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      03-08-2012, 01:49 PM   #45
adc
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Drives: 2018 F80 M3 ED
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: MD/DC

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Here are my thoughts, I too am planning on perhaps upgrading to a dream weekend car in a few years.

A silver Audi vs. red Ferrari? Hmm, let me think about it a bit.
The F360 looks dated? Check out the side by side pictures with the F430, the bodies are all but identical.
The Audi is more practical? That's actually a negative in my book for a weekend car.
The Ferrari is trickier at the limit? Well that's a challenge for me.

What the F360 has as the weak spot is that it still requires periodic cambelt changes (every 30k miles if not mistaken). If the car you are looking at has 8k miles and the upcoming major service is due in 7k miles, that means as a weekend car you will easily get 4-5 years out of it before the hammer falls.

Go buy the last issue of EVO from the bookstore, it has an article on the entry-level Ferrari's, pros and cons, maintenance etc. Very informative. I would also call the local dealers and ask for a good faith maintenance estimate for the next x number of years for those models.


Bottom line I personally would take the Ferrari every time, with the need for maintenance carefully understood and accounted for.

But before plonking your well deserved bonus on either, make sure you test drive them, the actual cars you are considering buying. When spending $80k on a car, what's another $500 for an airplane ticket? That will *instantly* tell you which one you desire - one of the two will scream "take me home" at you and you will know what to do.
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