The first thing you must realize, or understand, is that owning a 26 year old(at the youngest) Ferrari 308 is not like owning a 26 year old toyota. The “social cache” of being able to say “I drive a Ferrari” means that you at least have the money to be able to properly care for and maintain a hand made Italian exotic car. In other words, it won’t be a matter of finding a good car, keeping the oil changed and driving it without care for as long as you own the car. Owning a “Ferrari 308 GTS”, however, will be one of the least expensive ways to get into “Ferrari ownership”.
It is for this reason, that because you can get into a Ferrari 308 for between $20,000 $50,000 US, that some guys who buy the cars can just barely afford the car, and not have done their homework on what would be required to “maintain” the car, and once the “new toy” feeling wears off, paying to properly service the car is then neglected. After awhile, that neglected car starts to have problems that are even more expensive to fix. So either that owner has to pony up big bucks to repair the car, or stop driving it.
Is this saying that Ferraris break more that other cars their age? No, Ferraris are some of the toughest cars engineered. Once, at a Ferrari owners club meeting at Dan Gurneys All American Racers headquarters, I had the opportunity to ask Dan, a former Ferrari F1 driver how he liked driving the Ferrari F1 cars? and he said “that of all the race cars he had the opportunity to drive, the Ferrari’s were the toughest machines. I would often have other cars rattle to pieces underneath me during a race, but the Ferraris were always so solid.”
The key then to a happy Ferrari 308 GTS ownership experience is to find and buy a car that has a complete documented service history. Ferrari made more than 8000 308 GTS’s, so finding cars with complete service histories shouldn’t be that difficult. a brief list of service intervals and costs are as follows:
These estimated prices are for having an independent Ferrari shop do the work.
A service should be performed every 3000 miles or 12 months, which ever comes first.
A 3000 mile minor service will average $700-$1000.
A major service to be performed every 3rd year, at an average $2500-3000
A complete brake job will run between $4000-5000
A new clutch will run between $2000-2500
New O.E.M. tires will cost at least $400 each.
The other option you have is to do the work yourself. If you have the time, desire, and ability to wrench on your Ferrari, you can save a lot of money, as much as half. I will be posting complete instructions on self maintenance in the future, but until then, there are many online sources for working on your Ferrari.
The bottom line – Find, and buy the best car you can afford, with complete maintenance records, and a bill of good health from your independent Ferrari shops Pre-Purchase inspection. After buying your 308, be prepared to put aside at least $3000 a year for maintaining the value of your dream car.
source: http://www.ferrari308gts.com/
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