In life, the chances to truly make your dreams come true are few and far between. That's why, when faced with a decision as to what luxury sports coupe to get with your hard-earned dollar, you need to aim high. Ladies and gents, here's a Ferrari 550 Maranello in amazing shape, and at $49,995, it's way less than the price of a base model Jaguar F-Type.
This 1999 Ferrari 550 Maranello has a 5.5-liter V12 in the front - one of the rarest configurations from the supercar manufacturer. Its near 500 horsepower figure catapults the car from 0 to 60 miles per hour in about four seconds, with a gated manual six-speed transmission doing a fine job of mating the flat-plane V12 to the wide rear wheels. When compared with the F-Type, it's more spacious, more exclusive, and infinitely more desirable. And by the way, the top speed? One mile an hour shy of 200. This is a serious car for not-so-serious money.
In my opinion, the best Ferrari to buy isn't the garage queen with 36 miles on it, it's the driven example that has had all of its scheduled maintenance done. That way, you know that any issues have either been addressed, or they're readily apparent enough to fix immediately. While the car has a relatively high mileage figure at more than 77,000, the description leads me to believe it's been taken care of quite well, despite its minor quirks. Here's an excerpt:
1999 Ferrari 550 Maranello Fresh 30K Service with water pump! Nero Exterior, Tan Full Leather Interior, 6 Speed Manual Transmission, Upgraded Suspension, Daytona Seats, Black and Red Remote, Books, Some prior Service Records Available
Issues that this car has.
Prior paint work, small dents on lower right rocker panel, speedometer gets stuck at 75mph at times, leather on airbag is shrunk a little.
Is the car worth it? That depends on what you want out of a car. It may not be the most sharp-edged sports car on the market, but as a cruiser that will get you noticed and deliver you to your destination in style and tire smoke, I'm not sure you can do any better for the money. Parts will be expensive - it's a Ferrari. But seeing as this a front-engined configuration, the procedures for maintenance are a bit less technical, and thus can be completed by you or a trusted independent mechanic for much less than a comparable mid-engined supercar. If I had the space, I'd buy it, because who doesn't want to own a screaming Ferrari V12 with a manual?
For more gems found on the internet, check these out:
Tavarish is the founder of APiDA Online and writes about buying and selling cool cars on the internet. He owns the world's cheapest Mercedes S-Class, a graffiti-bombed Lexus, and he's the only Jalopnik author that has never driven a Miata. He also has a real name that he didn't feel was journalist-y enough so he used a pen name and this was the best he could do.
You can also follow him on Twitter and Facebook. He won't mind.