Ferrari Mailing List: Comments on the Testarossa

[BRITT ROTHMAN (britt2asa]

I’m on a Facebook group for Testarossa and 512tr owners. Somebody wrote in and 
asked about buying a tr, saying he wouldn’t drive it more than 1000 miles per 
year and was worried about the cost of ownership. A lot of response. I like the 
comment below, sounds like a fellow “Clyde”. So I thought I would share it with 
our group. This guy should be on our list:

“I own 2 of them.. a 1990 and a 1988
Find a good testarossa indy mechanic if you want resonable... or go to ferrari 
if you want to pay triple for everything. A good indy testarossa specialist 
knows which identical parts can be sourced from Alfa Romeo & Lancia ect... 
example my turn signal stack behind the steering wheel went.. it's $1000 from 
Lancia identical part. Or $3500 from ferrari. Many items like this.
There are also many outdated electrical items like the main circuit/fuse/relay 
board. $900 to rebuild with better modern materials & relays,  or pay $4k for 
"new outdated" 80's junk from ferrari.. another main item all the radiator fans 
when they go should be replaced with modern fans like SPAL, the old 80's 
technology oem's draw way too much power and that is one of main culprits that 
overload the wiring system and circut boards leading to fires.. same thing for 
the fuel pumps... the radiator fans and fuel pump relays are the most commonly 
burnt circuits on the main boards.. since the old crap is inneficent and gets 
worse with age..  

The timing belt engine out is $9k to $12k. Belt is good for minimum 7 years 
even up to 10 years according to any honest shop and even "Gates" whom 
manufactures the belts. I acquired my 1990 the belt was 10 years old. It still 
looked new when i had it replaced... The only issue is when these cars where 
cheap, many people lied about when the belts where done.  And there is also the 
belt tensioner supposed to be done that people cheapen out to replace at same 
time.. and most failed belts where actually the tensioner that survived 15 to 
20 years before the tensioner finally died. There are also multiple owners and 
mecanics out there that acquired testarossa's with 14+ year old timing belt 
service due that the belts still looked good. There are mechanics that have 
seen 20+ year old belts... all I'm saying is there is plenty of info to support 
7 to 10 years is more realistic for belt service.

All in all nothing is that bad. Just if you need to rebuild an engine or 
transmission then it's 25k-35k..
But in the $200k old supercar your looking to buy those costs should be 
expected..  A murcielago engine or transmission will cost 50k+, countach will 
cost at least 3x a testarossa to maintain. FWIW I also have 2 porsche 911's 
they arent much cheaper to maintain...
Just stay as far away from the ferrari stealership as possible.”

End quote.

BR in Stockholm

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