A few weeks ago, Jesse asked if cheap Ferraris really do exist. Based on how many times the car in his write-up has been re-listed – despite selling at “no reserve” – the seller doesn’t seem to think so. Well, if $3,500 meets your definition of cheap, there’s a 1982 Ferrari Mondial here on craigslist with your name on it. It will need everything, but at least it’s not red like all of those other basketcase examples.
There’s no interior and no drivetrain, and certainly no time for tire-kickers based on the seller’s description. To me, this run on burned-out and broken Ferraris appearing online as of late is a classic case of the rich discarding of their table scraps and some low-level mechanic thinking he’s sitting on a gold mine. Sorry, fellas – the people with the money to buy these things new simply disposed of what they knew to be a worthless pile of junk metal with a fancy badge.
With the wide availability of kit cars from Factory Five and others, why would you bother with the shell of a Ferrari – and a Mondial, no less? It will never be worth more than what you have to put into it, and $30K will buy you a decent one. Unless you are one heck of a shadetree mechanic with a garage full of every tool and part you’ll ever need, I fail to see how you’ll bring this one back for a number significantly less than the cost of buying a running, driving example.
Let’s face a fact we all know well: the real money is in discovering an intact car that has been laid up for years and getting a deal, either because the seller doesn’t know its value or because you’re in a position to barter for a better price than everyone else. Given how the broken Ferraris that have languished in a warehouse for years continue to languish on craigslist and eBay, this is akin to chasing fool’s gold.
Mondials are 4-seaters and are at the bottom of the Ferrari food chain, or maybe a bit below. The bad joke among Ferrari dealers is that Mondials are sale-proof.
This is a parts car, nothing more. Someone would need to be completely unaware of Ferraris and the Ferrari market to buy it to fix up. But it probably has at least $3500 worth of body panels and parts, so a body shop that specializes in fixing crashed exotics could probably make it work for them.
Having rebuilt a couple of common production cars from shells, I can’t imagine how the aggravation and expense of trying to rebuild something exotic like this will yield a nice car, and not far exceed the costs of finding a nice example to start with. With a mass produced vehicle, one has wrecking yards, E-bay, and aftermarket support for many parts. Where would one start with something like this? I don’t have experience with these cars, so others may have different opinions. I agree with Dolphin, that this car is a parts car at this point.
This one appears to be even fire sale-proof.
It’s a Ferrari, I’m not convinced it hasn’t caught fire at some point.
Well said, Jeff. Chasing fool’s gold. I’ll bet he finds a fool, though.
Why would you want to waste your money on anything like this??????
I got a bridge for sale in New York!!!!!!!
Maybe someone with a little creativity could make some cool garage furniture out of it.
It isn’t completely useless. If someone is going to do one of those (imho) stupid car/4×4 hybrids why not this one. Anyone remember the old CarToons magazine? I can see this as a Trosley drawing. Someone build it.
I’d go $1,000 and hang it on my wall as an art piece. As a car it’s just not worth it. It looks to have been hit at the left A-pillar, aside from being stripped so it’s a parts car at the very best……
Has there been a Ferrari in LeMons yet?
Doggone, I’m sure surprised that the boys of ol’ Beverly Hills Hair Club haven’t snapped this one up yet . . . they’d certainly describe it as ‘mechanically sound’ but then explain to the hapless buyer that they meant that if you bang it, it will certainly ring with a mechanical sound.
I have to take issue with the “at least it’s not red” comment. The only real Ferraris are the red ones. The rest are faux Ferraris.
I’m always curious when I see something like this what the seller’s story is and how he came into possession of this pile ‘o and what his plans were and what he was thinking.
This used to be a parts car. The money’s already been made.