Will I be happy with a GranSport??

Also, when the stickiness happens, it would not be "... worse than any Ferrari." In fact, it would be exactly the same as any car that used the same finish in that environment, because it is the exact same rubberized coating. Make sure any car you are considering doesn't have sticky coatings on the buttons. And then, take care of your car to keep it from happening. If it is inevitable, then use stickynomore.com.

 

mine was a July 2005 production hardtop

 

I disagree, it was worse then the Ferraris because there is more plastic in the interior. Mi steering column, all a/c ducts ,all switches and some hardware on the center console. As for sending stuff to stickynomore, great product, but why should I have to deal with it. My BMW,Porsche,Bentley,Range Rover, and Lincoln have all been in the same environment with no sticky bits.
I'm not here to talk anyone out of buying a Maser if thats what they have their heart set on, just relaying my personal experiences. I have owned them all, and by FAR the Maser was the biggest disappointment.

 

Also when I think of a daily driver, I want a car that can take a solid hit. The Maser is a fragile piece and doesn't compare to a Benz or BMW in any type of collision. I repair them all and in my opinion the Masers (including Quattroporte) are among the weakest structurally.

 

From a current Maserati and Mercedes-Benz owner:

Follow your dealer's advice. CAVEAT EMPTOR

With all due respect to my fellow Maserati compatrioti, I would never suggest a pre-2007 Maserati to be considered as a daily-driver, especially since you have been spoiled with all those marvelously reliable German makes and models. With those as your base-line daily-drivers, I can virtually guarantee that you will be disappointed with a Maserati GS in this role.

Pre-2007, Maserati was truly "experimenting" with the idea of creating a daily driver, and not being very successful with it. The Cambiocorsa (F1) automated manual gearbox is terrific to drive, but is not designed to handle the daily rigors of heavy stop-and go-driving found in 95% of all American metropolises. Yes, some people have managed to get relatively high-miles from the clutch, but they are the exceptions, not the rules. My first clutch lasted a little over 4,000 miles. Nk.

And, while the price point of entry for a Maserati is very low, remember that you will be paying Ferrari prices for repairs. For this reason, a lot of Maseratis available in the resale market are plagued with deferred maintenance issues. Let's face it: It's a lot easier to justify spending thousands of dollars in maintenance/repair costs on a car with a value of $150,000 versus one worth $25,000. Consequently, many Maserati owners either defer maintenance items or ignore them altogether.

Don't get me wrong. I LOVE my Maserati. But I love it for what it is, not for what it isn't

If your heart is set on a Maserati as a daily-driver, get a 2007 or later GranTurismo with the same reliable ZF automatic slush box found in your German cars.

 

Don't believe any of the people that tell you that Maseratis cannot be driven daily. It is simply not true.

I drove my '06 Gransport on my daily commute in the Chicago suburbs for months on end. I often used it to go food shopping with my wife and kid. I just loved to see the faces of the soccer mums in their monster SUVs when they saw our family happily doing their shopping in an Italian sportscar.

The F.1 gearbox is excellent and never caused problems even in thick traffic. The engine is fabulous and a joy to hear and rev up at every traffic light, it turns every commute into a pleasure.

I also drive a new BMW 5-series, so I have an excellent quality benchmark in my own garage, and I can attest that the Maserati has been MORE RELIABLE than the BMW in over two years of ownership. NOTHING EVER WENT WRONG in the Maserati other than a couple of bent rims, courtesy of Illinois' bad roads.

Last September I did the craziest thing and with my family we took the Gransport and drove it from Chicago to Denver, and from there on to a tour of the great American West - Arches NP, Moab, Capitol Reef NP, various canyon roads in Utah, Death Valley NP, the high mountains west of Death Valley including an incredible place called Bristlecone Forest at 11'000 ft. in the middle of absolutely nowhere, then we did the entire Eastern Sierras (Lone Pine, Mammoth, Mono Lake), Yosemite NP from the Eastern side, and back to Denver through Las Vegas and Grand Canyon. In total, 3'500 miles of AMAZING driving WITHOUT A SINGLE PROBLEM (other than, yet again, a bent rim, but that's the collateral of driving in the wild with 19 inch wheels).

So, from my experience do not believe any of the fearmongers, they simply don't have a clue. The Maserati Gransport is an AWESOME car and definitely one of the most reliable I have ever owned, Germans included.

 

Sure.

The F1 transmission was such a reliable and popular transmission that Maserati dumped it.

That makes sense.

 

Respectfully, Rob, you're mixing apples and oranges. The ZF automatic is not an evolution of the automated manual. They are two completely different transmissions.

Both the Cambiocorsa and the later DuoSelect are MANUAL transmissions--the gear shifting and clutch engagement/disengagement is performed by hydraulic actuators.

The ZF automatic transmission is a true automatic slush box with a torque converter and so on, essentially identical to the transmissions found in many higher end German vehicles.

The fact is that Americans never warmed to the Cambiocorsa/DuoSelect automated manual. It simply isn't what American consumers want or expect for their daily drivers.

And the reliability issues are well-known. Ask any Ferrari-Maserati mechanic and you will get the same response. The automated manual's clutch and related components are known to be prone to early failure and are very expensive to repair. A very poor combination.

Maserati recognized the problem and began looking for an alternative to the automated manual transmission as early as 2005 (after only four years of production) and had one in place for the Quattroporte by 2006 for the 2007 model year. Today, the only transmission available on the QP is the ZF automatic and it is the standard transmission for the GranTurismo.

And, to prove my point that the automated manual is really designed for the track, and not for the street:

Maserati still offers an automated manual, now called "MC Shift", on Maserati's two-seat (back seats have been removed to save weight), track-oriented GranTurismo MC Stradale. Maserati calls it, and I quote, "The first street-legal Maserati race car." Read: NOT DAILY DRIVER. I believe the MC Shift may be available on the European GT-S version, too.

 

My car has no stickiness issue. You were referencing a post from another (former) Maserati owner.

However, the stickiness problem is well-known to plague both Maseratis and Ferraris. That's why a company called STICKYNOMORE.COM exists. From their website:

"STICKYNOMORE was born from a need to fix the beautiful Ferrari interiors that have suffered from the substandard coating that used on the interior parts of certain models. Because let's face it - These companies focus on speed and performance, not high quality interior trim.

After seeing firsthand the sticky, gooey mess that the interior plastic coated parts eventually turn into, we had to do something. Buying new parts can be very expensive, and there is no guarantee that the parts will not become sticky again.

STICKYNOMORE offers a refinishing service that eliminates the need to buy new, expensive parts. STICKYNOMORE refinishes your existing parts to a standard that befits an exotic car."

You really should spend a little time with some other Maserati owners. ************.com is a great place to start. Quite a friendly group of folks and happy to share their thoughts (good, bad, ugly!) on these interesting cars.

 

Yes, the automated manual in my Spyder and your GS and the MC Stradale are all versions of the same thing. The MC Shift is just the most recent.

And I completely agree with your driver's assessment. From a performance perspective, the automated manual is utterly fantastic on the open road. I was skeptical at first, and it took a little bit of getting used to. But once it clicked, I fell in love with it. And NO HEEL-TOE!

 

LOL

Clubbing baby seals isn't my only my hobby.

 

I have an 04 coupe...about 45k miles. I had the upgrades done to the clutch and it now shifts faster and smoother than new. 1st clutch change was at 18.5, 2nd one at about 45k. They tweeked the clutch assembly on the last replacement as I needed an actuator and some other parts, I was told, and it is a vast improvement.

If you end up buying either the gransport or coupe, I would recommend changing the springs. It makes a huge difference in handling. Also, I think the early model GS cars had one type of interior, but later models offered greater variations to the dash and interior. You may want to check that out as I personally liked the combination leather & carbon fiber offered on the later model years.

I use the car as a semi-daily driver, but have another car for rainy days and times where I know I will be sitting in 5mph traffic.

No issue with sticky parts yet but its usually not sitting in direct sunlight.

 

We all have to keep in mind that reliability of any one car is matter of satistics and luck...there have been honda and toyotas that have had premature engine failures and there have been old quirky exotic cars that have never need a repair.

 

Rob,

I may want to pick your brain a little in the coming months. With a baby in the house my 348 has found a new home and the Maserati sounds like great replacement for a guy who now needs a back seat.

Ben

 

I couldn't hold myself, so I'll add my bit to the thread. I own a GS (2006, Nero Carbonio) and I couldn't be happier.

I've driven all over Europe, last time I went to the International Maserati Rally in Sweden and drove 8,000km in two weeks (more info about that <removed, you can post the content on FerrariChat.com>

Another time I drove through the Alps and Stelvio Pass (more info about that <removed, you can post the content on FerrariChat.com>

I never had any problems all those years. Sure, I've scratched my wheels and had to repair them, changed the clutch, changed tires, but nothing broke that wasn't a maintenance item. The GS is definitely a good car as a daily driver.

A small warning about stickynomore, a friend of mine used them and the result was awful, they removed the sticky stuff but they don't repaint the buttons, instead they use printed stickers, so the final result is nothing like the real thing. Still, if you don't want to spend a small fortune in spare parts, its your only option.

 

I know you don't really buy these kind of cars for the mileage, but I've heard horror stories of 12mpg highway and such (can't believe it'd be that bad).

For those of you that have them, what kind of mileage have you experienced?

 

The consensus from (another forum) is about 12 in town and 15-19 hwy depending how you drive


Can someone give me an idea whats different in the Gransport from the Coupe?

 

From personal experience:

Daily commute = 11 mpg
Track days = 8 mpg
Highway cruising, Chicago - Denver, car fully loaded (2 adults, 1 child, luggage) 1000 miles at speeds ranging between 80 and 100 mph: 20/21 mpg (measured accurately between refills)
Familiy day out in the countryside, using gears but without driving too aggressively = 18 mpg

 

I don't have realistic numbers, but the engine in the GS is Euro 5 while the engine in the 4200 Coupe is Euro 3 specifications.

When we drove to Sweden, we compared mileage consumption with my friends 4200 Spyder, he had about 10% more than my GS. It wasn't a major difference, since when we stopped at gas stations, he put 5 or so more euros each time.