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FOR SALE - 1983 Ferrari Mondial QV Coupe
82K miles Azzuro Metallico (Metallic light blue) ASKING $21,000.00 This is the peppy Quattrovalvole (4 valve) Mondial, not the somewhat slower Mondial 8. The coupe Mondial QV is somewhat rare since most are convertibles. This one has a factory sunroof for open top motoring. I bought this car a couple years ago from North Carolina as a "family Ferrari" to go with my 308, but it was principally for my wife to drive. She just doesn't seem to drive it that much, and I can't drive two Ferraris enough to keep them both properly exercised. We're low on garage space and building an addition on the house and I could use some extra money, so RELUCTANTLY I'm listing it for sale. I absolutely love this car and drive it nearly every day as a fair weather daily driver, but we just have too many cars and keeping service schedules on two Ferraris is taxing. The previous owner had it regularly serviced and I have a huge folder of receipts. This car was a daily driver from North Carolina that ran fine when I got it, except for a forward cam cover leak. Since the timing belts were last done in 1997, I immediately did a major on the engine, checked valve clearances, installed new timing belts, new tensioners, etc. (The major was done March, 2005.) The car still has a tiny cam seal leak (these cars are known for this) that smells a tad of oil when hot. My plan was not to deal with it until the next major service. The car has a small oil drip from the shifter shaft seals, another known issue with these engines. With all the maintenance done and all the "bugs" worked out, this is honestly a car that needs no work when you get it. Just change the oil regularly, put gas in it and drive. We have done long trips to Cape Cod, NH and even Canada. It is reliable, as any regularly driven Ferrari is. In fact, this car is so practical that I find I drive it much more often than my 308. It makes all the right sounds a Ferrari should make, it's peppy, it handles great, and it has a back seat and a usable trunk! The car gets comments everywhere it goes. It doesn't scream "look at me!" like a red 308, but it's a very handsome Ferrari, much prettier in person than in pictures. (Even my mother in law loves this car). With the kids car seats in the back, it's fun for the whole family. This car is rock solid and firmly planted at 90 MPH. A joy to drive fast! The light blue paint is original, and is very eye catching, although it has plenty of imperfections. Some of you who know me from Ferrarichat know that I am meticulous about maintenance. I have a lift in my garage and do all my own work. I have done a lot of work on this car since I got it and I am 100% confident in its reliability, which is why I drive it every day, except when raining. (Call me a wuss, but I refuse to drive my Ferraris in the rain). It is always garaged. This is not a show car and never will be. It has been driven and used. It runs the way a garage queen never will. The paint is not perfect, the interior is not perfect, it has a rust bubble and yes, it drips some oil. But is has been well cared for, drives great and you can use it without feeling guilty about getting it dirty or racking up the miles. This is a Ferrari for someone who wants to drive it, not worship it.
Other service that has been done to the car during my ownership of 4 years: Re-upholstered front seats Re-painted skirt/sill Stripped and re-painted bumpers Re-Painted left rear quarter panel due to aggressive buffing by a previous owner. Rebuilt clutch slave cylinder with new seal Replaced driver's side door latch and adjusted electric locks Restored back seats with Leatherique Repaired window mechanism, driver's side-still slow though. New belts/tensioners (3/2005) Checked valve adjustments, both banks (3/2005) Repaired oil leak: front cam cover gasket replaced (3/2005) New CV boots right side New floor mats Birdman Mat Grabbers Replaced 5-8 bank Catalytic converter ECU Repainted rear skirt and muffler Repaired headlight switch (Verell remolded) Repaired rust under door sills Removed cold fast idle device--only used in US cars for emissions and bad for the engine. Added 348 Wheels New rear tires (5/2008) New aluminum shift knob Repaired gas cap solenoid circuit Replaced bad suspension bushings Replaced vacuum lines Removed air injection/EGR crap New front lid catch Replaced all coolant hoses/coolant (6/2007) Recored radiator (6/2007) New thermostat/radiator cap (6/2007) Adjusted mixture with A/F meter (5/2008) Powder-coated plenum Rosso Corsa (red) (3/2008) Repainted airbox/stenciled (3/2008) Motovanti intake install (3/2008) Re-calibrated shifter alignment Fuel injectors removed, cleaned, tested. (5/08) New fuel lines to injectors. Replaced Vacuum Limiting Valve (8/2008) Rebuilt steering rack (1/2009) 4 brand new OEM Koni shocks (1/2009) Replaced bent front left lower A-arm (1/2009)
Good things: As any owner of a Mondial 8 or QV can attest, the fusebox is one of the weakest links. This car has had the original flaky fusebox replaced with a fusebox from a Mondial 3.2. This is a much improved box that uses modern "blade-type" fuses. I have never had any electrical issues with the fusebox. This fusebox cost $1,100!! The original Mondial TRX wheels on this car use a 240/55-390 TRX metric tire that is no longer made by Michelin. You can only get them from Coker, a company that specializes in out-of-production tires, at a cost of over $400 EACH. I decided to upgrade to 17" Ferrari 348 wheels. This means replacement tires are very reasonably priced and readily available anywhere. And the 348 wheels look WAY better. Of course the original TRX wheels are included with the car. The emissions air pump was seized, so it has been removed. I have also disabled the cold start high idle device which races the engine when cold. This device was only added for start-up emissions compliance, to bring the cats up to temp faster when cold. It's bad for the engine and totally unnecessary. This car starts right up with one turn of the key in the dead of winter or a summer day and settles into a stable idle at 900 RPM. The cats are still on the car and work fine. The front seats have been re-upholstered. The back seats are original and have a fair amount of wear and a few small cracks. They have been treated with Leatherique which helps keep them from deteriorating further. I added 1" aluminum risers to the driver's seat to raise it for my wife. These are included, but I would be happy to remove them if you do not want them. They are well made and powder-coated black. They look like OEM. Perfect if you are buying this car for a shorter driver. The dash on the Mondial is somewhat high compared to the seat height--perfect if you are tall, not so good if you are short! It has a nice Pioneer CD player/AM/FM radio with a remote. The speakers are basic Pioneer coaxials, installed in the doors with no modifications to the car. They sound pretty good, even with the top open at 4000 RPM on the highway. All tools, owner's packet, jack, spare, key fob, folding key, etc. are included. The owner's manual was lost by the previous owner though. Windows are slow but the sunroof works well. The entire cooling system was rebuilt in 2007, including the long hoses from front to back (replaced with silicone hose which should last forever.) I re-cored the radiator, rebuilt the water pump, new thermostat and radiator cap. I added the second cooling fan on the radiator which was optional from Ferrari but not normally included on North American cars. Just TRY to overheat this car. YOU CAN'T. The cooling system will be good for another 20 years now. The car was running a little lean, so the K-jet system was tweaked with an A/F meter to perfect mixture in May, 2008. Plugs also confirm that the car has the right mixture. The Vacuum Limiter valve was sticky and caused irratic idling and was replaced in July, 2008. The intake plenum was powdercoated (not painted) Ferrari Red in 2008. Intake was replaced with stainless Motovanti purely for asthetics. Airbox was repainted proper "crinkle" finish in 2008, with new stenciling. I have put a ton of time and money into getting this car reliable. This is not a deferred maintenance car that will bleed you dry.
Bad stuff: The A/C does not work. I found the problem (a leaky A/C line) so it needs a new AC hose from front to rear. The condenser, compressor and evaporator all seem to be OK but I can't test them. Right now the A/C compressor has been removed from the car (hey it saves like 30 pounds and makes changing the timing belts a breeze!) To my knowledge, there is nothing wrong with the compressor. On the flip side, I always drive it with the sunroof open and the windows down, so I haven't missed the A/C. There is a bubble of rust by the gas filler cap. There were some small rust bubbles on the doors, but they were repaired and repainted with exact matched DuPont automotive paint. (i.e. not rattle can paint!) The front spoiler has seen its fair share of scrapes. Hard to get around that with a car this low. The starter solenoid sometimes sticks, so when you turn the key, the starter turns, but the engine doesn't because the starter doesn't engage the flywheel. It does it rarely enough that it has not been on my front burner to repair. This usually happens when the car hasn't been driven in a week or two. During regular driving in the summer, it rarely happens. You just turn the key off and try again and it engages. This is an inexpensive repair if it bothers you. Front bonnet needs new gas struts. (I use a stick to hold it up now!) :-) Other Stuff: The front tires have maybe 50% tread but are not new. Rears are new. Car currently has ~82,000 miles and is driven regularly. This car is a kick to drive. It handles great. The wide 348 wheels make low speed steering effort a bit higher than usual since there is no power steering. But you can pull some serious G's around corners in this thing. Don't ever let anyone put down the Mondial. It's a Ferrari for the family that is still amazingly fun to drive with an impressive chassis! The faster you go, the better it drives, honestly. I get a big grin coming down the on-ramp every time.
Asking $21,500. A very realistic price for this honestly described Mondial. (A QV for 2 valve money). I would rather sell this car a bit below what I feel its true value to be and have a very happy buyer, than hold out for top dollar and have the buyer think that the car was misrepresented. I am an honest person and I want to sell this car to someone who will be happy with it and feel that they were treated fairly. I am in no rush to sell this car and have already priced it VERY fairly, so please do not lowball me. I will entertain reasonable offers, but I'll save you the time and just say it now--the car isn't going to be sold for $15K. It does not cost that much to ship a Ferrari across the country. I bought the car in NC and had it shipped to me (in MA) in a covered transport for $700. Call Intercity Lines for a quote. You can also just drive it home. The car will come with several boxes of extra parts and a an extra set of OEM wheels, so plan for that in your shipping plans. Why is this Mondial a Good deal? Here's the problem with Mondials and 308s in general. They aren't expensive to buy, but they cost just as much to have serviced as any other Ferrari. So people see the low price of entry to the world of Ferrari ownership and jump into buying a Mondial or 308 as a good first Ferrari. Then when it comes time to have the timing belts changed or the clutch done, they freak out about the cost. So the car doesn't have its belts changed or the owner puts up with the clutch slipping a little. Pretty soon all this "deferred maintenance" builds up to the point that the car is undriveable, unreliable, or a little of both. When I got my 308 (my first Ferrari) I immediately took it in to a local Ferrari independent shop for a tune up because it didn't run right. They explained that the car needed a clutch before they could tune it. By the time I got the car back, the bill was $4,000! That was almost a quarter of what I paid for the car. I realized that I needed to learn to do my own work, or I simply couldn't afford a Ferrari. By the time I got this Mondial as a fun car for the whole family, it was my second Ferrari and I was quite comfortable working on Ferraris. I had a lift in my garage, a full compliment of Ferrari-specific tools and a local group of friends with whom I had tackled everything from a simple timing belt change to a complete removal of an engine. I was not afraid to work on the car. In fact, I enjoy it! My garage is heated and during the winter I go out there to tinker and get a little peace and quiet. Unlike a deferred maintenance car, this Mondial has been systematically tweaked to deal with each little annoying thing that would crop up. When the radiator got clogged with rubber from a deteriorating coolant line and started overheating, I didn't just replace the bad hose and clean out the radiator. I replaced every line in the car, re-cored the radiator with a more efficient core, rebuilt the water pump, replaced the thermostat and added a second fan to the radiator. Now I never worry about overheating. That is how I have approached everything. When the tires needed replacing, I started hunting eBay and finally bought a set of genuine 348 wheels for the car because they look better and accept modern tires. Then I carefully stashed the original wheels for a future owner who might want to have them. They are a part of the car's heritage. Now this might be overkill for a $20K Mondial, but it's how I feel about the car. Many owners just throw the old wheels on eBay for $500 to try to recoup a little money and save storage space. That's just not how I roll. :) Many people with Mondial 8/QVs will complain about the terrible fusebox that uses those ancient and crappy "euro style" pointy-end fuses and cause no end of electrical gremlins. Well this car has been upgraded to the fusebox from a Mondial 3.2-the better one that uses blade fuses. When this was done, the 3.2 fusebox was over $1,000 (I have the receipt). Now 3.2 fuseboxes are no longer available at any price as far as I know, and rebuilding is the only option. I decided that the front end felt a little loose last year, so during the winter I rebuilt the steering rack. While I was in there I discovered a slightly bent A arm in the front suspension, which I replaced rather than attempting to fix. Then I decided new shocks were in order. At the end of the winter, the car had completely new suspension and steering...something that would cost probably $5,000 from a shop but for me it was only the cost of parts (about $2,000). This is not the typical kind of car you are going to get on eBay for $20K. So consider stuff like this when you buy a Mondial. Ebay is full of cheap Mondials around the same price as this one. Some of them might even have better paint or nicer looking back seats because most people concentrate on aesthetics more than the expensive stuff. Buffing the paint and doing a really nice detailing job will make your car look better, but not run better. This car came to me with lousy paint, a rust bubble and some aesthetic issues that are beyond my skill level to repair. (And besides, I kinda like the patina on the original paint). But this car has been cared for in the way that counts: the engine, the mechanicals and the electrics. It's a reliable car that you can drive. That is something you probably will not get with a cheapie on eBay. If you are interested, go to the top level page for my e-mail address and drop me a line. Thanks. -Jonathan
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