It looks like about the right money to me for a driver 550 with a reasonably good history. By right money I mean retail. That's where all this leads me to scratching my head. Someone has paid what I consider a retail price for a private sale via an auction format. Zero comeback. Still a very very big gap between that sale and the £90,000 to £100,000 asking prices in classifieds.
I think a lot has to do with the what transpired in the past 10 years. Post the financial crisis and especially the EU crisis a lot of sellers in UK and EU panicked and sold their cars at very low prices (I remember seeing 550s in the GBP40-60K range) only to see them rise to new highs (actually highs that had never before been achieved for a lot of used cars) in the next 2-3 years. This high was also not short lived and stuck there for a good 2-3 years more. So now people are reluctant to price their cars in the GBP60K range and have a mental incentive to wait at least a year or two longer before making a tough decision (a lot of these sales will be well underwater probably does not help). The fact that every now and then a similar car still sells at a stupid price at an auction does not help with clarity on decision making.
I can't disagree with any of that. It's a pretty good summary of where we are now - in a kind of non market.
The good thing with these cars is that they are long lived and can take use. So when not in need to sell and instead enjoy, this price question is quite irrelevant... (until you want to sell, but why sell when you can drive and enjoy and see this every day?) Erik 156.000 km. and counting.... No rebuilds since new. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
The car has a lot of features that represent the last of an era. Beautiful design, simple cabin without the video game dash, V-12, and gated shifter. What can you replace it with at the current price point ? Hang on. The value will recover in a few years. The 430 manual is taking off and good 360 manual transmission vehicles are also on the upswing.
"The good thing with these cars is that they are long lived and can take use. " ***** 105,000 mile (~169.000 km), 1,500 miles last week and running strong! Image Unavailable, Please Login
When describing a 50.000 miles car as a «driver», then it is obviously not a «garage queen collector milage car». But still a collector car. And from a «driver’s» point of view, it is just broken in! In Europe, there are Maranellos with 250-300.000 kms. that have been used as an everyday car. Some are beaten up, but some are in a good condition showing that it has been enjoyed. I would not call that a terrible wear, but instead a patina showing it is a solid and robust car. Nothing wrong about that.
Having been advertising for sale my 2003 575M for a few months I can report that the market is fine, no collapse due to Covid or the reported recession. Mine had 27k miles and condition was better than most, paintwork excellent but a few minor signs of wear on interior and trim, the service book was available and had a number of stamps but few invoices. I spent £3k having it assessed and a few niggly bits of deferred maintenance corrected. On the whole a very presentable example but not perfect. I sold it for £70k and had a lot of interest at that price, two buyers and a lot of people who couldn't pull the trigger but asked a gazillion questions. If you are a buyer of a 550/575 I wouldn't be waiting to try and save £10k because armageddon may or may not be around the corner. The risk reward for doing that seems poor to me, there aren't lots for sale and most owners of these are of a demographic which rarely need a quick sale. All in all if the right car becomes available I'd buy it so long as its 'sensibly' priced. There's always a compromise to be had when buying a used 575/550 but these are fabulous cars for the price of an M3 BMW. Buy one, spend a little on it making it just right then enjoy it!
Congratulations, yours was a nice spec for someone. I just don't like argento or blue leather, so it was a double no from me that repsect. But the fact it had modular rims was a huge bonus - as a buyer I'm looking at that as £10,000 in value within the car price over a car with standard 18" rims. Like you say, sensibly priced cars are selling. So £70K looks like it's right on the money. The trouble is, there's very little on the market close to that number that isn't LHD. Most are £20k- £40k more. Not £10K. Just take a look on Pistonheads classifieds. I've been trying to buy this one since it hit the market at the beginning of the month. https://www.pistonheads.com/buy/listing/10803265?cId=5731533&cId=10706918&cId=10703787&cId=10552722&cId=7514148&cId=7187138&cId=10123300&cId=10578519&cId=10646304&cId=10417673&cId=8598120&cId=8593086&cId=10626126&cId=9602725&cId=10803265 All it's paperwork has been lost. No service book, no history - but I'm ok with that at the right price. I'd put in a sensible offer and was waiting for a yes or no. The dealer messaged yesterday and has advised the owner has sold it to another dealer for £63,000 having seemingly removed this dealer from the equation. Nice. Onto the next one. It will be interesting to see if it pops up elsewhere shorty at an increased asking price.
Hmm The ad says “To fault the previous ownership is only possible as the service history has been misplaced and as such it is sold without service documentation or previous invoices for work carried out. We are working with the owner to try and source or replicate this history but until we do it is sold without service history. The current owner has verified that the car recently had its cam belts replaced along with an oil change and spark plug change as carried out by Paul Hargreaves but paid in cash there was no receipt for the work carried out.” No service book + no service documentation + recent cam belt service paid in cash (who does that??) and no trace of it = a bit dodgy. I would want a bit more certainty about my 575. Also as it’s a UK car, it would have taken half a day for the owner or the vendor to track down details of these services. On a £70,000 item, worth their time. But what did they know that we don’t? What was your sensible offer?
My thoughts exactly! I guess it’s possible if the garage offers a bit of discount to make it worth while...
I pitched in at £57,500 (you can see what I did there) expecting to be talked up to £60K which I thought was sensible given the story, I like the spec and it has modulars. Plus I intended to convert this to a manual (with the help of a forum member) so was less worried about getting something absolutely perfect and paying a premium. I was told £66k was the absolute minimum acceptable then less than 24hrs later informed it's being sold to a dealer for £63K. The back story is interesting, I have a feeling the car was intentionally "lost" along with all it's paperwork so it wasn't ceased. That's just a guess though. It also turns out that Paul Hargreaves was the owner before the current seller. Surely some paperwork from the specialist who was a previous owner?
Taz - I managed to get hold of the original order spec sheet for my 575, it it would appear the 19" modular were part of the original order, although mine is SN 132 XXX. Image Unavailable, Please Login
I think your offer was very fair. I wouldn't have offered more. But evidently the new dealer thinks they can sell it to someone who doesn't mind about paperwork. Definitely something fishy on the paperwork side. When you say seized, do you mean by a finance company? Or otherwise, how would losing the paperwork help? I am interested to know, having come across a couple of Ferraris that have absolutely zero paperwork, one of them sold by a main dealer. I suppose some people don't mind.
When I asked why the car had apparently not been used, MOT'd or serviced for a period of 7 years, I was informed the current owner had been inside for a very large tax fraud. I've put two and two together and figure the car and paperwork might have dissapeared for a little while so it wasn't seized under the proceeds of crime act. Just conjecture on my part - but with the previous owner being the specialist that serviced it and there still being no paper trail it's a plausible explanation. Lets see if anything happens, I'm not entirely convinced the trade bid is real, especially as the sale advert for the car was refreshed and sent to the top of the list on Pistonheads classifieds yesterday. I'm less bothered about paperwork if the price is right and it gets me in what looks like a tidy car. I'm looking to buy with no intention of ever selling, which is why something like this appeals to me as any inherent value "lost" due to swapping out from an F1 to manual simply wouldn't matter. If I can end up with a manual 575 with low 20,000 miles and modulars in a colour scheme I like for £70k ish after conversion I'm happy. It doesn't then matter to me what it's worth to resell.
I agree with you. This is a great opportunity. Just get the car! The condition is 100x more important than the service history (even if these use to correlate). It looks super nice!
Finn- The 19" modulars were definitely available by your serial number. Glad you confirmed yours were original. The earliest ones I have seen were around SN 130xxx, maybe a little earlier.
Here’s a good price point. 60k mile 550, ex-Harry Metcalfe, missing history, £60k at auction. I think someone got themselves a decent deal, with the usual proviso about buying at auction. https://collectingcars.com/for-sale/1998-ferrari-550-maranello
And another 550, nicer one, 27k miles sold for £80k at auction. That would suggest dealer price for same car would be advertising in the low to mid 90s. Prices are below the 2016 peak but still well above 2014 when I started looking in earnest, let alone earlier years. In 2013 this car would have been advertised for £45k. https://collectingcars.com/for-sale/1999-ferrari-550-maranello-1
I agree with you Erik, my car was without history, but after a full inspection by a very qualified mechanic i was satisfied, it was the correct decision(for me)
This one looks quite nice Tdf 50K miles @ 70K stg. http://www.justinbanks.com/2000-ferrari-550-maranello/
