ekam, What is the oldest acceptable automatic transmission on a Ferrari?

By 2002 Ferrari had pretty much worked out all of the bugs with their F1 transmission. And, most of the f1 problems associated with earlier 360's were corrected with software updates as well .

Everyone please weigh in: How do you buy a car on the opposite coast unseen and protect yourself from receiving a car with a blemish or some other point you would have otherwise negotiated about?

That is the f430. Timing chain cam drive so you don't have to pull the engine to do the timing belt every 5 years. There wasn't a 450, the 458 replaced the 430.

Unless you know someone over there who can look the car over, I don't know how you'd do it. You can fly out and look it over and drive it home :)

It's still an automatic.

I drove a Maserati Coupe with the newer F1, it's still jerky and not much fun if you're not doing acceleration runs.

Depends on how anal you might be but in a nutshell... You don't! You fly out and inspect it personally or you'll kick yourself for not having done so when it arrives w/ something you're disappointed in. Even if you have someone you really trust (who is also a car guy to your same degree) do it for you, they must be as anal as you. And must be someone you really really really really really trust. Even then, be prepared to face some disappointments and not hold it against your appointee.

Plus, after putting in the effort to get there, you'll negotiate harder by being overly critical and a bit cranky (which is a good thing in this case) ;)

Good luck :)

I might be genuinely interested in a car in Santa Monica, may need a member to fine comb it.

Santa Monica, there are worse places to visit and pick up a Porsche.

If you're spending up to 90k on a car, a round trip ticket to see it in person first seems like small change and a really good idea.

Very true but it will never be me spending 90K, the guy said a newsperson was interested, he's listed it above msrp, she can have it..

you could get 2 355's for that price!

Actually, 355's have climbed price . In some cases, a pristine one will encroach upon 360 prices .

Whether or not a person likes the F1 system is subjective. Personally, I would prefer a manual transmission in a 360 . However, 6 speed transmissions are difficult to come by in later 360's . In any case, as far as reliability is concerned, Ferrari's F1 system has been pretty well sorted out over the last several years .

several on craigslist around here for low to mid 40's.....why are their prices climbing? The performance on those is nowhere near the new Ferrari's.......

With the Ferraris, it's about age, significance and rarity, not performance.

355 is said to be more expensive to maintain than than it's newer replacement, according to net searches anyway.

Come on Craigslist ! Consider the source . Check out a reputable site like the The DuPont Registry, and you'll see well maintained coupes fetching into the 70k plus range, and spiders upwards of 100k .

go all out and buy a old testarossa not really usable but you sure will get noticed lol

One of the major downsides to the 355 is that in order to do the 3 year/15,000 mile cam belt service, the engine has to be completely removed .