Here’s the summary of another year’s ownership of a F355. I have been remiss at not getting this out sooner as September was the actual anniversary date. You may want to catch up on previous episodes:
The tenth year they say is tin or aluminium
It’s been another year of extended lockdowns and restrictions on movements so comparisons from previous years have gone out the window.
Costs
The normal running costs where about $8,500. This is smaller than average due to lockdowns and an extended time the car was off the road.
I did have a simple coolant repair to take care of.
Outside these, I also had to get the ‘stickies’ taken care of. As part of the process the interior was given a complete make over by Elliot Caras whom you can find at elliotcaras@gmail and @restored_by_elliot on Instagram. The results where AMAZING and worth every penny!
Travel
The car reached the 98,000 kms mark and is all set to break the 100,000 kms mark very soon. I only did a bit over 5,000kms in the car again due to lockdowns and tie off the road for repairs.
Low points
Unfortunately, the year did not end well with the car going into limp mode on a drive and not coming back out after a reset. Even though I have now had work done on the issue I seem to still have a related issue with the ignition that I am trying to get sorted.
I am still trying to get a replacement cog 3D printed to replace the one in the air conditioning timing actuator. Trying to find a business that is interested in actually delivering a product is hard. However, I am working on a solution that I hope will solve this in the not to distant future.
High points
Given the locks downs and issues with the car, there again haven’t been too many I can remember. It is always great to get in the car and go for a trouble free run, and there certainly was plenty of those over the year, but the low points have pushed these to back of my memory unfortunately.
Value
The value remains around the $300K I estimate. Inflation has also played a big part in this I feel.
Summary
Probably the best thing that has happened this year is that I have been able to relocate the car to a secure storage facility. This means that it is no longer in a shared car park. That did not reduce my insurance premium that much but it did reduce the excess from $10K to $1.5K! The car now lives in a dedicated, locked and alarmed facility that I have access to at any time. It also means I can fiddle with the car and do minor repairs such as my alarm light. It also allows me a place to completely detail my car out of the sun and inquisitive eyes.
I’ll be much happier though when I get this reliability issues with starting resolved. Problem is I think they might be a bit tough to troubleshoot. Time will tell.
Do I have any regrets after 10 years of ownership? Nope, not one. Every minute has been enjoyable, even the challenging ones and I can’t imagine what life would have been like if I hadn’t made the commitment and overcome my fears of buying the car all those years ago (it’d actually be pretty boring I’ll bet).
I look forward to another year’s ownership and hopefully more reliability. The issue have been more annoying than anything. Nothing really that was a show stopper, thank goodness. All things being equal, I should cross the 100K kms barrier in the car soon, which when you think about it isn’t bad. I have a feeling that it is probably the one of the highest kilometred Ferraris in the country me thinks.
Here’s to another 10 years of adventure.
Love the F355 