Airport shopping dare?
Airport shopping dare?
James stated in his article
In fact, the last V8 Ferrari I fancied with unqualified lust was the F355.
and
Sadly, and despite what I know some of you think, I don't have anything like the wherewithal to buy a 458, so that means I'm reduced to the "Ferrari for Mondeo money" exercise that classic car writers espouse but don't actually try for themselves, or they'd know it isn't true. But I have seen very tasty examples of the 308 ? another car so seductively shaped it could make an archbishop kick a nativity scene to pieces ? going for about ?25,000. I could have one of those.
So, to make his decision making even more difficult, I have been doing some searching on the internet. We all know (or at least some of us do anyways) that the 312 Mondial was crap, the 348 handled poorly, and the Testarossa was in Miami Vice. Adding to that, the 328 was just a reworked 308, so we'll leave that one out too. So, that leaves us with the 355.
I haven't looked in the UK but, when I looked tonight at 355 prices in the USA, I can only say I was shocked. Only 2 years ago they were still selling from about $70,000 - $100,000. Here we have some Ebay listings that seem to be going for far, far less than that.
?27,584
?31,884
?33,788
So, for just a fraction more, James could have (at least if he lived in the US) a 355 Spider, with its sexy pop-up headlights, gated metal Ferrari shifter, and fold down roof to enjoy all the aural experience that the hard-top or targa top would rob him of. They're only a fraction more than his target expenditure, and James is a TV presenter, he deserves it. I think he really should treat himself to the Ferrari experience.
Lets face it as well, the 355 was one of the last great Ferrari's. You could buy it with a proper manual transmission (clink, clink), it had pop-up headlights, driver assists were minimal and, it went 0-60 in under 5 seconds so it is still very much a fast car today. I was in High School when this car came out and, coincidentally, I still have the Motortrend that I first read about it in.
So James, come on, you CAN afford the 355. Just think of all that you're missing out on!