As it represents a model that was once widely unloved, today’s Nice Price or No Dice Mondial is now one of the cheapest ways to get a Prancing Horse on your key fob. Let’s see, however, whether this one is cheap enough.
In the 1985 film “Volunteers,” Tom Hanks plays a jerky rich guy (there were lots of those back in the ’80s) attempting to escape paying off a gambling debt by joining the Peace Corps. Along with other Peace Corps volunteers played by John Candy and Rita Wilson, Hanks is tasked with building a bridge to a small Southeast Asia village. Frustrated, and not actually being there of his own volition, Hanks protests that, “It’s not that I can’t help these people. It’s just I don’t want to.”
A similar mood was evident in the comments on the 1988 Volkswagen Scirocco 16V we looked at yesterday. That car was a runner, but it needed a number of fixes to be made totally right, and many of you felt that the car’s $5,500 asking price stood in the way of caring to make that effort. In the end, the Scirocco’s underlying allure won out, earning the car a narrow 52% Nice Price win.
A global hit?
Do you like arcane trivia? Baseball is big on that, delving into who was the highest-hitting left-hander on days where the humidity was above 80% and the like. The automotive world is also a dusty treasure trove of weird and inconsequential details, many of which we all know, making us all super fun at parties.
Here’s a real doozy of a historical fact: to date, the 1983 through 1993 Ferrari Mondial cabriolet remains the world’s only production rear-mid engine 2+2 V8 convertible in existence. The Mondial, which is the French word for global, is also one of only two rear-mid-engine V8 four-seaters in the Ferrari stable, the other being the Mondial’s predecessor, the 308/208 GT4.
This 1986 Mondial 3.2 Cabriolet is, appropriately enough, painted in Rosso Corsa over a biscuit and black Connolly leather interior. It should be noted that the car’s front seats are not weird outliers upholstered in black, but rather wear covers over their factory skins. Those covers look to be well-fitting enough, but they raise the question of why their color couldn’t be a better match to the rest of the interior. No word is given in the ad as to whether the covers are merely protective or are masking existing wear and tear.
Call me a cab
Naturally, one of the Mondial’s attractions is its four seats, although the constraints of a mid-engine layout and the space required for the lowered convertible top make the back two thrones only suitable for the smallest of princes and princesses. The cabriolet top is electrically actuated and maintains the coupe’s roofline through the clever use of fabric buttresses that wrap the engine cover.
Under that cover sits Ferrari’s F105C all-alloy V8 in 3,185cc displacement. Shared with the 328 two-seater line, the 270-horsepower four-valve V8 sits transversely behind the cabin, and atop the dogleg five-speed manual gearbox, although not sharing its oil. One of the attractions of the 328 and Mondial of this era is their relative ease of maintenance. The engine requires timing belt replacements on a regular schedule of approximately every five years, which can be accomplished with the engine in the car through the right-rear wheel well. On the later Mondial T with its longitudinal motor, that job is an engine-out affair. This Mondial has 38,999 miles on the clock, and no mention is made in the ad as to when the belts or other maintenance work have been done. The ad does claim this to be a car that “Runs and drives well, it is a car that was driven and enjoyed and cared for.”
Not a show car
According to the ad, all that driving and enjoyment has resulted in some dings in the bodywork and chips in the paint. Those aren’t really noticeable in the pictures from the ad, so it’s helpful that the seller has called them out. Early Mondials rode on Michelin’s metric TRX tires, but as those are hard to come by and hence very pricey, it’s nice to see that this later one comes with standard wheels and tires. Again, the seller provides no info on how old those meats might be. The two-piece Cavallino Rampante-badged alloys all look to be in decent, uncurbed condition, though.
Other aspects to consider on this clean title car include the condition of the top, which appears to be in great shape, right down to the clarity of its plastic rear window, and that it has all its badges and trim, since everything related to Ferrari is expensive to obtain.
Ponying up for a Prancing Horse
With just around 6,000 produced over the course of its 13-year production run, the Mondial in its various guises was Ferrari’s most popular model of its era. Today’s car is one of just 810 Cabriolets built with the 3.2-liter engine, making it reasonably dear. In the ensuing decades since Mondial production ended, the model was not seen as one of Ferrari’s finest, and only recently did values begin to trend upward on them. This one asks $49,750, making it one of the cheapest running and driving Ferraris on the market. Is that a good deal, though?
What’s your take on this 2+2 cabriolet and that $49,750 price? Would you throw down at that asking just to get your itchy hands on a fabled Ferrari? Or is that too much for the marque’s admittedly ugly duckling of a car?
You decide!
Nice Price or No Dice:
San Diego, California, Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.
Help me out with NPOND. Contact me at [email protected] and send a fixed-price tip. Remember to include your commenter handle.
