The five year anniversary

It’s been a while between now so it is time to do an update and share the latest news with the F355.

Let’s deal with the bad news first, which means there will probably be more regular updates now. After many months for running flawlessly the F355 now won’t start! The ignition comes on but the engine won’t crank. This problem started to develop over the past few weeks where I’d turn the key and nothing would happen. However, after a few moments the car would fire. Over time, the delays to it actually cranking were becoming longer and longer, until today when no matter what I tried the car wouldn’t fire up.

At first I thought that maybe it was the immobilizer but after a brief email chat with Sal DiMauro from Racing Red it seems it maybe the starter solenoid. Either way, not being able to fire the car up could be a real pain as where it is currently parked is not the most accessible location. However, as always, the situation could have been worse if I stop and think about it. Imagine if I had stopped for petrol somewhere and then the car refused to fire up there? So having it not fire up at home is a small mercy I suppose.

I’ll have to wait and see what Sal DiMauro from Racing Red suggest to get the car at least drivable so it can be looked at closer.

So with the bad news out of the way let’s turn the annual update.

The car recently passed its five year anniversary with me. If you want to review the previous anniversaries then check them out here:

One Year Anniversary

Two Year Anniversary

Three Year Anniversary

Four Year Anniversary

The fifth year anniversary is wood so they say.

Costs

The only major component that needed replacing this was another thermocouple ECU for around $440. The car had started to get the annoying 5-8 Slow Down light on a more regular basis, so after it became almost constant I replaced the ECU and the problem went away. I had replaced the actual thermocouple last year but clearly the ECU also needed to be changed. So now both the thermocouples and ECUs have been changed out and hopefully will be good for at leats another 20 years!

The biggest percentage cost increase for the year was for a green slip. This jumped a whopping 55%. I did some comparisons, and it turns out that I am still paying the average for these cars. I could however, get no acceptable answer from the insurance company as to why the costs had jumped so dramatically. Let’s hope it is a once off hike. Time will tell.

Travel

With a low incidence of repairs, I managed to lift the distance driven by the car this year to over 7,300 kilometres which was a 23% increase over last year which was about what I’ve averaged annual over the past five years. However, all that driving did take me across a major milestone. Around the 67,000 kilometre mark I crossed the point at which I have put more kilometres on the car than ALL the previous owners combined. Thus, in the last 5 years I have done more kilometres in the car than car did in its previous 16!.

Overall, total costs were down about 25% to around $7,500 from last year and probably the cheapest they have been since I have owned the car. Aside from the current non-starting issue I have at the moment, this year’s maintenance bill will be higher because it is once again time to have the major service done and get the belts changed. I’m also going to need some new tyres. While the engine is out for the belts I’m going to take the opportunity to have the rear bumper fixed after I cracked it a few years ago. All of that is probably going to add up to a fair investment. Hopefully I can roll all that together with getting the car running again in one hit. I’ll report back and let you know when I have more information about the current situation.

This year’s learnings

1. As always, you can’t continue to own, and more importantly enjoy, a car like this without good back up. As always Sal DiMauro from Racing Red has solved any problem or concern I had with the car. Even now, with the current issues, I’m 100% confident he’ll get this solved and car will be back on the road real soon. If you need help he’s your man.

2. Cheap double sided tape doesn’t last forever! I returned home after a drive and noticed something on ground in the car’s parking spot. Turned out to be the front number plate, which I must have flicked off when I removed the car’s cover. Upon examination I could see that it was in fact only held in place by some cheap double sided tape that was now well past its use by date. I therefore reinstated the number plate in position using screws and premium double sided take for extra insurance. Getting all those points to align during application was challenging but now the front plate is much more securely fastened.

Low points

Aside from the current non starting situation, I’ve been somewhat stressed by the oil pressure gauge remaining higher that it should be at times. Now Sal tells me it may just be a bad connection to the gauge but there have been drives when the gauge goes to the maximum of 10+ PSI and stays there for the whole trip, even at idle.

I did check the oil and water levels and they seemed good. Of late, the pressure gauge has stayed within normal operating limits but it still catch my eye when I’m driving.

The good ol’ 5-8 slow down warning and cut out is always a pain. The worse occurrence happened early in the morning on my way to the Bathurst 12 hour. It happened because I got caught in a traffic jam on the freeway at 6am! Go figure. I put up with the cut outs for a little while longer before I decided that they weren’t going away and replaced the part. The good thing is with the replacement is that if there is one things I’ve had a lot of experience with on this car, it is fixing thermocouple ECU issues!

I’ve also had the usual bangs and scrapes of the nose which is annoying. Speed bumps and steep driveways are generally the culprits, most of which you can’t spot readily from the drivers seat. It always sounds much worse than it is, but it is still like a dagger in the back when it happens.

Another annoying thing is that the screws that hold in the roof clips regularly work their way loose. This is no doubt because of all the bumps and jarring suffered by the car on the poor local roads. You just need to remember to tighten the screws regularly or else they drop out while you are driving along, which can be very distracting when you try and find where they have gone in the cabin.

High points

A largely maintenance free year, with lower ownership costs. That has mean I’ve got a lot of driving in for the year which is why I bought the car in the first place. There is nothing like taking the car out early on a Sunday, doing a complete drive, no stops and returning before most people are even awake. Makes a great way to kick off a week.

All in all a great year for driving the car. Although this is currently tainted somewhat with the current non-starting issues I will admit.

Value

I will admit that I haven’t kept an eye on prices that much in the last twelve months. Doing so takes a lot of time and effort, unfortunately I haven’t had a lot spare to devote to the tasks.

However, as I look at the market today I feel that the car at worst, has retained it’s value and at best has increased maybe 10 – 20%. I think once I sort out a few issues with my car, like the cracked bumper, I would expect the value to increase. There are still things that need to be done to the car to continue to improve its value but they aren’t that major. So all in all, once the belt service has been done, the cracked bumper fixed, new tyres and the current non starting issue solved the car would be at its current peak resale value I feel. Not that I’m contemplating selling, but at that point all the major issues have been taken car of.

Summary

So at the moment the car is as broken as it’s ever been unfortunately. In short, it won’t crank which is frustrating and in someway taints this trip down the memory lane. However, that aside, the last 12 months have been very enjoyable F355 motoring. Driving time was up and costs were down so I really can’t complain at all.

The next 12 months will see a major service with the belts being changed, new tyres and hopefully the cracked bumper finally properly repaired. With all that done and the car back on the road, I’ll be a happy camper.

There may also be another opportunity for a trip to the land of Ferrari coming in 2018 but I’ll share more details on that as it gets close.

Until then, thanks for following along and roll on year six of ownership.

The average price of a F355

One of the things that I do every week is keep track of the asking price of Ferrari F355’s. I do this partly to have an idea of what the insurance value should be but also because I believe in the long run the F355 will increase in value.

The method I use is to track the asking price of F355s for sale via the auto classifieds on the internet for local Australian F355s. I then throw away the value of the most and least expensive ones and average the rest. That gives me the chart you see above.

The blue line is the average asking price, while the red line is a 52 week moving average (to give a better indication of price over time). This 52 week average has been fairly static around the $136,000 mark. However, you can see that in the last few months the average price for a F355 has taken a substantial dive.

Of course, this measure is by no means scientific and in many ways is biased towards unpopular or low quality cars that take many weeks to sell. Also, the average is only conduced across no more than a dozen cars every week. However, that could therefore be taken as a worst case scenario?

So what does all this mean? The figures certainly indicate that the asking price of a F355 is now well below the 52 week average which suggests that if you are in the market for a F355 now is the time to buy (if you can find the right car of course).

It is never as simple as this, and as I said the figures (especially now) are skewed towards cars that are taking a long time to sell for various reasons. As with purchasing anything of this value you need to do your research and hopefully this might provide some information around what price you should expect to pay.

Some say that the value of classics cars is at an all time record high. I’d like to see where they get that from as the number I track on F355s certainly don’t seem to indicate that all at the moment!

I’d love to be able to extract an automated data feed from the auto classifieds so I could the break up the models to know the average asking price of different colours, models, years, etc. Having all that data accessible automatically would mean I could concentrate on developing ways to analyse it. At the moment I simple hand end the basics every week which is time consuming and I’d do more if I could. I plan to contact the auto classified people to see whether a data feed is available somehow but I’d guess not as that information is part of the value they provide. Worth a try anyway.

So there you have it. A good time to buy a F355 if you are looking? If you can find the right one, maybe. Maybe.

The two year anniversary

As I move into the third year of ownership of my Ferrari F355 it is once again time to step back and reflect on what has transpired in the previous 12 months.

You can revisit my musing at the one year anniversary here:

https://blog.lovethe355.com/2013/09/the-one-year-anniversary.html

So let’s get on with a wrap for the paper anniversary.

Costs

Maintenance costs for any sort of supercar are always going to exceed those of a ordinary road car. Now the most interesting thing this year is that I drove the F355 over 7,000 kilometres which was a 48% increase on what I did the previous year. This was directly reflected in a 48% increase in the amount of fuel I used, so no surprises there.

Interestingly, that usage is about 60% of the usage of my normal road car. Total maintenance costs for the Ferrari fell below $9,000 for the year which was about a 9% decrease over the year prior. That figure also included the cost of insurance which is the major running cost of the car. This year I switched insurers after shopping around (and going through some renewals dramas).

Over the twelve months I did not make any major improvements to the car, unlike the previous year, so the totals costs all up for everything associated with the car was just over $10,000 which was 40% less than the year before.

Travel

The car has now done about 12,500 kilometres since purchase, completing over 7,000 this year (a 48% increase over the previous year as mentioned). That averages out to 142 kilometres per week this year verses 100 the year prior.

This years learning’s

1. As last year, the number one thing you need to have with cars like these is a great mechanic and luckily Sal DiMauro from Racing Red is just that and his assistance in the prior year once again proved invaluable. Answering my questions during my panic with overfilling the car with oil was just one example of what a great job he does. So if you need Ferrari mechanic, Sal’s the man.

2. The car won’t dissolve when you take it out in the rain. Although driving in the wet is far from being the most pleasant experience with the F355, it doesn’t prevent the car from working! After a number of trips in the car this year in quite heavy rain I have shattered my preconception that it only works when the sun is out.

Low Points

1. Backing the car into a road sign and splitting the bumper.

2. Overfilling the oil level.

3. Insurance woes

4. The car getting over sprayed by a fire extinguisher.

High Points

1. Every day I get to see the car. Whether under a cover or from behind the wheel, I thank my lucky stars every time.

2. Finally taking the car onto the track.

3. Road to Sydney Cavalcade.

4. Ferrari Racing Days.

The year ahead

The end of this calendar year will be a major maintenance appointment for the car. It will the engine taken out and serviced and the timing belts replaced. This has always been a know quality with the F355 as it needs doing every 3 years or 15,000 kilometres. I will also probably take this as the opportunity to get the shock absorbers refurbished as they have been showing signs of wear. All this won’t be cheap but it needs to be done.

I see the car doing more kilometres given the number of outing that the Ferrari Club is undertaking. This is also in part due to my increased confidence with the car and the realisation that it isn’t going to ‘fall apart’ just by being driven long distances.

Summary

Owning a Ferrari F355 still challenges me but I am finally beginning to be more comfortable with driving it. I doubt whether I will ever be as casual about driving as I am with a normal road car but another year’s worth of driving the F355 has greatly increased the comfort levels.

I also think that ‘repairing’ the bumper that I cracked has overcome much of the fear I had about doing something ‘wrong’ to the car, simply because I DID something wrong if you know what I mean. Actually sanding, filling and painting the car has perhaps removed that ‘pristine’ misconception I had about the car. The difference this year is that rather paying someone to fix a problem (like the dent I previous put in my door) I had a go at fixing it myself. Although far from perfect, I was rather proud that it turned out as good as it did. Most importantly, I learnt a lot throughout the process.

I have been on so many amazing drives this year where it was simply a pleasure to put the roof down and just drive along. Doing so has allowed me to experience some great scenery as well as interact with some great people from the Club. That, above everything else, has made the previous twelve months ownership more than worthwhile and something I’m so glad has happened.

The final note is a thanks to anyone who reads or follows along with this blog and my YouTube channel.I need to get back to making more videos which I promise to do soon. Hope you have enjoyed another year of ‘entertainment’ and hope you’ll stay with me to see what transpires in the coming 12 months.

The above video is what I reckon is my best one for the year.

Three pointer

I am pleased to report that the F355 now has a fully verified 3 point alarm system. It took a few hours and a few hundred dollars to get sorted but in the end I am glad it is done.

Interestingly, one of things that we checked upon completion was the override code. Basically you switch the ignition on and off in accordance with the code and the alarm is disabled allowing you to start the car in event that you don’t have access to the fobs.

When we tried the code that was provided it turned out not to work. Luckily, after some further examination of the alarm we found the working code. This means that the details that have been provided with the car since the day it was installed have been incorrect. Thus, if any of the previous owners had needed to start the car without the fob they would have been dead in the water!

This experience has highlighted another learning experience when it comes to buying a super car. You need to firstly check exactly what the alarm does to disable the car as many insurers want three point alarms. Secondly, and perhaps most importantly, you need to check you have all the documentation about the alarm, especially if it is after market.

Most super cars build after the year 2000 have factory three point alarms, so that makes things easier, however if you have or desire one prior to 2000 then you really need to do you homework.

So, the long and short of it is that I am a few hundred dollars poorer but I have a car that is more secure and more complaint with what insurance companies request. Downside is I have found an alternate that doesn’t car about the alarm being three point or not. However, having a three point alarm and a known override code does remove any future worries (in that respect at least) when it comes to insurance.

Now all I have to do is pony up the money to pay for the insurance. Ouch.

Read the fine print

I have been chasing down a solution to my insurance dilemma this week and made a few discoveries.

Firstly, Sal from Racing Red indicated that contrary to what I thought, my existing alarm is not a 3 point alarm because if it was trying to start the car wouldn’t even allow it to crank if it indeed had a 3 point immobilization alarm. Damm! Mine certainly has ignition and cranks if the alarm is not disabled. So the only thing that must be disabled is the fuel pump.

Luckily, he was able to provide me with the name of someone who deals with my aftermarket alarm. A quick conversation with him revealed that he needs to come out to check out exactly how everything is configured. There is a chance that it has not been configured right and can be fixed easily, so I have booked him in to have a closer look this coming week.

I also believe I have done the insurance people an injustice by not fully comprehending their policy. They in fact did not say they wouldn’t insure the car. What they actually specified is that they just won’t insure it against theft until the alarm is verified as 3 point. Thus, even if I can’t get the alarm fixed prior to renewal I can at least have it insured again all other maladies except theft. It pays to read what the offering says and not get too hysterical about it eh?

That however hasn’t prevented me from shopping around a few other providers just to see what is on offer. Always good to get a comparison.

I know that, failing all other options, I can get standard comprehensive insurance from NRMA just like my normal car. Down side is that it will be $500 – $800 more expensive but at least I know I have that available if really needed.

So, I’m still looking to get the question of the configuration of my alarm sorted and once again thanks to Sal for pointing me in the right direction there. I also appreciate now that I overlooked that my current insurer will still insure me, just not for theft until the alarm is verified as 3 point. Finally, I’m still pursuing other insurance options just what to see if on offer.

Hopefully, next week I’ll have some positive news to report about the alarm, which will then put the insurance question to bed for another year.

Insurance woes

As I have said many times, it is not buying an exotic car that is the challenge it is keeping it that can really stress you out. A great example is keeping it insured.

Just before purchasing the F355 I did the rounds of preferred exotic car insurers but discovered, much to my horror, that one of the limitations was the car needed to live in its own secured garage. This was a problem for me since I didn’t have such accommodations.

Luckily, I was able to find an insurer who would provide coverage for my situation. Thus, I could purchase the car.Ah, serenity now.

Fast forward two years and now my insurance on the F355 is once again up for renewal. However, this time it turns out the the current insurer is getting out of the business so I need to apply for cover with a new firm.

I dutifully complete all the forms only to discover that I can’t be insured unless I can confirm the car has an alarm that auto activates and disables the car in three ways!

Now this is a problem, because, being a second hand car and having been through a number of different owners, I have no history on the after market alarm system that is installed in the car. I certainly know that it auto arms as I discovered a few days after purchase, however how can I ‘prove’ that it disables the car in 3 ways?

I understand the requirement from the insurance company and I understand it is totally their prerogative to insure me BUT given the fact that this is a used car how do I go about proving it conforms with their requirements? Surely, they have come across this situation before and can give me some options?

I am pretty sure it does meet the requirements but again, no proof, no insurance, which leaves me probably with the need to search for an insurance alternative. This again will no doubt raise the issue about housing the car in a fully locked garage, once again limiting my options and most likely significantly raising the cost of insuring the F355.

Luckily, I still have some time before the existing insurance expires but I’ll need to get onto it quick smart and start finding out what is available.

This is certainly one of the major learnings I have had about the car. Unless you have a lock up garage in which to store the car your insurance options are somewhat limited, which is somewhat of a pain for those of us who can’t afford a freestanding house (which on average in Sydney at the moment, is far more expensive than a Ferrari!).

So, one of the things you NEED to check before you go out and buy the car of your dreams, is to check how much it will cost to insure in the location where you plan for it live. You may find the results of this somewhat tougher than you think as I have!