Ferrari- boxy but good

I did a search a while back and noticed that a couple of members on here own or have owned a Ferrari 308. I would like to hear from a couple of people who have actually owned one of these, regarding their experiences with the car. I have heard a lot of second hand info about these, but have never actually heard anything from an owner.

Do they start every time? Are they finicky? Any unusual problems that would shock a Porsche owner? Forza magazine calls them "the bulletproof Ferrari" Is that stament a joke, or close to the truth?

I have not owned one of these cars yet, but hope to in the future. The research I have done says to stay away from the early models, they are for the collectors only. And definately stay away from the fiberglass models, they are suppoded to be the worst running of the 308's. The cars "they" recomend are the gtsi's. Like our Porsches, get someone who knows the cars look at them carefully. I have seen a few good examples and a lot of very bad examples. Many people have bought these car and drove them to death with out the proper maintenance. The Prices of the 308's look reasonable until people realize the maintenance costs are very costly if you have a qualified tech or dealer perform all the work. As an example, there is a kid (20-25yoa) in my town that owns a Mondeal (sp?). every time I see, or rather hear, the car drive by, I cringe. It sounds like it hasn't had a tune up in a long time. It os only a matter of time before the engine gives up the ghost.

Like buying a Porsche, do so intelligently.



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Dave
1970 914-6 (soon GT)

I hope you are rich and very patient. My 308 was very cool to been in, no doubt, but they are relatively heavy, under powered and very troublesome. I had a 308 five years ago and sold it within a year. I have always loved Ferrari, but remember that Enzo Ferrari reluctantly sold street cars so he could support his racing program. Modern Ferraris are great - really great, but that did not really start until the 456...

My 308 needed a $850 tune up, not including a valve adjustment. No, it did not start every time. It often overheated. The fit and finish were on par with a modern Vette.
Granted the paint was awesome, and the leather was unrivaled. but the frustrations were enormous.

BTW - on the popular TV show Magnum, PI, the set had two 308's. No wonder why...

The best thing to do is join the Ferrari mailing list and either peruse the archives or just read the traffic. It gives you some serious perspective on the cost of owning and maintaining a Porsche. I wanted a 308 GTSqvi or early 328 GTS in 1999, and after spending a little time on the list (and discovering that the closest Ferrari dealer wanted close to $5,000 for the 30k service (belts), I bought myself a 930 instead.

That and the incredible horror story from a guy in Tulsa, Oklahoma who bought a Mondial coupe from someone who said the belt service had been done. He got nervous, scheduled the service as a precaution, but drove the car a little before the appointment anyway (could you resist?), shredded the teeth off a timing belt , trashed *one side* of the motor and wound up with a $10k repair bill ... and that was after a dealer who was also on the list had mercy on him and gave him a break on the repair as a goodwill gesture! True story. Scared the crap out of me. His car was for sale, and I drove it. Didn't fit in it very well, either. Ran great, though. It should have for that kind of money!

Ferraris, alas, are for the people who can seriously afford them, and you'd better be able to do the work yourself.

I'll tell you what, when I had a scare with detonation on the 930, I took some comfort in the fact that no way was there going to be $10k in damage if busted a ring. How's that for twisted logic? (The 930 wound up being fine, leakdown was excellent.)

Vic
88 Carrera

Have you ever wondered why there are many 78-79 308 ferraris with 30k miles on them for sale..its because they just paid $6000 for a service and are afraid to drive them..theres a guy in our club who has a 308 and a 911 he says the 308 is an awesome car to look at but as far as driveability performance and reliability he would never give up his 911. The 911 is faster handles better and a lot more reliable and he can drive it daily...when I was younger I used to want a ferrari but now that I am older and wiser I dont think I would want one..

vjd3- Do you have a url for the list?

viprklr- What year was your 308? I take it that after a year, you got fed up and sold it. What kind of problems did you have, I am especially concerned about hard starting and getting stranded. I can take just about anything except getting stranded.

Thanks for the input

Owned old Ferraris when they were handmade. Not particularly enthralled by the 308 icon. However, if you are a good DIY kind of guy, you might find the car even less intimidating than a 911. If you aren't a DIY type, hope you have a big wallet and with the proper mechanic it should be quite reliable.

Diverdan

Sure. It's http://www.ferrarilist.com ...

There are some very nice and helpful people on there, but also a few "Porsche is crap" prima donnas and at least one real a--hole the last time I checked in, someone who was renown and reviled on the Rennlist for being a prick but who bought a cheap Ferrari and went to play over there, thank God. I'm sure some of you can guess his name. And nope,it's not Alan.

Vic
88 Carrera

was it Deeter ?

A 308 is not a Ferrari. Just like a 924 is not a Porsche. A Ferrari must have a 12 cylinder engine to be a true Ferrari. (Have we heard all of this somewhere before?)

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-Richard
'84 Carrera Cabriolet
'74 911 Widebody 3.6 Project

Automahn you do have a point there. The only Ferrari owner that I have talked to was reluctant to drive his 328 GTS. "It's so expensive to repair" he told me, and continued "I just had the cam belts replaced". I think he said it cost about 12000 danish Kroner which is app. 1400 USD! I think you need to prepare yourself for this before buying a used Ferrari.

I'd heard from a couple of people that Ferrari and boat ownership were very similar. Ownership involves two wonderful days ... the day you buy it and the day you sell it.

I will start by saying that I have not owned a 308; but I will reply to your post anyway! A good friend of mine owned a 79' GTS for over three years, bought it at 62K mi and had a pickup pull out in front of him thus packing it in doing close to 40mph. He put over 12K miles on it and in that time he replaced only the steering rack with a rebuilt one for like $575 which he installed himself. The car was cool looking but not that fast @ 3200 lbs and only 230hp(when new less now after 22 years) and the 14in rims made tyre selection lame. His car had weber carbs, the 2 valve Kjet cars were heaver and down to like 180 hp, the qv got the power back up to 230 or there about, all the US cars were wet sump(the euros were dry sumped and the carbed ones had about 250 HP! they were lighter and had nicer bumpers to, not the impact bumpers of the US models)

He is looking for a Porsche now

I guess after driving my stock fender 2200lb 914-6 with a 175hp 2.2 and 17X7 rims the 308 did not cut it in the performance arena!

PS: A 308 is an expensive Fiat ;D

I like the 308, but my biggest concerns are:

(1) Build quality. At least on the early cars (pre-quattrovalve 1983/4), they seem almost like kit cars to me, esp. in a lot of the detail areas (under the front trunk, engine compartment, certain parts of the interior, etc.).

(2) Performance, esp. the 80-82 US models. How does 0-60 in 8+ seconds sound? I think the Mondial was barely able to break 9 in a lot of the mag tests, prompting Road and Track to declare it the "Modena Oldsmobile" on their cover. California versions of those cars only had about 180 hp (maybe less, I don't recall exactly), combined with a surprising amount of weight, giving modern day Honda Civic or Accord Automatic type acceleration.

But, they are beautiful cars. I think I will buy one some day, it will just have to be an 84-85 Qvalve (vastly improved over the earlier cars, really a different beast) or a 328.

I dusted off my R&T Road tests compilation on 1975-81 Ferraris. Here are some performance figures for the 308:

(Bhp, 0-60, 1/4mile, @mph)
March '76 308GTB Euro: 243, 6.4, 14.6, 96
Feb '77 308GTB US: 240, 9.4, 16.7, 86
July '78 308 GTS: 205, 7.3, 15.8, 90
March '81 308 GTSi: 205, 7.9, 16.1, 88

The first test of the euro car was the ferrari factory demo car so it was specially tuned like they used to do for press cars in the good old days. The '77 road test was very funny as R&T had to sing praise about such a pathetically slow exotic sports car. The '78 had switched to cats from thermal reactors and were at least powerful enough to get out of their own way even though quoted output had gone down from the '77. The '81 had K-jet and electronic ignition.

I think that you should really consider the QV model onwards. The 328 was much better (270bhp and under 6 seconds to 60) but also costs more. Servicing costs seem to be horrendous. If I were you, it would be a 328GTB or not at all.

QV definitely has more cahonnes.
Try the Fazaz but park a nice old 911 or even a fine 912 next to it and see which one you drive everyday. I have a friend that did this with his Countach and.......well he drives the Countach even to do errands around town. He likes the extreme, see what you like. I wind up with a 2 to 3 litre car every time except sometimes the 928 Beckons and it gives me NO grief.

Diverdan

So is it the labor or the parts? If it's the labor, are the refactory repair manuals available? Are the parts for a tune up really $5K?

-Wayne

Here is the Ferrari 308 FAQ link: http://www.ferrariclub.com/faq/308_buy.html

And here is a collection of technical articles from Forza magazine:
http://www.modena-motors.com/Technical%20Articles.htm

My understanding is that it's definately the labor. Parts for a major tuneup including cam belts should not exceed $500, probably much less. CD rom manuals are available on ebay all the time, and the tuneup sounds doable. That's what has me intrigued. It's the prospect of random electrical gremlins that I worry about, specifically a habit of melting fuseboxes....

Hey, I've been digging the Ferrari Club website - thanks for posting the URL. Here's a fun snippet from the acronym "glossary" on the site:

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P-car: Slang term for a Porsche, since most Ferrari owners don't like to actually utter the word "Porsche." See also "F-car."
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Roger
'85 Carrera 3.2 Coupe aka "Sputterbug"
http://sputterbug.com