[DeTomaso] Ferrari 360 maintenance costs-- NPC

[Mike Thomas]

Along the same lines, and someone else may have already chimed in, is the
Porsche 928 S.  I know last few years, the S4 was a better car, but I
thought the high rear wing was ugly.  'Spose that could be taken off, I've
never been a wing guy.  I also heard the clutches on the manual tranny cars
didn't last very long and were hideously expensive to replace.
 
Mike Thomas
 
The top 5 list: besides yellow '74 Pantera #6328
Pantera GT5-S with a supercharged 4 can
Superformance 427 Cobra
BMW Z-8
Ferrari Maranello 550
Jaguar XK-120

 
  _____  

From: MikeLDrew at aol.com [mailto:MikeLDrew at aol.com] 
Sent: Monday, February 08, 2010 12:51 PM
To: garth_rodericks at yahoo.com; detomaso at realbig.com; mbefthomas at comcast.net
Subject: Re: [DeTomaso] Ferrari 360 maintenance costs-- NPC



In a message dated 2/8/10 12:19:55 PM, garth_rodericks at yahoo.com writes:




I have oft considered the Ferarri 550 as a nice 'someday' car - a
daily-driver-type Ferrari that would be a luxurious
GT I could someday drive to work or take my wife out to dinner in without
looking like a 'michael shumaker
wannabe racer' or a pretentious snob. My plan involved waiting as the prices
continue to drop until they become
comparable to a new 5-series BMW.

But then I learned that a Ferrari is like a sail boat - a hole in the water
to throw money, except it's in the garage
instead! No longer on my list of 'someday' cars...
http://www.sportscarmarket.com/articles/archives/939




The perfect car to fulfill this mission would be BMW's direct competitor to
the 550 Marenello--the BMW 850.  It was always an expensive car when new
(over $100K), and had all of the same general attributes as the 550,
including a silky V12 engine.  But they have depreciated like bricks and
have now bottomed out, so that you can easily buy one for 10% of the
original price.  They are fast, stylish, comfortable, and unusual enough to
be considered quasi-exotic.  Running costs will be expensive but nowhere
near that of the Ferrari, plus they are built with BMW's legendary quality
and reliability, something the Italians have aspired to but never really
reached.

http://consumerguideauto.howstuffworks.com/1991-to-1997-bmw-8-series.htm

And if you could live without the V12, the 840 is the same car with a much
more economical (from a maintenance perspective) V8 that makes almost as
much power.

Mike