May have to give up boating!

[MikeP]

Yep, I've been hanging around Dr Jim too much and his enthusiasm for cars has rubbed off. I just made a deposit on a Ferrari 328GTS. Based on everything I can gather on the various Ferrari websites I've been hanging around on for the past month, Ferrari parts prices make it look like they give boat parts away.

How about a (one) sparkplug for $30.90 or one dist cap (two on a 328) for $290? Or a dist rotor for $225 - yep the same thingie that costs 5 bucks for a Chevy distributer.

Yeah, a whole new world...the Hatt may have to go to finance car parts! The worst part is that the Ferrari guys on the related sites are not nearly as cool as you folks!

[bigbill]

hey mike, i think you have lost your mind. lol. bigbill

[krush]

Is your's really that small? LOL

[SKYCHENEY]

Mike,
I have friend in the car business and he buys a new Ferrari every couple of years. He said that the only way that he can get rid of it at decent price is to trade it in on a new one. Funny thing is, he never actually drives it. It's just a show piece that sits in his garage. I think he's afraid that he'll hit a pot hole and it will cost him $10K to fix it.

[hyperfishing]

Ferraris look and sound great. But, megabucks service for a new cambelt at 30 thousand miles/every two years, on your model is a bit of a drag, so is insurance. I assume you have checked those out?

Great info for you here:

http://ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=70064

[MikeP]

OH, yeah - I've checked everything out - including all the pertinent web sites! I've spent a lot more time there than I have here lately. I've even got the service manual, owners manual, and parts manual and have spent many an hour studying those.

It's not THAT bad. This is an OLD Ferrari - 1989. I don't really think I'll have to sell the boat! Many of the parts prices aren't really insane IF you don't buy them from the dealer. The 30 dollar plugs are only 3 bucks if you buy them at the parts store! Unfortunately, the dist caps/rotors aren't available that way.

I can/will do all my own service work as I've always done on my cars (and boats) so I'm not really concerned about that at all. Surprisingly, insurance is actually quite cheap - much less than it was on a 1997 Camaro I owned a few years ago and less than it was on my 1999 Porsche 911 which was also cheaper than the insurance on the Camaro. Per my ins company (USAA), the risk on a Z28 Camaro (accident ratio), is statistically far higher than it is on a Ferrari. The Porsche's premium was about 30 percent less than the Camaro, the Ferrari's is about 1/2 of the Porsche's.

I have figured that it's actually cheap to have an old Ferrari! The 1989 328GTS cost around 70k (not including tax) when new; now a good example sells for 55-60k. My 1999 Porsche 911 was about the the same price new and 7 years later sold for 30k. Based on that, Ferraris are pretty cheap entertainment! Plus the 328's seem to be actually appreciating now. My financial philosophy throughout my life has always been, "Buy high, Sell low" and it might be a fun, though strange, experience to be able to do the opposite for once!

And hey, I hear their making a Magnum PI movie. They say Selleck's too old so they'll need somebody younger to play Magnum. If I have my own car, that might sway the casting folks in my direction!

OK, the truth is I don't look like Tom Selleck and I'm only 2-3 years younger than he is so my chances of getting the role are probably skewed toward the low side!

[Pascal]

89? i wonder if you can get coverage thru Haggerty... as long as you have a daily driver, it's MUCH cheaper. cut off might be 20 years though... worth a call.

[hyperfishing]

Have fun with it, and your impending movie role! <gg> I hear you on the Camaro insurance costs.

We paid nutty high prices for insurance, on spotless licenses, for the new 96 Firebird WS6. It is still kooky high on spotless licenses. I figure that is what killed the F body, because it was such a great design otherwise, and should have sold a lot more Camaros and Firebirds. People frequently mistake our red hood scooped car for a Ferrari, as it looks very different from a regular Firebird Formula.

So a Ferrari is cheaper to insure? Wow. If you agree to limit the number of miles per year to less than 5,000, collector car insurance can be cheap.

[luckydave215]

The insurance through Haggerty's for my three 1980's era Porsches is $489/year!
That's the total for all three cars with the highest limits on everything. For my 1938 Bentely drophead coupe it's $139/year.
For my 20 year old son's 1998 GMC pickup, it's $900/year with a clean license.

Damn.....

[hyperfishing]

Nice collection. What is the annual mileage limit on the P cars?