[denver]

I am new to this site and would like some advice. I am thinking of buying a 355 spyder and I am wondering about some of the pros and cons. I have heard that the maintence is expensive, every 15000 miles you must pull the engine and replace all belts, etc at a cost of 5-6,000. I know alot of people will say not to buy it if your going to bitch about the maintenence cost but I want a car I can drive frequently, I now have an Acura NSX that is great but I have always wanted a Ferrari, an NSX will never compare performance and look wise but it is reliable and maintence isn't too bad. How about high mileage 355's? Is 20,000-30,000 mile cars to be avoided? How much are clutch's? Any info on warranties? Any help and advice would be very helpful I don't really trust what the salesman tell me as their objective is to sell the car. Thanks.
Denver Wood

 

[Andrew]

Hello and welcome to the site. Our Buyer's Guide covers a lot of this and I'll give you the breakdown. Yes maintance is expensive but not frequent like a Testarossa can be. The F355 is solid in the sense that you won't have parts breaking left and right. A few reasons for the high maintance cost are the design of the car. The car has a sheet of metal from the front to the rear to help reduce drag, when something breaks this might need removing to access it, that means more labor. There is a mechanic that replaced belts without taking the engine out, but almost all mechanics will pull the engine for this.

How frequently do you plan to drive the car? Daily? Weekly? Daily is probably not a good idea and you should have another car. Being a Spider you would want an alternative car for the rain just to prevent any leaking from occuring. That IMO is a good enough reason to not drive it daily because when it is pouring rain you'll have no choice but to drive the F355 Spider. If you are out and it starts raining thats fine, but everyday in say a week of spring rain...not a good idea.

You shouldn't be worried about a 20-30,000 mile F355 if it was serviced properly at the right intervals and the F355's will not have any warranty remaining at this point.

I really hope this helps, the Buyer's Guide will also cover pros/cons of Spider vs. F1 vs. GTB/GTS which are all models you could also consider.

 

[Stradale]

The F355 is the best first Ferrari that a new owner can get. 30,000 miles on the clock is nothing to worry about. The most important thing is the service record. If the car has been serviced as recommended then it's better than a car with lower milage but not prperly serviced!

As Andrew said, check out our buyer's guide as well as the threads on F355 here.

 

[Boxer]

I have a F355 GTS. It has 40,000 miles on the clock. Never had a major problem with it. Belts are expensive to have done otherwise maintenance costs are resonable (by Ferrari standards). It is a great first Ferrari (it was my first) and terrific to drive. As long a you find one that has a full service history, you should not have any problems.

 

[denver]

Thank you all for the information and suggestions, I think I will buy a yellow/black spyder, probably a 95-97, depending on price, would you rather have a 95 with 15,000 miles or a 97 with 25-30,000 for about the same price? Once again thank you all for your insight and I will be posting some pics when I purchase.

 

[Stradale]

Thank you all for the information and suggestions, I think I will buy a yellow/black spyder, probably a 95-97, depending on price, would you rather have a 95 with 15,000 miles or a 97 with 25-30,000 for about the same price? Once again thank you all for your insight and I will be posting some pics when I purchase.

Get the 97 model. You'd be surprised the improvements the factory had done as the production year progresses. As we said before, milage to a certain extent is not a criteria for consideration, service record and year of manufacture is more important. The 95 car has many problems, trust me and unless the owner has updated the parts, you're gonna inherit his problems. If I'm not mistaken '95 is the first model year for the Spyder and you know what 1st year models are like.

Ferrari unlike Porsche has the habit of improving the "unseen componenet" without telling the customers or the press. Only the dealers workshop will be told. Porsche on the other hand loves to change the exterior and some "unseen parts" and call it the new year's model.

I hate Porsche for that. My GT3 became an old model 6 months after I took delivery because the factory changed the headlights on next year's car!

 

[Vomit]

What are some of the F355 improvements (other than generally improved quality control) that occurred between 1995 and the end of production? Were there "quantum leap" years (where there were very important improvements relative to the previous year)? I, too, am in the market for a Spider, and would like to know.

Thanks!

 

[Boxer]

To the best of my knowledge there are no "quantum" leap improvement years in the F355 model production run.

 

[Stradale]

What are some of the F355 improvements (other than generally improved quality control) that occurred between 1995 and the end of production? Were there "quantum leap" years (where there were very important improvements relative to the previous year)? I, too, am in the market for a Spider, and would like to know.

Thanks!

We have discussed this on another 355 thread. If you care to search for them, there you'll find your answers.

 

[Vomit]

What are some of the F355 improvements (other than generally improved quality control) that occurred between 1995 and the end of production? Were there "quantum leap" years (where there were very important improvements relative to the previous year)? I, too, am in the market for a Spider, and would like to know.

Thanks!

We have discussed this on another 355 thread. If you care to search for them, there you'll find your answers.

Thanks for the advice.

I actually did a search before asking the question. I tried searching "improvements" and "changes" and found nothing.

 

[Boxer]

suggest you try searching using "F355 Issues", "F355 problems", and "F355 Buyers Advice".

 

[Andrew]

What are some of the F355 improvements (other than generally improved quality control) that occurred between 1995 and the end of production? Were there "quantum leap" years (where there were very important improvements relative to the previous year)? I, too, am in the market for a Spider, and would like to know.

Thanks!

There weren't any "quantum leap" improvements in the F355 model. It was pretty solid from the start. The biggest difference was the F1 model which of course had the F1 transmission for the first time.

The F1 also had an upgraded slave cylinder in the clutch throwout system.

1996 - 1999 cars had ODBII, 1995 cars had ODBI. Some, not all F355s had a upgraded valve guide in 1999 models to steel.

I guess the only major upgrade is the ODBI vs the ODBII which changes the fuel mixture/burnning, but in general 95-99 models are all equally reliable across variants (GTB/GTS/F1) etc.

 

[Dr. Bob]

suggest you try searching using "F355 Issues", "F355 problems", and "F355 Buyers Advice".

and make sure you mark the 'search for all words' otherwise you will get a lot of topics, but not all most usefull