to sell the thing.

 

What makes people scared of high mileage Ferrari's? Is it engine or tranny problems? From what the basic consensus is, the motors and drivetrain in these cars seem to be real strong. It almost seems to me like the reason there arent a lot of high mileage Ferrari's out there is not because they wont make it that far, but more so that people just wont put the miles on them. If everyone started driving the crap out of their ferraris....you wonder how many reports you would hear of major problems...Anyway, back to my original question...is it the drivetrain that scares people away on high mileage cars...or all the other little thing? I plan to drive mine, thats for sure...and I justify it like this...all the miles I plan to put on it and the money for the services...become offset with the small amount of depreciation that older ferraris see compared to everyone else spending the same money on newer cars around the same price range...Its pretty much a wash...
Case in point...
my buddy bought an H2 about 2 years ago for 54K...he thinks its worth about $38K now...he has put 60,000 miles on it. No maintenance costs...but he did lose 16K in depreciation...
91' 348 with 20K miles...lets say you pay around 45K for it. You drive it 60,000 in two years...and do a major service every year...will run you about 10k...plus another 7K in depreciation (I saw a 92 348 sell on Ebay for 38K, which is my basis)...17K is your cost for those 2 years
so why dont people drive these cars more...their awesome...my F-car is the third in my arsenal and the first one i want to drive when I go someplace!

 

AMEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

This seems to be a bad deal. I thinks its possibe to get a car with 35k miles on it for $38-40k. Then you can drive the car for 15k miles in 3 years and still resell it for 35k. That seems to be great value as far as Ferraris are concerned!

 

My 328 has 73,000 miles on it, and rising at a rapid rate.

My thoughts on it:

1) repaint -- Ferrari paint jobs are junk from the factory. Sorry, but it's true. A high mileage Ferrari is going to have rock chips and look almost sandblasted. Heck, I have rock chips on the back decklid. A respray simply shows that some previous owner cared enough to get it fixed. I've seen 20,000 mile cars with resprays on the nose.

2) belts -- 21,000 miles is not too long for a belt change. Factory manual shows 52,500 between changes, and the paranoid consensus is 30,000 between changes. The more frequently they are driven, the better and the longer the belts will go.

3) life of the motor -- I know of a 328 with 150,000 miles on the original motor and it's still going strong. As long as the motor maintenance is done and it doesn't overheat, there's not reason to for the motor to stop running. These things don't suddenly stop at 100,001 miles.

4) interior work -- yep. See my comments about the paint. For some reason the bolsters wear in a hurry on these cars, as does the steering wheels and pedals. A little dye work, a Momo wheel and some Hill pedals and it's good as new.

5) mileage in general -- there's an awful lot of 29,000 mile cars out there for some reason. That's under 2000 miles a year. Not a lot for any car. The odometer is also easily disconnected on these cars. Unless you have complete service records, take all mileage claims -- especially ultra low ones -- with a grain or three of salt. Even the 80,000 mile one you're looking at has traveled under 4500 miles a year. That's not high mileage, that's normal automotive usage

If you want a driver, then you shouldn't pay the premium for a low-mileage car. These things love to run, and they get better the more you drive them. Some will say the car's only worth $25K, but I guarantee no 328 owner is going to let the car go for that low a price. Like the mythical $40K Testarossa, it's a logical price but not often a realistic one. If you like the car and you like the color and you're happy with the service records, then make a low ball offer -- but don't be surprised when it's rejected.


EDIT: That's not my 328 on the ebay link, though it's a darned near identical twin -- mileage and color and location!

 

True that.

 

That is so true! I keep reading about $35,000 328s here. I'll take a dozen, just call me. The price of 328s has escalated sharply over the past year, partly due to the strong euro. It is so sad that there is such a mileage penalty on Ferraris.

My 308 (bought because I couldn't find a satisfactory 328) would be considered a high- mileage car, since it averaged 2000 miles per year! Regularly driven cars are in much better condition, but Ferrari shoppers still look for hangar queens.

It is also probably true that a good portion of those less than 20K cars ran for a good while without the speedo connected.

 

According to a buyers guide I read before buying my car the 8-cyl engines have a life expectancy of 200 - 250´ km before a rebuilt is required (= roughly 150.000 miles). Key to a long life expectancy is of course careful driving until the oil is warm.

I somehow wonder how they came to this figure as I haven´t heard of many Ferraris with this milage, yet. Interesting post from Tillmann with this 150´mls car ...

Another thought: Let´s say a rebuilt costs $10.000 (which is very high, I saw NEW 348-engines for that price and also a 360-engine with 4.000 km on it for EUR 8.000 ...)

This would result in less than 10 cent per mile for the next 100.000 mls or so ... ... not too much money for driving a phantastic car.

 

That is so true!

I'm gonna go against the flow here, but I wouldn't be so quick to discard this one. Every F-car has some issues, and it sounds like the ones you brought up aren't biggies. Many (if not most) cars owned in this area of F-chat have had some repainting. Have had seat redying, etc.. Sometimes the best car for a driver is where the mileage battle has been already lost. This car is already a high mileage one so who cares anymore. Try to get it for as close to $30 as you can, and enjoy it. If you want to sell it later blow it out for $25ish and I'm sure you'll have buyers.

Like has been said, the motors aren't 100001 mile grenades! Give it a good prepurchase inspection and go from there.

Best!
Wes

 

If you are looking for something in the low 30's, you really should be searching for a good medium mile 308 QV or an excellent carb car. You may stumble on a decent 328 at that price, but you are going to be looking at a lot of crap cars to find it. You will have a much more enjoyable experience if you set the car you are looking for more reasonable with the price you are willing to pay. If you don't have $35K - $40K, don't expect to get a good 328, high miles or otherwise.

As others have said, you can tell a lot about the condition of the car by what kind of shape it is in. A cheap respray with lots of overspray and orange peel would tell me that the owner probably went cheap on the maintenance as well. In this case, you should probably walk away from this car.

 

See what I mean? Take a closer look. Good for you!

I went through the same thing. I live in the middle of Canada and was buying my 328 this spring from the seller in Seattle, WA. and I never went there. I hired http://automobileinspections.com/ and they gave it a going over like I never would have. They will check the car out within days, and have a report e-mailed to you that's about 5 or 6 pages long. They will also e-mail you like 30 or more fantastic pictures. There are cheaper guys, but I think they're worth it.

One tip I would recommend: You won't have direct contact with the inspector unless the seller get's his name, they're pretty forthcoming with this. My deal would have fallen through if I didn't clear up some misunderstandings with him directly. Make sure the seller get's the inspector's name and phone number.

I have to admit I am a bit mystified by the mixed messages here. Everyone likes to chime in on the "drive them, don't worry about the mileage" theme, but now qualifies it with "Oh, but if you do it won't be worth anything." I don't agree. There are higher mileage 308's and as with all of these cars they are also judged on condition. Take care of it, fix the little things, make it the best GTS around and it will be very attractive to the next buyer.

Bear in mind though, as you say, while nobody wants a $10,000 bill for 2 years of ownership, yet in a way that's what your getting compensated for when you're able to get it for ~$30,000.

Well, that's all I can say for now.

Best!
Wes

 

I just joined this site, and looking at this conversation I would like to say that this thread which was originated in 2004 where a 328 would go as low at $27K-$28K and would also extend to 2005, today at 2019 prices can not be found this low anymore, I am looking to buy a 328 for not more than $30,000, so it may take awhile for the prices to down again but I have no rush and if somebody that bought for this amount and would not lose money by selling for this price, just contact me.