Ferrari 400i, will it eat my life?

  • Thread starter Thread starter E38
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My parents used to own a 928 but my god those things are a money pit when they break. We had to replace the brake pads on ours and it cost 600AUD per brake pad.

That is the main problem with older cars as people have stated, the parts are just too hard to come by. The car itself was brilliant and although we didn't own it for long we had tonnes of fun with it :).
 
Stotty
Exhaust $4-$6k 'A muffler for my '84 QV is $6200 at the dealer. Just the muffler in a box, not installed, no pipes, no dounuts, just the muffler in a box'
Disributor caps $250-$900
Front suspension $2k
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Considering the average distributor job on a 9th/10th-gen Toyota Corolla is about 250-700 (higher side if an actual distributor is needed), then that's expected for a Ferrari.

I'm not sure how many different components are required for the "front suspension" in this discussion, but typically replacing all control arms, ball joints, toe links, tie rod ends, stabilizer bushings, and shocks/struts would run nearly $1200-2000 in any car or truck.

Of course this is on US dollars, and I probably would consider any old Ferrari a money and time pit as well, although since money isn't the biggest issue with the prospective owner. Waiting and tracking down the parts that becomes the real nuisance in this situation. I've heard that most 1970s-1980s Ferraris are actually kind of simple to work on, although like any car, there's always going to be weird repairs that take bizarre amounts of labor, which is typical of any car over 20 years old when it has maladies.

The upside with having a Ferrari 400 is that you get a Ferrari that doesn't turn heads, and only a few causal glances. Kind of stealthy, but that 3-speed automatic sounds like it would be pressed to do more work than necessary, and less fun. But it's different...
 
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928's are wonderful cars if you get a good one... but complete money pits if you don't... the electrics are particualry complex and expensive to fix if anything goes wrong.

On the plus side, they are made in much bigger numbers than the 400, and, in Europe at least, there's a big network of independents who can take care of them much more cheaply than a main dealer.

I had some suspension work on my 996 earlier this year... 4 bottom arms, a wheel bearing and some new bushes... £1,300 including a 4 wheel alignment.
 
E38
The dealer did have a lovely, low mileage Porsche 928 S4 which called out to me...
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I'd have weak knees myself with this one. :indiff:
 
Toronado
Ooohh.
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indeed. Skip the italian heap and hop on this tresure. And if you were already thinking about a life-eating toy, here goes.
 
So long as it's more operable than Jeremy Clarkson's, you should be good. And, if not, you can part it out, maybe make a handsome profit, and turn the bits you can't sell into furniture.
 
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