Purchasing an F430 - help with pricing.

I personally am a low mileage guy. I bought my 03 Modena with 15k miles on it and have driven it less than 800 miles in two years but have spent $7500 on general maintenance and replaced my A/C compressor. I really don’t listen to members on here saying buy a high mileage one because when you sell them they are the hardest to move. It’s also about the road elements hitting body parts and interior wear. More use means more wear overall of multiple areas of a car. The previous owner of my car had solid service records and I didn’t care about a PPI since I was able to talk to the shop owner who serviced my car for over a decade for two previous owners. 100 percent buy the most low mileage example you can afford. Repairs can sneak up on any mileage car but one will be much more desirable when you sell.

 

Dude, no. It’s a balance… not too low or too high. Too low means quick depreciation when one does go to drive it. Also, it’s so bad on the engine and gearbox to not have been driven regularly. You get corrosion on internals, bad solenoids and electrical connection, probably not frequent fuel changes so issues in fuel lines and coolant lines, bad brake fluid sitting can damage calipers, and so on...

A car with ~500 miles a year since new is the lowest I’d get. Even then, I’d wonder if the car was properly stored with fuel and oil additives prior to parking it for a while.

Yes, our opinions are different. Feel free to share your opinion on why low mileage is best financially and mechanically/electrically.


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Example, oil is for many things: lubrication, ant-corrosion, cooling, cleaning, and sealing. Low miles isn’t as simple as people think. In my opinion, the low mileage fad is a way people without technical knowledge of cars justify over paying and still feeling like in charge and they’re making good decisions when unable to inspect cars themselves.

When cars sit, gaskets and seals will also dry out. Corrosive used fluids cause havoc, especially dirty engine oil sitting in the car for years. Radiator fluid, brake fluid, engine oil, gearbox oil, etc all become corrosive too with age and a driven car is more likely to be maintained than a non-driven car. Cylinders love getting corrosion when sitting, along with other engine internals. Gearbox gears get corrosion on what isn’t at the bottom in oil. Fuel injectors don’t like sitting, or fuel rails, fuel lines, and fuel filters due to ethanol. Brake calipers and brake lines lose stiffness, rotors corrode, caliper seals fail, etc. Hell, you get issues with bearings when they sit and not regularly used, wheel bearings, crankshaft bearing, etc. Even the air/gas oil mixture in struts will sink and not keep everything lubricated to prevent corrosion. Brake pads and clutch material don’t like sitting unused either.

Mechanical things need used to keep functioning, same with electronics. Relays and solenoids and such like to go bad when not used too. The list goes on and on. Another thing that goes bad with not cycling is even rubber pieces, such as the serpentine belt. Tires get flat spots and ply damage. So many things go bad when a car isn’t driven enough.

Ideally, a car has 500-1000 miles put on it throughout a year. Then I’d need to know if they properly stored the car. My ideal car would have absolutely no less than 500 miles a year since new, and I’d be buying from the owner directly, and the owner is a car guy that knows every detail of their car and does most work on it themselves (assuming the owner is competent).

The worst thing about low mileage cars….. is the gremlins I mentioned don’t come alive for a bit, maybe like 100 miles.


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All silly justifications, at 800 miles in two years that’s about 33 miles a month. Enough driving to keep things lubricated. It’s pure dedication to keep a time piece mileage low and still paying for all needed repairs and scheduled maintenance. My car will fetch way more than one with 10k more miles. If a person has records, you can’t complain. I see a lot of 30k mileage 360’s with bubbled dashes, heavily worn drivers side seat bolsters, scratched silver center console areas and random rock chip paint areas. Hard pass for me and for most potential buyers. Well kept low mileage example Ferrari’s at this age are done depreciating and are way more desirable.

 

Jon,

As per our emails, sorry you missed my car since you are in Houston. I would put my car against any F1 430 on the market today. They are awesome cars. What I can tell is budget for the maintenance, valve cover leaks etc. I was asking $145 for mine and got $140,000 from a dealer no less. A true one of one car that was a sorted driver and show car winner. Happy hunting amigo.

https://www.ryanfriedmanmotorcars.com/2006-ferrari-f430-f1-c-1661/

 

My recommendation is to buy a car with the specs you want (colors, options) based on condition and service history. I’ve seen low mileage cars in worse shape than higher mileage cars. Be patient as you don’t want to end up wishing you had a 430 with specs and condition that better suited your desires. Also, are you looking for a Platino car, or more of a daily driver, or as garage art that you’re hesitant to drive?

My choice was a highly optioned, later model (08), with colors that fit my choice, service history, and condition that resulted in a Platino at an FCA Annual Experience. And with almost 26K miles it’s a car I can drive without worrying about adding two miles.

Have fun with the search and good luck!

 

There are a lot of things to keep in mind. Records are super important to know what has and hasn't been done on these cars. Doesn't have to be from a Ferrari dealership, but independents or at least receipts for maintenance items and repairs are super important to know that the car hasn't been neglected. Also, the 2008 and newer cars have a lot of changes including a new crankcase, in the past, they would have gotten an M added to the name, but since the only major visible external change was the removal of the passenger key lock and the CCB became standard. Maybe since the Scuderia was released, they left the name alone.

From a value perspective in order and assuming appropriate mileage for the year and a similar condition/maintenance/options (not including OEM manuals here);

2005 to 2006 Berlinetta
2005 to 2006 Spider
2007 Berlinetta
2007 Spider
2008 Berlinetta
2008 Spider
2009 Berlinetta
2009 Spider
2008 Scuderia
2009 Scuderia
2009 16M

You will want a car that has had either updated MKII headers, Challenge Headers or aftermarket headers as they do tend to crack and not do good things. While my 2009 had the MKII headers from the factory, it was a habitual breaker of the factory exhaust brackets. Some here swear by the Capristo exhaust brackets and some just remove the factory ones completely. I went with Fabspeed's bracket version. I would also check for leaking fuel pump seal rings as they are plastic and can crack and cause a major fire. Engine mounts and transmission mounts are something that also wears, but can be replaced by an independent for a reasonable amount. I would suggest if an F1 car and you don't know when the accumulator was replaced, that needs to be done. Not expensive for a home mechanic or at some independents, but needs to be done every few years. Tire dates obviously and make sure the brake fluid and gearbox oil is done.

One thing I personally would be weary of is a car with the e-diff disabled. If they can show you that it works fine with the e-diff enabled and they just disabled it for a different reason (can't think of a good one), then that is ok. I personally wouldn't buy a car that someone did a workaround for a major drive train component because that will just mask other issues.

Finally, keep in mind that the leather in these cars is put on wet so it will have issues with shrinking in the sun (Italian car leather) and this would be a very expensive fix (not 20k expensive but 5 to 10k when you have to pull the dash) and the seat bolsters do wear on cars. If the previous owner(s) wore jeans, it will have some major wear. Pay attention to discolored threads on the seat bolsters or door panels as this indicated a bad dye job repair on the car. You need a good upholster to replace the actual bolster panel or at least a really good leather repair guy. I know the person I use for my cars does all the high-end dealerships in NJ and can have a 4-week waiting list for non-dealer work.

I think that's all I can think of at this time...

Oh one more thing, if you really can't find the car you are looking for, maybe you need a buyer service like Yellow Compass Supercars. They are a sponsor here and helped me find my F430. https://ycsupercars.com/

 

Why don't you PM me at [email protected] and we can review my 2007 F430 Red/Tan that is being sorted now. Tactical Fleet Dallas is preparing a bid as I write. I would like to find a good home for her. 12,500 miles. Kressieg muffler with electronic pitch control and built in radar. All books, tools, fobs, cover etc. Located in Dallas. No hurry to sell, but I will if the right buyer connects. Invited to visit with the independent shop in Dallas that has serviced the car. Let me know. Clean Carfax.

 

example - the 3500 mile 430 spider on BAT. The car looks like it was originally owner by Helen Keller. All the rims were banged up, looks like the driver took out a speed bump doing 70mph and wrapped up the nose and underside. Not a well cared for 3500 mile car. Mine had 16K on it when i bought it and it still looks factory new without a blem.

 

Wow that paint job is in bad condition. I needed to look at it on my computer not phone. I hope that it doesn't go for such a low price that people think that is the going rate now for a low mileage 2008, because if I didn't know any better that car looks like a candidate for one of the mileage rollback cars... It looks like it has way more than 3500 miles on it, maybe 35,000 miles.

 

Old PPF is chipping and cracking. Owner should have really had that car detailed and the old PPF removed. That's likely to cost them double in resale what it would have to just get the job done.

 

which leads me to my thought on the environment in which the car was stored. I am in south florida and AC and humidity control is a MUST to preserve cars. This one looks like it was in a sauna for years. That old PPF will be a bear to get off. A few thousand spend pre-sale to detail, remove the PPF, spray/repair underside of nose would have generated 10K fold in bids in my opinion.

 

In that Florida sun... It may not come off without taking paint with it....

 

those were my thoughts too.

 

Yeah I call BS on some of the low mileage cars out there. It's known that Ferrari's get clocked to maintain their values. I have 42k glorious miles and counting on mine. It really depends on your wants? Pay for low miles and have garage artwork, or save some money and have a Ferrari you can drive and enjoy. I've gone both routes but find myself preferring to drive the cars.

And I agree, call Mike at Yellow Compass. He knows how to find the right cars.

 

Wow, I just checked out that 3,500 mile BAT car. One beat up key, seat bolster needs help, and that nose damage. Either clocked, beat on, or both...just doesn't pass the smell test.

 

Totally agree on the BAT one but it will bring big bucks. It’s funny when I was looking I liked at a 2007 with 3500 miles on it at WPB Ferrari and the one I bought with 35,000 miles. The 3500 mile one was in worse construction shape had great service records as well and a quite few less options than mine but they wanted 43k more.
So I choose the better shape one with miles so I can enjoy it and drive it as Enzo intended.
My NSX and Alfa had very low miles and I obsessed not adding more to them to the point I wasn’t enjoying them. Hence a big part of why I got the 430 with miles. you can’t really lose either way the key is enjoy what you get the only bad decision is not having a Ferrari

 

$7500 of repairs in only 800 miles of driving on a 15k miles car doesn’t sound right from any perspective. Economical or mechanical.

 

Well, the previous owner made me aware of the A/C blowing warm which I negotiated the price lower when I bought it and the balance was an annual full fluid service. The car has been extremely reliable and has given me a whole different perspective of Ferrari.

 

FWIW , back in 2014 , I bought a 2007 F430 spider with only 5,000 miles , great.
Car was perfect except after my first service I had a 14k repair bill mostly because the car wasn’t driven. Be careful of super low mileage cars.

 

Curious as to what was wrong

 

It’s been so long but if memory serves me correctly it was clutch leak , throw out bearings and some other leak of something or other.

 

I had exactly the same thing with when I bought mine with 5,500miles on it.
I picked up a few things myself over last winter myself when i went through the car. I Took it to AV engineering for belts and service March this year and they did another £5k worth of work including rear main seal and flywheel and trevs tune.
It's fine to buy a low milage car, just if you intend to drive it, have a pot to put things right. Mostly seals and gaskets that have dried out from nil usage.

I think I total I've put maybe £8k into the car in the last year and a bit I've had it. And apart from the pick ups, the only issue I had was a dead battery.

 

It all comes down to your own checklist of options you prefer, and your Chequebook....

I've gone this year for a car with a few km on the clock (i just put it on 467XXkm last saturday 26 august, bought it 31st may with 45115KM), has a few service records with the car, from memory it has 5 or 6 stamps in the book, with a same amount of bills, and is an 2009 model. Previous owner had it since 2017, and had since done just under 2000km in 5+ years. he serviced it last november. All that mattered for me in this, was that it was dealers or specialists, not any random local garage that worked on it.

Other than that it had the options i wanted the most for the car, namely the CF bucket seats, and the CF Scuderia rear grille. being a 2009 it always was going to have CCB.

Yes it took me a full 6 months to find my car, travelling to quite a few countries in EU to find this car. Ive also been viewing cars with half the milage, however those cars were absolute basketcases! One even needed 40,000 euro in parts (car had 25000km) that I could find in a 15min inspection of the car, that not with labor, purely parts... Those kind of cars quickly made me view the higher milage cars, as ive noticed in EU, those owners took better care of the cars than the ones that collect them for the value increases....

Ouch, Saying this is normal or worth it, is just making excuses for yourself in my opinion to justify such a spending on a car that looking and reading how it was suposedly treated, should not need something like that, but to all their own opinion ofcorse, and thats exactly why we all here, we like to hear everyones opinion on these matters.

As for the fact you only drove it 800miles in 2 years, is to me very sad, go out and enjoy that gorgeous piece of machinery!