[alfa] Re: Ferrari 1976 308 GT 4

[George Graves <gmgraves@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

It's true. Many Seventies vintage Ferraris are trucks. Fast trucks, fun 
trucks, but trucks nonetheless. I too was about to purchase a 308GT4 
and likely would have lived with the heavy controls. After all, the car 
was meant to be driven fast, not slow. The 308GT4 is one of the best 
handling cars Ferrari ever built. It is light, small, real tossable - 
sort of like a 2 + 2 Fiat X1/9 with balls. What put me off was the 
maintenance costs. New cam belts every 15,000 miles at a cost of about 
$3000 to change them (engine has to come out) is oft-putting in the 
extreme. My GTV-6 is faster (0-60 in about 6.0 seconds - of course, 
it's not stock) and the engine sounds better and I only have to replace 
the belt every 30,000 miles and when changing both belt and water pump 
at 30,000 miles, the total cost is only in the neighborhood of about 
$400. The 308 GT4 water pump alone costs $800 to buy and you still have 
to take the engine out of the car to put it in! Of course an Alfa is 
not a Ferrari, but I think overall, that my GTV-6 is certanly as well 
designed and as well made as Ferraris of the same era, but I HAVE had 
to resign myself to not owning a prancing horse. Also most 308 GT4s 
that I have run across are victims of their own affordability. Because 
this model is one of the "unloved" Ferraris at the moment, one can get 
into them very cheaply (you can spend more for a perfect Alfa GTV and 
certainly for a decent GTA.). This tempts those without the means  to 
try to fulfill a lifelong dream and buy one. Once they do, and realize 
what upkeep is on these cars, the whole enterprise becomes an exercise 
in deferred maintenance. Often these cars need everything when changing 
hands (which they seem to do often), and the bill for everything ain't 
pretty.

If you truly must have a 308 (either a 4-seater or a two) or a 328, for 
that matter, make sure that when you buy the car, you have a spare 
$20,000 AT LEAST to pour into it right away. If it doesn't eat all that 
$20K, consider yourself lucky, put the excess in the bank under the 
car's own account and add to it when you can. You will need at least 
$7000 every year for as long as you own the car to do right by it. A 
harsh reality, but reality nonetheless. Ferraris are built for the 
rich, the rich don't care that much about $6000 service bills.

George Graves
'86 GTV-6 3.0 'S'



On May 20, 2004, at 10:42 AM, alfa-digest wrote:

> Date: Thu, 20 May 2004 10:33:59 -0500
> From: "Thomas Guadagni" <Thomas.Guadagni@domain.elided>
> Subject: [alfa] Ferrari  1976 308 GT 4
>
> I finally had the chance to move into a ferrari after owning a few  
> Alfa's,
> but I was quite dissapointed with the test drive.  The clutch, 
> steering, and
> shifter are all require a lot of force and the car is pain to drive 
> around
> town with its low ground clearance.  The performance is terrible (R&T 
> 0-60 7.3
> seconds) and seemed much worse than advertised.  Nice looking car but 
> with the
> high priced service and parts its  probably more trouble than its 
> worth  even
> at todays depressed prices.  Have others had similiar experiences with 
> the
> other Italian car?
> Tom Guadagni
> Calif.
> Only Alfa pieces currently
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