I'm interested in entering the ownership world and could use some advise. I'm looking at spending $100K +/- on a '99 355 spyder. Any general thoughts on reputable places to look (in the mid-west) and what to look for? IE-key issues: F1 vs. manual. Any help would be appreciated-
The 355 that's right for you will depend on what you want from the car (e.g. daily driver, weekend cruiser, concours show car, racer, etc.) and how you service it (e.g. at a dealership, at an independent, yourself, etc.).
A concours 355 needs expensive and failure prone parts (e.g. 355 exhaust headers), whereas the best 355 daily drivers will have aftermarket replacement parts already installed.
Without knowing how you desire to use the car, it's a bit tough to be more specific.
However, if this will be your first Ferrari, be advised that more than half of the Ferraris **for sale** at any given moment will have title issues (e.g. duplicate titles, no title in the case of 355 Challenges, accident or rollback history) or not have valid state license tags (inevitably sticking you with someone else's unpaid tax bills from the years when they didn't register the car).