Ferrari Mailing List: 740i rear suspension

[LtWacko (ltwacko]

Dennis;

have you thought about just dropping in standard springs and shocks and junking 
the self-leveling?  There are a ton of bone yards out in Chicago that have the 
parts plus the plethora of online suppliers that it shouldn't be too hard or 
expensive to do if you want to keep on driving the car into the ground.  Can't 
be more than $400 installed but is roughly half the value of your car...  LOL.  
J/K

If you still want an E38, tons of 2000/2001 models in great shape in the $10k 
range.  Of course they need everything refreshed at that age now.  There are a 
ton out here in Chicago with just under 90k miles.  You can see a lot of them 
on CL.  Yeah, they are getting up in age.  It almost seems worth redoing the 
rear suspension on your current car until one of your newer favorites drops in 
price.  

Audi A8L was my first choice in a car a few years ago until I heard about the 
repair costs.  3 people I know of through acquaintances had to have their 
transmissions replaced.  $10K+ repair bills.  I drive like an idiot so I knew 
as much as I love the styling/features, I couldn't afford to maintain it.  
Since I'm a long time BMW guy and know how to work on them anyway, the E38 was 
the "budget" choice for me.  Looks like as far as loveable Big sedans go, I'll 
be getting an E65 as a replacement to my E38.

Oh, a BMW friend of mine works in service at Infiniti.  M45 is a great car.  
Every good as the 550 with less maintenance costs.

Have you considered a VW Phaeton?  I've "heard" they are thee luxury bargain.  
Honorable mention: Jag XKR, Chrys 300M SRT8 - one of my racing buddies had this 
until his wife complained that even with snow tires, the car was a "little" 
hard to drive in winter.  He traded it for a new 535i AWD and of course dropped 
in one of those piggy back systems for a little turbo boost...

Oh, another friend of mine "had" a CTS-V.  The build quality bothered him.  He 
felt it was too cheap.  According to him, he felt his ZR-1 had the same or 
better build... LOL.  He wound up trading it in for a newer STS AWD to feel 
like he was actually driving a luxury car.

Rodney