Hustn

Has anyone owned or spend some time in one? Talk about it.

Thanks in advance. I do not own one currently, but I may later.

steve c

Pretty. Tempermental.
The 6 speed is decent, but not to be rushed.
A very small V8. Low torque, needs to be revved. Loves to be revved.

No. Being able to afford a Ferrari is very different from affording to own a Ferrari. There are some guys who have daily driven their 355's -- but with 5 grand service jobs and prices that drop quickly as the miles add on, it's not a good idea.
Nice leather.

Chris1

The quality is not so great. Things will break, things will snap, etc...

That having been said, the 355 is a great car. If you're looking at a Ferrari, look at the 355 and the 328 but STAY AWAY from the 348. As was said before the 355 also has a very torqueless engine. It needs to be revved high to get any speed from it, but that is how the 360 is as well. Even the 360 makes less torque than an STi.

Slamnasty

Not only is Ferrari not realistically a major car manufacturer, but every engine they make is a limited run item, which means they start from a fresh engineering slate with each new model. Thusly, problems are not really "worked out" like in commodity cars.

Ferrari reinvents itself with every car. This, for good or for bad, is why they are known to be mostly unreliable.

Steve is totally right about affording own vs. affording to buy. If any Ferrari is to stay in good working shape, it has to be babied to death.

PLYRS 3

a friend of mine had a 348 for 8 months - used it as a daily driver - no repairs, but had an oil service performed and went through 2 sets of rears in that time (3 including the set that came with the car).

didn't cost him much out-of-pocket, but he "lost" 7K in value in those 8 months (difference between what he paid and what he sold it for).

put 12K (km) on the car in that time.

not bad - for a ferrari.

Hustn

Good thoughts all. I

Slamnasty

If there is a 308/328/348/355/360 club in Houston I'd see if I could get in touch with them at a show or something. I don't know if Houston has weekly car shows as we are privileged to have here in Phoenix, but sometimes those Ferrari guys show up and hang out for a while. Cool cats. They'd likely be happy to give you more insight.

UKXotics

I'm biased But I'd say save a few tens of thousands and get a Lotus Esprit. You can still find new 03's and 04's (maybe even 02's) and get a healthy chunk off of MSRP - like 20K or more. Plus you'll have all the performance of the 355.

Also, like the 355 it's a small, high revving v8 and it shared the angular design..

Also like the Ferrari, buying and owning are two different pricepoints. I am on my second Esprit, (a 2002 V8) and just dropped 250 bucks for an oil change and 2K to repair the front bumper (it's about 2 inches off the ground and I mauled it coming out of a gas station).

My previous Esprit, a 1995 S4S, was costing me on average 2K a month the last few months I had it when one factors in the new tranny I had to pay for and the new cam seals.

BUT.. with a new (never titled) V8 or 02, 03 or 04 you get warranty coverage, which is nice.

Elistan

Have you looked at www.nsxfiles.com? F355, NSX and S2000 stories galore there.

X4DLuvOfSpeedX

Not sure why you said that about the 348. If you are talking about its lack of "soul" or "mystique" or whatever other intangibles Ferrari owners use to justify spending some serious cash on a car that car be beaten by a Porsche for half the price, then yes, stay away from the 348 (although those "feelings" are subjective). If you're talking about reliability, then I have to half-disagree. The 348, with universal parts like Bosch fuel injection, was Ferrari's biggest attempt at a relatively affordable, serviceable and reliable sports car. At first they didn't get it right - reliability was horrible. But for MY93 they worked most of kinks out, and as many Ferrari enthusiasts will tell you, it became one of the most reliable Ferraris ever. But just pray that it lives up to it and doesn't break too often because parts and service prices are up there with the Modena.

OTOH, the 308/328s are probably the cheapest Ferraris to maintain. They are pretty tough, parts and service prices are on par with the average muscle car (if you know where to look), and there's a decent supply of used parts.