355 Running Costs and Questions
Discussion
Hi Folks,
Invading from the TVR forum. Dont tell the TVR boyz but I'm thinking of taking the plunge and buying a 355 Spider.
I have some questions:
Running costs per year??? Am used to paying about 3K for the TVR. HAve noticed that servicing is now a hell of alot cheaper than a couple of years ago. Only problem is that there is only one dealer in Scotland. Sytner Group??? Comments?
Insurance?? Am 29 with full no claims, no points etc living in Edinburgh. Best I can get so far is 1800 quid. TVR only costs 500 quid :-)
The budget is 50 grand. I am happy considering left hand drive models as 50K gets you a 99S/T 355 from a dealer as opposed to and M reg 95 RHD for the same money. I'm a great believer that the first cars/products to be made by any company are nearly always flawed in some way. Were the issues with the early 355's to watch out for? Infact what are the 5 top issues with the 355's???
I'm also preapred to consider a CAT C RHD car as well as long as everything checks out OK and is inspected by the appropirate people. Anyone got any advice here?
Cheers,
Jamster
PS Am 6ft 2inches tall. Any headroom probs??
Invading from the TVR forum. Dont tell the TVR boyz but I'm thinking of taking the plunge and buying a 355 Spider.
I have some questions:
Running costs per year??? Am used to paying about 3K for the TVR. HAve noticed that servicing is now a hell of alot cheaper than a couple of years ago. Only problem is that there is only one dealer in Scotland. Sytner Group??? Comments?
Insurance?? Am 29 with full no claims, no points etc living in Edinburgh. Best I can get so far is 1800 quid. TVR only costs 500 quid :-)
The budget is 50 grand. I am happy considering left hand drive models as 50K gets you a 99S/T 355 from a dealer as opposed to and M reg 95 RHD for the same money. I'm a great believer that the first cars/products to be made by any company are nearly always flawed in some way. Were the issues with the early 355's to watch out for? Infact what are the 5 top issues with the 355's???
I'm also preapred to consider a CAT C RHD car as well as long as everything checks out OK and is inspected by the appropirate people. Anyone got any advice here?
Cheers,
Jamster
PS Am 6ft 2inches tall. Any headroom probs??
Hi m8,
have a look @ www.ferrarichat.com for in-depth answers to your questions; Basically , the main fragile areas include manifolds [which crack due to poor design] & valve guides. Meanwhile , here's a great write up on 355 range.
I think with some haggling you'll buy a decent RHD Spider for £50k, try and avoid the insurance cars. They might look cheap but you'll struggle to sell on. Running costs should be around £1.5 k , assuming you don't need a belt change. Try LiverpoolVictoria for insurance. They are very competitive and insure quite a few UK owners use them ,including me.
Good luck
--------------------------------------------------------
The Ferrari F355 has two different engine packages (OBDIO-I=95 and OBDIO-II=96-99), and three different brake packages (95, 96-97, and 98-99). In street braking, there is not much difference in the braking setup and response; and for track use all brake packages should have a set of pads that are more tollerent of heat.
When F1 became available in ?96 or 97? it arrived with an uprated slave cylinder in the clutch throwout system. Like the F348s the clutch (and associated parts) is easy to change even if the parts are expensive. If you have to change anything in the clutch, do the whole thing and use the uprated slave cylinder. Its smoother, lighter, and ever so slightly faster.
The 95 engine has a little more HP andS TQ (5 HP and 2-3 lb-ft) from a slightly richer mixture allowed by the OBDIO-I emissions specification. All engines will have header issues if tracked regularly, and the 95 modle year is more affected than later. There is a uprated materials specification if/when header replacement is required. Even with the uprated materials, challenge cars replace the headers yearly. With indifferent street use headers have gone as far as 103,000 miles without failure. The hydraulic pump of the F1 cars saps some power from the engine but performance improves through the faster gear changes available through computer controlled timing of the events. The 360 F1 system is miles ahead in smoothness especially after 2001.
Engines up through the 98 model year can be affected by a valve guide issue detected in 95 based on the 94 348 Challenge cars where the factory changed the vavle guide specification from <some> bronze to sintered steel. In general, if the engine has not run into the valve guide issue by the time it has 20,000 miles it will likely not run into the issue.
The suspension system is excellent, with minor issues relating to the computer controlled shoch absorbers (connector corrosion). The oversteer/understeer relationship is easily manipulated with rear ride height (Google on: Ride couple distribution). The factory specs are just fine for street and even agressive track driving on street tires. I get 9 K miles on a set of max performance street tires where 1,500 of those miles occur on a race track with factory specs. Both front tires and both rear tires turn from treaded tires to slicks within 100 miles of each other. Adding camber speeds up the chassis but beware of making the car faster than the driver. Adding toe calms the car under steady state straight line operation and under braking. Running toe-out is only for track use. The suspension is easily dialed into the driver preference as long as the driver known which direction he want the cars response to move towards. If you lower the car be aware of a high speed heavy braking issue at the front suspension. Staying at the <already> factory ride heights (4.2" of ground clearance) is a good bet and prevents this high speed braking issue.
If you want to use r-compound tires or racing slicks, find the challenge specifications for alignment, but don't lower the car unless you also add the challenge spring and shock package. For noon-agressive track use, r-compounds and slicks work pretty well with the factory alignments.
The alignment system (shims) works so well that if you like agressive track driving and calm street driving, get the car sorted on the track first, and them get it aligned back to factory specs on an alignment gig. The difference between the shim thickness can be measured, and when you get to the trank, loosen a bolt, insert the required shims (8 times) and go to town. At the end of the day remove the shims, and presto you are back at street alignment. You will also get most of the toe change desired (out at track and in on the street) with this change as a side bonus.
I dislike the power assist for the steering and prefer the 348 feel of the steering wheel, but I rate this as a very minor issue.
Cars that are used hard over irregular surfaces will see minor paint spider webbing on the rear flying butress (C-piller) as evidence of hard use.
The plastic parts in the interior need to be kept away from Armoural and similar plastic protectants--it turns the plastic parts into a gooy mess.
The leather <especially> needs to be protected from drying out. Feeding the leather once every couple of months or every time you drive for any distance with the windows down; and avoiding letting the car sit in sunlight help a lot. The leather is higher in quality than <say> a C5 Vette, but less tollerant of lack of care.
Overall, the engine internals, the transmission, suspensions and brakes are basically unbreakable. There are no long term issues with the paint and exterior materials.
With the age of these cars approaching 10 years (95) and only the 98s and 99s still under the 8-year emissions warentee, the potential buyer is ever more dependent upon a high quality PPI than before. These are wonderful high performance machines that can take a lot of abuse (or designed for use) without fail. The engine has a big broad torque curve that is readily accessible and the sound at RedLine is simply out of this world. When the tail drifts out in a 100 MPH sweeper, you dial in a touch of steering and add throttle, and grin all the way to the next braking zone. However, like an Italian mistress, they are demanding upon your time and wallet. Choose wisely.
__________________
>> Edited by tonyhopkins on Friday 7th January 13:16
have a look @ www.ferrarichat.com for in-depth answers to your questions; Basically , the main fragile areas include manifolds [which crack due to poor design] & valve guides. Meanwhile , here's a great write up on 355 range.
I think with some haggling you'll buy a decent RHD Spider for £50k, try and avoid the insurance cars. They might look cheap but you'll struggle to sell on. Running costs should be around £1.5 k , assuming you don't need a belt change. Try LiverpoolVictoria for insurance. They are very competitive and insure quite a few UK owners use them ,including me.
Good luck
--------------------------------------------------------
The Ferrari F355 has two different engine packages (OBDIO-I=95 and OBDIO-II=96-99), and three different brake packages (95, 96-97, and 98-99). In street braking, there is not much difference in the braking setup and response; and for track use all brake packages should have a set of pads that are more tollerent of heat.
When F1 became available in ?96 or 97? it arrived with an uprated slave cylinder in the clutch throwout system. Like the F348s the clutch (and associated parts) is easy to change even if the parts are expensive. If you have to change anything in the clutch, do the whole thing and use the uprated slave cylinder. Its smoother, lighter, and ever so slightly faster.
The 95 engine has a little more HP andS TQ (5 HP and 2-3 lb-ft) from a slightly richer mixture allowed by the OBDIO-I emissions specification. All engines will have header issues if tracked regularly, and the 95 modle year is more affected than later. There is a uprated materials specification if/when header replacement is required. Even with the uprated materials, challenge cars replace the headers yearly. With indifferent street use headers have gone as far as 103,000 miles without failure. The hydraulic pump of the F1 cars saps some power from the engine but performance improves through the faster gear changes available through computer controlled timing of the events. The 360 F1 system is miles ahead in smoothness especially after 2001.
Engines up through the 98 model year can be affected by a valve guide issue detected in 95 based on the 94 348 Challenge cars where the factory changed the vavle guide specification from <some> bronze to sintered steel. In general, if the engine has not run into the valve guide issue by the time it has 20,000 miles it will likely not run into the issue.
The suspension system is excellent, with minor issues relating to the computer controlled shoch absorbers (connector corrosion). The oversteer/understeer relationship is easily manipulated with rear ride height (Google on: Ride couple distribution). The factory specs are just fine for street and even agressive track driving on street tires. I get 9 K miles on a set of max performance street tires where 1,500 of those miles occur on a race track with factory specs. Both front tires and both rear tires turn from treaded tires to slicks within 100 miles of each other. Adding camber speeds up the chassis but beware of making the car faster than the driver. Adding toe calms the car under steady state straight line operation and under braking. Running toe-out is only for track use. The suspension is easily dialed into the driver preference as long as the driver known which direction he want the cars response to move towards. If you lower the car be aware of a high speed heavy braking issue at the front suspension. Staying at the <already> factory ride heights (4.2" of ground clearance) is a good bet and prevents this high speed braking issue.
If you want to use r-compound tires or racing slicks, find the challenge specifications for alignment, but don't lower the car unless you also add the challenge spring and shock package. For noon-agressive track use, r-compounds and slicks work pretty well with the factory alignments.
The alignment system (shims) works so well that if you like agressive track driving and calm street driving, get the car sorted on the track first, and them get it aligned back to factory specs on an alignment gig. The difference between the shim thickness can be measured, and when you get to the trank, loosen a bolt, insert the required shims (8 times) and go to town. At the end of the day remove the shims, and presto you are back at street alignment. You will also get most of the toe change desired (out at track and in on the street) with this change as a side bonus.
I dislike the power assist for the steering and prefer the 348 feel of the steering wheel, but I rate this as a very minor issue.
Cars that are used hard over irregular surfaces will see minor paint spider webbing on the rear flying butress (C-piller) as evidence of hard use.
The plastic parts in the interior need to be kept away from Armoural and similar plastic protectants--it turns the plastic parts into a gooy mess.
The leather <especially> needs to be protected from drying out. Feeding the leather once every couple of months or every time you drive for any distance with the windows down; and avoiding letting the car sit in sunlight help a lot. The leather is higher in quality than <say> a C5 Vette, but less tollerant of lack of care.
Overall, the engine internals, the transmission, suspensions and brakes are basically unbreakable. There are no long term issues with the paint and exterior materials.
With the age of these cars approaching 10 years (95) and only the 98s and 99s still under the 8-year emissions warentee, the potential buyer is ever more dependent upon a high quality PPI than before. These are wonderful high performance machines that can take a lot of abuse (or designed for use) without fail. The engine has a big broad torque curve that is readily accessible and the sound at RedLine is simply out of this world. When the tail drifts out in a 100 MPH sweeper, you dial in a touch of steering and add throttle, and grin all the way to the next braking zone. However, like an Italian mistress, they are demanding upon your time and wallet. Choose wisely.
__________________
>> Edited by tonyhopkins on Friday 7th January 13:16
jamster said:Tonys suggestion of L&V is a good one, through I recall they don't insure anyone under 30?? Could be wrong. If so try Tesco. I oscillate between Tesco and L&V for all cars bar the Stradale (neither company will insure >100K) and both companies seem to be good.
Insurance?? Am 29 with full no claims, no points etc living in Edinburgh. Best I can get so far is 1800 quid. TVR only costs 500 quid :-)
Running costs for 355s is one of the most frequently asked of FAQs, so a search of the archives will yield more info.
tonyhopkins said:
Hi m8,
have a look @ www.ferrarichat.com for in-depth answers to your questions; Basically , the main fragile areas include manifolds [which crack due to poor design] & valve guides. Meanwhile , here's a great write up on 355 range.
I think with some haggling you'll buy a decent RHD Spider for £50k, try and avoid the insurance cars. They might look cheap but you'll struggle to sell on. Running costs should be around £1.5 k , assuming you don't need a belt change. Try LiverpoolVictoria for insurance. They are very competitive and insure quite a few UK owners use them ,including me.
Good luck
--------------------------------------------------------
The Ferrari F355 has two different engine packages (OBDIO-I=95 and OBDIO-II=96-99), and three different brake packages (95, 96-97, and 98-99). In street braking, there is not much difference in the braking setup and response; and for track use all brake packages should have a set of pads that are more tollerent of heat.
When F1 became available in ?96 or 97? it arrived with an uprated slave cylinder in the clutch throwout system. Like the F348s the clutch (and associated parts) is easy to change even if the parts are expensive. If you have to change anything in the clutch, do the whole thing and use the uprated slave cylinder. Its smoother, lighter, and ever so slightly faster.
The 95 engine has a little more HP andS TQ (5 HP and 2-3 lb-ft) from a slightly richer mixture allowed by the OBDIO-I emissions specification. All engines will have header issues if tracked regularly, and the 95 modle year is more affected than later. There is a uprated materials specification if/when header replacement is required. Even with the uprated materials, challenge cars replace the headers yearly. With indifferent street use headers have gone as far as 103,000 miles without failure. The hydraulic pump of the F1 cars saps some power from the engine but performance improves through the faster gear changes available through computer controlled timing of the events. The 360 F1 system is miles ahead in smoothness especially after 2001.
Engines up through the 98 model year can be affected by a valve guide issue detected in 95 based on the 94 348 Challenge cars where the factory changed the vavle guide specification from <some> bronze to sintered steel. In general, if the engine has not run into the valve guide issue by the time it has 20,000 miles it will likely not run into the issue.
The suspension system is excellent, with minor issues relating to the computer controlled shoch absorbers (connector corrosion). The oversteer/understeer relationship is easily manipulated with rear ride height (Google on: Ride couple distribution). The factory specs are just fine for street and even agressive track driving on street tires. I get 9 K miles on a set of max performance street tires where 1,500 of those miles occur on a race track with factory specs. Both front tires and both rear tires turn from treaded tires to slicks within 100 miles of each other. Adding camber speeds up the chassis but beware of making the car faster than the driver. Adding toe calms the car under steady state straight line operation and under braking. Running toe-out is only for track use. The suspension is easily dialed into the driver preference as long as the driver known which direction he want the cars response to move towards. If you lower the car be aware of a high speed heavy braking issue at the front suspension. Staying at the <already> factory ride heights (4.2" of ground clearance) is a good bet and prevents this high speed braking issue.
If you want to use r-compound tires or racing slicks, find the challenge specifications for alignment, but don't lower the car unless you also add the challenge spring and shock package. For noon-agressive track use, r-compounds and slicks work pretty well with the factory alignments.
The alignment system (shims) works so well that if you like agressive track driving and calm street driving, get the car sorted on the track first, and them get it aligned back to factory specs on an alignment gig. The difference between the shim thickness can be measured, and when you get to the trank, loosen a bolt, insert the required shims (8 times) and go to town. At the end of the day remove the shims, and presto you are back at street alignment. You will also get most of the toe change desired (out at track and in on the street) with this change as a side bonus.
I dislike the power assist for the steering and prefer the 348 feel of the steering wheel, but I rate this as a very minor issue.
Cars that are used hard over irregular surfaces will see minor paint spider webbing on the rear flying butress (C-piller) as evidence of hard use.
The plastic parts in the interior need to be kept away from Armoural and similar plastic protectants--it turns the plastic parts into a gooy mess.
The leather <especially> needs to be protected from drying out. Feeding the leather once every couple of months or every time you drive for any distance with the windows down; and avoiding letting the car sit in sunlight help a lot. The leather is higher in quality than <say> a C5 Vette, but less tollerant of lack of care.
Overall, the engine internals, the transmission, suspensions and brakes are basically unbreakable. There are no long term issues with the paint and exterior materials.
With the age of these cars approaching 10 years (95) and only the 98s and 99s still under the 8-year emissions warentee, the potential buyer is ever more dependent upon a high quality PPI than before. These are wonderful high performance machines that can take a lot of abuse (or designed for use) without fail. The engine has a big broad torque curve that is readily accessible and the sound at RedLine is simply out of this world. When the tail drifts out in a 100 MPH sweeper, you dial in a touch of steering and add throttle, and grin all the way to the next braking zone. However, like an Italian mistress, they are demanding upon your time and wallet. Choose wisely.
__________________
>> Edited by tonyhopkins on Friday 7th January 13:16
thats a great summary Tony, thanks. On my way to ferrarichat.com! cheers!
vixpy1 said:
There is a RHD GTB for sale from a trader on Autotrader for 37K, and a GTS for sale for 39. They are starting to get to the price range where its becoming very hard not to be tempted, even though I said July.
Oh dear!
They sound v cheap.... Do you know condition and mileage?
www.spearmintcars.co.uk/_spearmint.htm
45K miles
www.v12online.com/
39,995.. Not sure about the mileage.
45K miles
www.v12online.com/
39,995.. Not sure about the mileage.
jamster said:
Dont tell the TVR boyz but I'm thinking of taking the plunge and buying a 355 Spider.
Too late
By the way... going from TVR to Ferrari is not just like going up a gear, they are not even on the same race track. Drive them back to back and you suddenly realise what all the fuss about Ferrari is all about
>> Edited by burriana500 on Friday 7th January 18:45
burriana500 said:
Dont tell the TVR boyz but I'm thinking of taking the plunge and buying a 355 Spider.
Too late
By the way... going from TVR to Ferrari is not just like going up a gear, they are not even on the same race track. Drive them back to back and you suddenly realise what all the fuss about Ferrari is all about
>> Edited by burriana500 on Friday 7th January 18:45
I agree with you al ferrari is more reliable and the interior dont stink like an old boat the electrics on italian cars are not good but the tvr cebera i had was a nightmare and the cockpit in a tvr is too small for us larger people had to crawl out of it
Been a long time since coming on here, but via a massively unreliable Cerbera and a beautiful Porsche 996 I find myself (shortly) in the position to be able to spend around 50k on a 355 too. Like Jamster I am concerned about costs and I am shi**ing myself that it is all going to go Pete Tong on a regular basis and sour the experience. The Porker never ever goes wrong but does'nt float my boat performance wise like the TVR did. People told me lots of good stuff on here about the Cerbera. Till I brought one. Then all the bad stuff came out. 
>> Edited by hazy on Sunday 9th January 18:36
>> Edited by hazy on Sunday 9th January 18:36
burriana500 said:
Dont tell the TVR boyz but I'm thinking of taking the plunge and buying a 355 Spider.
Too late
By the way... going from TVR to Ferrari is not just like going up a gear, they are not even on the same race track. Drive them back to back and you suddenly realise what all the fuss about Ferrari is all about
>> Edited by burriana500 on Friday 7th January 18:45
can you summarise the pros and cons of each car?? handling, pose factor, reliability, costs etc. cheers!
how many of you 355 owners aspire to own a 360 spyder??? My main problem is thats the one i really want and i almost feel like i'm accepting second best even although i'm stil shelling out a huge amount of cash.
I didnt think i'd end up feeling this way when i went to buy one of my dream cars. Make sense??
WOuld you guys pick the 355/348 before the 360 or was it simply affordability that made the decsion for you??
cheers!
I didnt think i'd end up feeling this way when i went to buy one of my dream cars. Make sense??
WOuld you guys pick the 355/348 before the 360 or was it simply affordability that made the decsion for you??
cheers!
jamster said:
how many of you 355 owners aspire to own a 360 spyder??? My main problem is thats the one i really want and i almost feel like i'm accepting second best even although i'm stil shelling out a huge amount of cash.
I didnt think i'd end up feeling this way when i went to buy one of my dream cars. Make sense??
WOuld you guys pick the 355/348 before the 360 or was it simply affordability that made the decsion for you??
cheers!
In a word, no.
I bough the 355 as in my view it is THE most beautiful car ever designed. The 360 is undoubtably a better car dynamically, but the styling leaves me cold.
For the price of a 360 spider. I can have the 355 AND a Noble for trackdays!
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