In a market where most Ferrari prices have been considered to be too overheated for too long, it’s interesting to see the most affordable model make a distinct move upwards. How distinct? Around 17% at our most recent count.
That brings the sort of rough, Russian-roulette cars in potential need of dizzying repair and restoration costs to £9.5k, with usable examples more like £16.5k. The extra £11k it takes to secure a mint one will work out cheaper in the long run and even at £35k, a concours contender doesn’t look expensive.
The series started in 1980 with the Mondial 8, based on a stretched 308GT4 floorpan to take cabin space from 2+2 to four-seater. Four valves per cylinder from 1982 have the transverse-mounted 214bhp V8 an extra 26bhp and the capacity increase to 3.2-litres in 1985 brought a further 30bhp. The cabrio version is yet to see any price rise in this latest round.
The similar-looking Mondial t of 1989 brought a longitudinally-mounted 3.4-litre V8 with a transverse five-speed gearbox, a package shared with the new 348 two-seater, albeit not in its more powerful 296bhp form.
While the market has long-preferred the voluptuous 308/328GTB/GTS, and eventually the Bertone-styled 308GT4, the Mondial might be more desirable if those models had never existed for comparison. Taken on its own, the Mondial is handsome, in the cab-forward style that we’ve come to accept in successive generation of supercars. But for one factor, it’s a good thing that this quick, fine-handling and family-friendly Ferrari has avoided the hype – we like good value on Classic Cars. That one factor though, the one that adds a few extra land mines to the already explosive field of buying elderly exotica, is that these cars were so cheap for so long that many were bought by optimists without the slightest hope of affording proper upkeep.
So do your research, keep your wits about you and be prepared to walk away from anything that smells of glossed-over neglect. They’re not exactly on every secondhand car dealer’s forecourt, but there will always be another.
Price Guide Movers On The Up is part of 16 regular pages of market tips, analysis and buying advice in the latest issue ofClassic Cars.