[DeTomaso] Repair Costs - New vs. Old

David Fisher fisher95020 at gmail.com
Wed Mar 6 22:18:06 EST 2013


I hear you Mike.  I learned the hard way, and the closer you buy them to new, the worse it gets.



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On Mar 6, 2013, at 5:03 AM, "Mike Gilmore" <mgilmore11 at mchsi.com> wrote:

> Hi David! Unfortunely, there is not another mass procduced car on the planet you can get financially upside-down on quicker than a Ferrari. I love the prancing horse cars GREATLY, but as Michael Sheehan has pointed out in his Ferrari column many times, the mass built Ferrari made in the  last 30 years will never have much upside market. On the 95,6, and 7 , 355s one of the problems they had is the valve guides going bad, Ferrerai recomennds changing the valves, 5 valves PER CHAMBER, each valve costs 500.00!!!! Have a friend that has a full time Ferrari shop, HIS cost to buys those valves is $420.00 per valve!! Forza magazine recently had a buyer's guide of the 550/ 575 Maranello's. If you ever have to change the carbon ceramic brakes, the bill will be about $32,000!(that's thousands).  One of the Ferrari magazines recently did a rebuild on a trans axle out of  a 512 Boxer, and one out of a Testarossa, the bills were 15 and 17 Thousand, and they mentioned the rebuild on the F-1 paddle shift transmissions....start at $25,000 ,ouch! And..... A few years ago Ferrari changed the time period for changing the cam belts from 5yrs/15,000 miles, to now every 3 YEARS! They had  a number of belts fail between the 3rd and 5th year, also as Ferrari has pointed out the newer cars run at much higher temps, breaking down the belts, they turn on very small pulleys, and if allowed to sit for long peroids of time(as many Ferraris do), where the cam belt is tensioned against the pulley, causes a  flat spot, and that can cause the belt to fail, doing huge($$$$$$$) amounts of damage. Again, I love Ferraris(have a lot of real Ferrari items, dealer signs, wheels, steering wheels , valve covers, etc.,but the beauty of my Panteras, they are drop dead georgous, FUN to drive, and nothing on the car will break the proverbial bank account. Best regards, mike gilmore. PS: if you want to repost this the net, feel free to. Original Message ----- From: "David Fisher" <fisher95020 at gmail.com>
> To: "Will Kooiman" <will.kooiman at gmail.com>
> Cc: <detomaso at poca.com>
> Sent: Tuesday, March 05, 2013 9:40 PM
> Subject: Re: [DeTomaso] Repair Costs - New vs. Old
> 
> 
> Speaking of repair costs.   I let my Ferrari 355 go when it cost $5000 to
> replace the A/C compressor.   While the $5k was bad enough, what made it
> really offensive was that it was $5000 even... not $4834 or $5124...
> I would have replaced it myself, but that would have devalued the car more
> than $5k...
> 
> Sad but true... there are driver cars and then there are cars that would be
> great drivers, but the economics have taken a lot of the fun out.  I have
> great respect for those that still drive the $1M collectors around..
> 
> 
> 
> On Mon, Mar 4, 2013 at 9:07 PM, Will Kooiman <will.kooiman at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> Jack,
>> 
>> I just read your newsletter article title, "Failure Analysis of a
>> Home-Built
>> Stroker", and I really enjoyed it.
>> 
>> What I enjoyed most was the stroker destroying so many parts, and still
>> only
>> setting the owner back $2511.  That's a lot of money, but let me put it
>> into
>> perspective.
>> 
>> I had my Viper on the track a year ago, and it started running rough.  I
>> didn't know what was wrong.  It didn't pop or crunch.  There was no oil on
>> the ground.  I just didn't like the way it sounded.  The plugs looked okay.
>> So, I drove it home.  I know ­ stupid, but what's life without a little
>> spice?  When I got home, the catalytic converters were hot and smelled bad.
>> I suspected plugged cats.  I was thinking about taking it apart, but
>> Tomball
>> Dodge is in town, and they are one of the premier Viper dealers in the
>> world.  Morgan at Tomball is excellent.  Hennessey is also in town, but
>> they
>> are further away.  Morgan replaced the computer because mine was showing
>> codes.  Then once he had a good computer, he found a cylinder that was
>> running rich.  The old computer wouldn't show a code for that cylinder, but
>> the new computer did.  He checked the injectors, but they were okay.  He
>> finally pulled a head and found one keeper had split in half and the intake
>> valve had slightly dropped.
>> 
>> The damage wasn¹t bad.  If I remember correctly, there were 2 bent valves,
>> a
>> cracked guide, the bad keeper, a slightly scarred retainer, and a few minor
>> dings in the head and piston.  Of course, I did all of the necessary
>> repairs
>> including having the head checked for cracks and straightness.  It was
>> fine.
>> The total bill was $4,000.
>> 
>> I really like the Viper, but $4,000?  Morgan helped me out with some of the
>> parts too.
>> 
>> We are currently moving to the Miami/Ft. Lauderdale area.  Once we get
>> settled, the Viper is moving on to a new home.  The proceeds will go
>> towards
>> a new Porsche for my wife (hers was totaled last year).  And I'll replace
>> my
>> loss with a simpler/cheaper daily driver.  #1 in my list is a 67 Mustang
>> FB.
>> #2 is a 65/66 FB.  #3 is a 69 AMX.  At least with these cars when I break
>> something, it won't also break the bank.
>> 
>> --
>> Will
>> 
>> 
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