My story of getting my first Ferrari 458 Spider

It all started when I was driving my 01 Porsche Turbo past the Jaguar dealer in Lynnwood, WA and seeing an 08 Porsche Carrera. I thought about trading it in and upgrading but after looking at the cars side by side, it was clear that the Turbo was so much more aggressive looking. I thought to myself, why am I moving to another Porsche?

Let's try to see if I can afford a Ferrari! The car I always dreamt of owning someday. I started out looking at 355s but after researching the amount of maintenance costs for a 355, it wasn't a good idea. Next came 360 Modena. I always wanted a Spider and found some very nice ones on Ebay around $80-90K. But again my research told me of maintenance issues and how much better the 430 in terms of reliability. I remember falling in love with the 430s when they first came out. That was my dream car if I could ever afford one. So I marched on to reading up all I could on FerrariChat on reliability. I was completely sold on getting 430 Spider. I located one down in DC Motors, nice red Spider with tan interior. We agreed on $125K for the car and $28.5K trade-in for my Turbo. Getting ready for a PPI when the dealer calls and started to request that I send the title of my car to him right away and wire the money if PPI turned out okay. Immediately I blew a gasket! I wasn't going to send him the title to my car and wire the money without flying down to Anaheim to close the deal in person. So I nixed the deal feeling very upset about it. A few weeks went by and I kept looking for my 430 spider.

Feeling frustrated that I couldn't find one, I got an email from another FerrariChat member about Allen Faulkner who has helped a lot folks buy their dream car. I was very curious about this and had a conversation with Allen the next day. Allen charges a fixed fee and does all the negotiations, arranges PPI and transportation of the vehicle to your doorstep. I thought to myself that I could do all this myself, why pay someone? Boy was I ever wrong! I soon found out that I knew nothing about Ferraris in terms of options, what to look out for in finding a clean Ferrari. So I gave my trust to Allen in finding me a perfect 430 spider.

A month went by and I started to change my mind. I first saw a red 458 Italia on Ebay for $157K with 53K miles. Thought to myself no way could I afford that, way out of my budget of $125K. Another month went by and I told myself why buy 430 when 458 is so much better car in looks and reliability? So I started looking at 2010-11 458 coupes at $200K price range. Another month went by, I swore everyday I would look at Cars.com, Cargurus.com, Ebay, CarsForSale.com. I practically memorized every car on the sites. I would switch from Red to Black 458. I kept Allen spinning, trying to figure out what I really wanted and all the different options like carbon fiber, lifter and back-up camera, etc...

Then finally I told myself if I'm spending this much money on a car, why not go for it and buy a 458 Spider! Oh it's only another $40K, no big deal right? Told Allen what I wanted and the next day, Allen found this perfect car for me! It was listed on one of the sites for $287K but no buyers. Owner needed it sold right away so he put it on auction and Allen found that I could take it out of auction for $269,800, with $10K deposit right away. I said "Let's do it!!!". I placed my deposit to pull this car out of auction. Somehow the owner changed his mind and wanted to put the car for auction anyways, hoping he can get a better deal. Darn it! Now I have to compete with other dealers at an auction. But Allen was absolutely fantastic in winning this car for me! I ended up getting it for $269,200. Of course there are buyer fees and transportation costs on top of that. So as of this posting, the car is being prepped for a full Clear Bra, ClearPlex on windshield and tinted windows. My car will arrive in a week and I can't wait!!!

I can't thank Allen enough for his efforts. He is truly a professional and I would never go to anyone else when buying high-end cars. He does his research, very thorough and he's such a nice guy! If anyone is interested in Allen's help, please let me know and I can forward you Allen's info.

Check out my ride below!
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That's a very good question. I guess I wasn't very disciplined on my budget! I never intended to spend that much money on a car. The most I ever spent was on my 01 Porsche Turbo and it was only for $74K, that was 10 years ago. As I got more into Ferraris and discovered that I wanted one of the best available, I was creative in expanding my budget. I had the money and practically all of it was in the stock market. Sold some shares and financed some. I figured leaving my money in stock market will easily out gained the cost of a cheap loan at 3%. I thought about waiting for the price of 458 go down after 488 comes out but Allen convinced me that you could wait forever and not get the chance to enjoy the car NOW! Life is short and you never know what it brings.

 

I tend to keep my cars for a long time. Hopefully this is the only Ferrari I will buy

 

In fact it was my wife that told me to buy the Spider. She loves cars as well so it wasn't hard to convince her to buy this car. Now she wants her own Porsche because I sold the Turbo. The Turbo had a lot of sentimental value to us. It was my first purchase on Ebay ever and we flew down to Houston and drove it back thru Vegas! This was before we had 4 beautiful kids. So selling that Turbo made her very sad. I'll have to replace it someday

 

I agree with everything you stated. I think as long as you feel comfortable that you have built enough nest egg for your future and secure your kids future, I think it's time to splurge on yourself. You can sit there and look at your stock portfolio and see the numbers go up but what good will that do if you don't get to enjoy what you've worked so hard in life for?

What really changed my perspective in life was we had a very bad start to the year. Both my wife's and in-law's father died within a month of each other. Totally out of nowhere (cardiac arrest and brain aneurysm). They were both fairly young (60s and early 70s). My father in-law always told me "Life is short, enjoy it!".