355 vs 348 Cost of Ownership

Hi JRV :-) I have owned a 1992 348 tb for two years now and it has been great and since I bought it with a fresh major service my cost of ownership to date has only been oil changes. I have been thinking about trading it in for a 355 gtb mainly because I really enjoy tracking my Ferrari and the 355 has so much more to offer for track use. I am hesitating though mostly because I have read allot of posts about the maintenance on the 355 that make it appear to be much more costly to maintain, can you provide me with average maintenance costs for a 355 versus a 348 say based on what one would need to do every 3 to 5 years? Thanks.

Hi Carm,

the 355's are a little more expensive service wise and the engines thru mid to late 98 have the valve guide issues unless updated already.

Otherwise they have proven almost as reliable and trouble free as the 348's when one considers they are seriously more technically advanced and complicated.

My personal favorites are the 95's with the daul intake system and higher HP...as long as one accepts the fact that almost any 355 one finds will need the valve guide replacement then they can be viewed as fantastic machines.

Regards, JRV

JRV,
Thank you so much for your response, that is what I was hoping to hear. The car I am considering is a 1995 355 GTB and its from the same dealer that I bought my current and previous Ferrari and to date they have provided me with cars that have known history and with very good service. So once the valve guide replacement is done on a 355 will it re-occur and can you give me an idea what the cost is, assuming it is done while you are doing a Major Service, Thanks :-) By the way I just came back from a walk (short one) its -25 degrees Celsius here right now :-). Ciao.

Hi Carm.

once the Valve Guides are updated to the sintered steel version they last longer, not sure how much longer than the bronze silicon, but I haven't heard of the steel guides going bad short term. It's hard to gauge the amount of miles across the model in masse, on the cars post bronze silicon.

Like all Ferrari numbers these seem to be all over the map also, but the average for a 30K, plus both heads off and ALL guides replaced seems to be around $14K give or take 10%.

just to cloud the picture a little more..

http://ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=5554&highlight=valve+guide

Really doesn't cloud the issue at all, plain and simple facts are when the guides get loose they must be replaced. The real ser# of the cars coming from the factory with sintered steel are mid/late 98's.

To expect the Factory to publicaly admit any type large scale liability is absurd, to believe the Factory that their cars are perfect and defect free is equally absurd.

See my thread on dangling, rubbing, dragging AC hoses on new 360 Spyders for all the evidence one needs to see this stuff is not perfect. The Ferrari Factory is unlikely to put mechanics out of a job anytime soon imo.

Regards, JRV

Sean/JRV: I appreciate this very informative information very much. I mentioned that I was considering a 1995 355 when I started this post, now based on all the information I am sure that I will buy a 1995 355 :-)
/Carm