A black on black 1998, with 14K miles, just showed up on BringaTrailer and is not far from you (Emeryville).
That sounds like the Fantasy Junction car. They've been flogging that for months. There must be a reason.....
I believe it is the Fantasy Junction car. Went to look at it months ago. It is quite rough. Personally I don't feel it is in satisfactory condition and to me it looks like minor issues have not been addressed as they occurred, so now it adds up to a car that is just not that attractive. Serious leather shrinkage, stickies, moldings deteriorating, some glass problems, and paint fair at best. It has every sign of a car that has not been well cared for IMO.
Yes, I just looked at BAT and it is indeed the FJ car. I didn't bother to read the description, but I hope they were honest about the car's needs. A lot of cheerleading goes on in the BAT comments section. There are a lot of daydreamers and reminiscers, but not too many serious buyers.
I looked at the FJ car and test drove it. I have to say it ran quite well. I did note that the a/c did not work. In the records posted by BAT is an invoice from Dino motors. This is essentially a PPI that FJ ordered before they bought the car. Buyers should be aware this work has not been completed. At the right price I would consider the car. However, the BAT bidding has already reached the point where it would not be attractive for a buyer who wants to fix all the issues. Also in need of a major service and new tires due to age. Sent from my iPad using FerrariChat
Yeah, I think Maranellos are pretty tricky to buy from afar. I went through the buying process early last year and found that condition on these cars can vary widely, and even the best photo documentation won't capture everything accurately about a car, let alone give you a feel for how a car drives. Even a good PPI can't do that. So, I decided that, given the $100K+ price point and all the various issues that can be wrong with these cars, I really needed to physically lay eyes on and drive the cars I was interested in to really be able to make an informed purchase decision. As it turned out there were three 550s for sale in the ATL area at the time, which afforded me the opportunity to fly down there for a quick overnight trip, and examine and drive all three. So, I did. One, which purported to have the lowest mileage of the three, turned out to be pretty rough cosmetically and had multiple issues and poor documentation; one was a very nice higher-mileage, long-time dealer maintained/documented example; and one was a moderate-mileage, well documented excellent condition example. It was very instructive to say the least and well worth the travel time and expense.
Mine is currently on BAT https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1999-ferrari-550-maranello/ I just realized you were looking for a black one.... anyway take a look