How to buy a sub-£40,000 Ferrari

Depreciation: it can be as much a friend as an enemy. It shrinks the value of your wheeled assets but can also bring once-unattainable dreams within reach. The idea of cheap Ferraris and Porsches is almost as old as the brands themselves, but as clichéd as the ‘Ferrari for the price of a Ford’ story is, the excitement of this possibility never wanes, so we make no excuses for once again testing the waters. You must still spend the price of a very decent set of new wheels – a range-topping Ford Kuga, for instance – to buy a Ferrari of sufficient calibre to ensure that its presence in your garage doesn’t quickly sour. For a Porsche, however, the story is rather different. Related articles Those for the price of a Ford Fiesta – and a less-than-shiny one at that – have been around ever since the not-quite-a-Porsche 924 made its debut nearly 50 years ago. In fact, you can still buy a tired 924 for a few thousand, but a more rewarding and viable proposition is a Boxster, of which there are plenty from around £4000. That’s almost 10 times less than for a decent starter Ferrari, although if you can double the amount you pay for a Boxster, the risks might reduce somewhat. Enough of the theory, though. Can you really buy into exotic territory on a shoestring? And does that come with the sort of headaches you would imagine? Read on to find out... The cars  We set out to find the cheapest Ferrari and Porsche and ended up inspecting the pair you see here. Neither was absolutely the cheapest functioning Porsche or Ferrari available on the day, with anything left-hand drive or accident-recorded being eliminated. And in the case of the Porsche, we avoided the Boxsters that had done many more than 100,000 miles (although that doesn’t imply that these are bad buys) and another kind of Porsche that can often be had for even less than a Boxster: the first-generation Cayenne. Early Porsche SUVs often suffer troubles ranging from leaking plastic coolant pipes on the V8 to air suspension levitation issues and glowing engine management lights with causes that are hard to isolate. Plus, impressive though the odd-looking Cayenne was, the Boxster is a more exciting prospect, being a sports car. There’s more than one sub-£40k starter Ferrari too. For the really adventurous (or rash), there’s the 400/412, an elegant, V12-engined four-seater that’s very much a grand tourer and often fitted with a value-reducing automatic gearbox. Thirsty and costly to maintain, it’s nevertheless glamorous and gets you one of Ferrari’s finer engines.