Ferrari F355 Spider Now Affordable by Most Mere Mortals

Ferrari ownership is not normally for the faint hearted, especially when it comes to buying one in the first place. Their cars are normally only for the super rich with the current cheapest model available being the Ferrari California at £152,086 list price in the UK. As you can see, you need a fairly hefty bank balance to buy one from new. But what about the previously owned market? A quick look on Sytner’s website reveals that three year old California’s are fetching well over £100,000. Still a bit much really. So is there a really affordable alternative?

The answer is of course yes, but to be honest, the only Ferrari’s you could get in the UK for what would be approaching normal money, are those which to be quite honest are less than desirable in the first place. The two models that spring to mind for me are the Ferrari Mondial and the Ferrari 308GT4. Both of them are 2+2′s which is for me, one of the problems as the layout spoils the design somewhat.

The thing is though that I haven’t looked around for a sub £50k Ferrari for quite a number of years because all the old ‘favourites’ are the only ones that came up in the search results. However, things are now starting to get a little more interesting as you can now get one of the prettiest Ferraris ever made for less than £50k. In fact I think this car is not only one of the prettiest Ferraris of all time but also one of the prettiest cars of any manufacturer of all time. So what is it? Well, you have probably guessed from the images accompanying this article. I am of course talking about the Ferrari F355. In fact the one pictured here, at the time of writing this article (16th July 2012) is sat on Sytner’s website (Graypaul Motors Birmingham) for only £42,850 and with only 25,194 miles on the clock. It’s has a manual gearbox and will hit 62mph from rest in 4.7 seconds with a top speed of 183mph. Make no mistake, the F355 was no slouch.

To be quite honest, I want it, but even though it is well under £50,000 I haven’t got that sort of money lying around anyway. In fact who has these days? But, having said that, there is always the possibility of a loan isn’t there? I wonder how much it would cost me to borrow £43,000? A quick trip over to use the car loan calculator reveals the answer. I need to find £863.58 per month to pay for this baby. Time to start looking for a second source of income. It’s only a matter of time though. One day, one of these babies will be mine.