MASERATI GS

design was poor. I cannot remember all the details but Maserati changed the transmission in 08'. an engr. for ZF was on a site, 'Maserati life". explained in detail. clutch was a faulty design. Maserati recalled all. pivot for TOB had to be redesigned. I own a 12/02 car and went through all this.

 

No slush box, it was a manual transmission. I have a 2006 GS and if you don't know what you are doing, i.e. if you drive it as if it were an automatic, then you will be disappointed. The computer controls the clutch and will slip it all day long to give you a smooth ride. Also, it can engage unexpected or in a jerky way depending on how you work the gas with the shifts. It equates to what you would call a bad shift with a stick, but is more common if you don't have any idea what the computer is doing. The Maserati clientele includes a large fraction of people that simply don't want to learn how to use the F1 system effectively - fair enough - so Maserati moved to the ZF automatic, the slush box as you called it. Apparently it is excellent, and it suits the market segment very well.

Drive the F1 like you would a stick and it does fine. It is relatively old technology now, so there is better today, but it was good for the time. Nothing faulty about the design per se (that I know of), but certainly the Hill Engineering TOB is more robust. No biggie. There are always things that could be engineered better on low production number cars.

 

Mine is a CC. I leave it in sport mode. And drive it hard all the time. That way there is as little clutch slip as possible. Reverse is were the thing will slip really bad. Reverse up hill is the clutch killer. It got its self in two gears once. That was interesting.and a few times it went to no gear by its self. That was over 25,000 miles. I blew the motor. Zero temp. Day. Upper valve train did not lib after sitting out all day. Another unexpected happening. I now have the exact same car with 8,000 miles. A wreck that i had fixed. Still working out the bugs. I love the design and the car in general. Not track worthy. Way too much oversteer and no warning. Personal experience

 

I have a GS and have had the GT and a GT-S. I agree with the info above. The GS box is a F1 manual box. In auto mode it is hopeless, you have to drive it as a manual which takes a bit of getting used to but when you crack it the box is excellent, especially in sport mode when the changes are very quick. The ZF Auto in the standard GT is pretty dire but the MC Shift manual box in the GT-S is excellent and transforms the car.

 

I have a GS and the gearbox is excellent. Maserati reprogrammed it so the shifting is supposed to be a lot better than the one in the coupe.

Scott