Ferrari Mailing List: Re: Likely Future 308 Price Appreciation

[Alexander Ishii (alexishii]

As an owner of an '84, I can't resist jumping in on this thread.

Even back when I was shopping for my car (over a decade ago), it seemed
pretty clear that any highly original fiberglass or dry-sump 308 would
appreciate to some degree, and most other things would depreciate mildly
(which of course, represents a tangible "loss", because maintenance is far
from free).

Looking at the market today, I dare say that I had it about right (my car is
worth at least 80% of what I bought it for)(which is not bad for 10+years of
depreciation), and a highly original (note this qualifier, because it is
what makes the car so rare) fiberglass or dry-sump would probably cost about
150% of what it could have been had for back then.

I still think that the above are likely to be the case today. Look at the BB
market; the BBi prices are dead flat for the last few years, while the carbs
have actually gone up a bit (though admittedly not at the same rate as
probably every other Ferrari that predates the BBs).  I think that the
collectors that want "one of everything" will keep the market decent for the
more unusual 308s...

Regarding parts availability, personally I'm not overly concerned about it.
Admittedly, there are a number of things that are starting to become
"unavailable", but the 308 is a pretty simple car, so a little creative
engineering can always be applied.

Mind you, I agree that a lot of cars are going to be becoming non-operable,
but that is all to the good for folks trying to keep cars running.  I
imagine that the part-out biz for folks like Rutlands will find it
profitable to keep 308's running (lots of donor cars available, lots of
existing owners trying to keep their cars going); this is where the large
production numbers really help the cause.

An interesting (related) question to ponder is the trade-off between the
purchase of a BBi and a TR.  The former is more collectable, whereas the
spares situation for the latter is going to be massively better going
forward.  The tradeoff between 308s and 328s has a similar favor, though in
this case it is the older car that has fewer spares concerns.

After I am dead-and-gone, it is not impossible that the 308 situation will
become something like the 250GTE situation.  As more and more 308s get
parted out, the number remaining that are in decent shape gets scarce to the
point that nice ones do start to appreciate.  To be sure though, there are
better (non-ferrari) cars to buy if one is trying to avoid taking any
depreciation.

BTW: a year-or-so-back, I was having problems with my car passing emissions,
and a lot of folks helped me out with some good advice.  Ended-up swapping
in new injectors (while one could fabricate something similar easily, I
highly recommend the injector-puller sold by Verell Boaen) and a new O2
sensor (the latter seemingly doing little, but the former definitely
helping), and the car is running better now.  Interestingly (and somewhat
related to this thread), it is clear that my long-time mechanic is getting
disinterested in working on the car; much easier money to be made by working
on the vintage 12s and moderns of the wealthy... :)

    Cheers,
    Alex

    Nero Metallic QV