Maseratis Good for Everyday? | FerrariChat

Maseratis Good for Everyday?

Discussion in 'Maserati' started by PMDDMD, Apr 1, 2005.

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.

  1. PMDDMD

    PMDDMD Formula Junior

    Apr 1, 2004
    362
    I've been a long time BMW owner for everyday driving..currently and X5 4.4 and 540i, and like many, have not been happy with the changes BMW has been making in the last few years. Aside from the X5, when the time comes I am unlikely to replace the 540i with its successor. I've been keeping my eyes open for other marquees to fill its shoes down the line.

    I've seen several Maseratis (Cambrio's) in the past year that people seem to be using as daily drivers and would appreciate some input from anyone here with experience in this area. I would especially be interested in hearing about the Quattroporte. What's the reliability factor? Service requirements? Driving comfort and experience? Frankly, I'm just not familiar with the line. Thanks!
     
  2. jack

    jack Formula Junior

    Nov 1, 2003
    268
    Switzerland
    Full Name:
    Lionel
    My car have 104'000 km after less than 3 years. 3 winters in Switzerland with a lot of snow (I am using Michelin Pilot Alpin winter tyres). 3 kids to drive to the day-care center sometimes (they love the sound). Long trips to Belgium (comfortable). Short trips to my customers (they like it). Best sound over any cars (the local Ferrari boss is impressed).

    In my opinion it is a daily driver Ferrari with 4 seats, less costly, acceptable for my customers, easy in the snow / rain.

    Go for it... you will not be disappointed!
     
  3. scott61

    scott61 F1 Rookie

    Feb 11, 2004
    2,606
    North of Boston
    I have a Spyder which I bought last year and drove it every single day from when I picked up April 1st till I put away end of Dec. Car is great for every day driving. The day I picked up my car we got that record setting 5+ inches of rain and was very nervous about my drive home. Car handled great on flooded highways and streets, was very impressed. Like you I did not like the way BMW was going, and traded in my 2002 M3 SMG. A neighbor of mine has the Quattroporte and after taking a 600 mile trip with him can tell you that car is very comfortable and a great cruiser which can become a fun sports car when the desire hits. As for maintenance these cars our a bit more expensive, but reasonable. Just had my first year service and for oil change and all other required stuff bill came to $283. More expensive than Jiffy lube but I liked the fact the work was done a Ferrari/ Maserati tech. One last thing, reliability was great and no problems at all. My BMW had three recalls including the one for rebuilding the lower half of motor. So don't let the BMW, Porsche or other sales people tell you about all the problems you will be getting with a Maserati
     
  4. Maseroche

    Maseroche Karting

    Aug 10, 2004
    124
    Bahrain
    Full Name:
    Khalid
    I use mine everyday and has been a model for reliability.
     
  5. iufan993

    iufan993 Karting

    Jan 10, 2005
    58
    Charleston, SC
    I drive it about 500 miles a month, 3x/week, and it is no problem. I wouldn't recommend driving it daily if you have a lot of broken pavement, potholes, etc. The ride is less forgiving than, say, a 996 Porsche, and it feels like you are beating up the car. Also, not a great car in the rain. My traction control is always intervening in the rain and I would not recommend turning it off on wet pavement. A lot of complaints here about the nav. system, but mine works great locally; just takes a little patience.
     
  6. mak

    mak Karting

    Sep 29, 2004
    87
    The answer is yes but I'm sure the same question was asked just a few days ago... try using the search function. BTW, over at www.maseratiforum.net there are threads on the same topic.
     
  7. Napolis

    Napolis Three Time F1 World Champ
    Honorary Owner

    Oct 23, 2002
    32,118
    Full Name:
    Jim Glickenhaus
    Every day. Rain, snow. (If you have a lot of snow I'd get snow tires)
    The CC is not an auto for bumper to bumper. If you have a lot of that I'd wait for the auto GP which is coming.

    Few problems quickly fixed.
     
  8. PMDDMD

    PMDDMD Formula Junior

    Apr 1, 2004
    362
    Thanks everyone for the input! Much more positive than I expected! :)
    I will be in the market in a year so so and am still a little broken up about not going for another 5-series, but I'm encouraged to know there's a promising alternative.
     
  9. staatsof

    staatsof Nine Time F1 World Champ
    Silver Subscribed

    Mar 13, 2005
    91,378
    Fuggetaboutitland
    Full Name:
    Bob
    I'd try the Yahoo Maserati group instead. There are a lot of people there with years of discussions under the belt.

    Bob S.

     
  10. scott61

    scott61 F1 Rookie

    Feb 11, 2004
    2,606
    North of Boston
    That site is great for older Maserati's but of little value when it comes to the new generation of Maserati. Also if you don't know of this site you should check it out, Many owners of the newer Maserati there.
    http://www.maseratiforum.net/forum/
     
  11. staatsof

    staatsof Nine Time F1 World Champ
    Silver Subscribed

    Mar 13, 2005
    91,378
    Fuggetaboutitland
    Full Name:
    Bob
    Scot61,

    I have indeed been over to look at the forum.

    It's nice that you have "some" discussion on that site.

    There's also discussion about "all" the car models on the Yahoo site. I'm no "big" fan of the Yahoo groups format especially lately. It does have some interesting features though.

    The database capability has been very useful for people but it is still under utilized. Many people prefer the aggregate email "digest" format. I do not but hey?

    My point would be that it's really better to have the entire Maserati community closer together. There are a large number of Maserati owners that subscribe to that discussion group. Many are just occasional posters but they are always listening. It is the most significant Maserati discussion site on the WEB.

    Occasionally a subject comes a long that gets the attention of a large number of people.
    I'm always very surprised at who is listening. There are some very heavy hitters on that group.

    Any discussion forum/group/list is what the contributors make of it. It's a relatively small community compared to Porsche, BMW, Audi and others.

    I know most would appreciate more comradery instead of fracturing what is admittedly a small community. If you think you're not going to learn anything about the newer Maseratis from the people on that forum I would suggest you re-think that one. They know how and why Maserati is where it is today.

    This may be an opportune time to unify the owners of the newer model found on the forum you suggest with the balance of the Maserati community. They may actually already be on both forums.

    All is not well with the new Yahoo format. Yahoo made a lot of changes in appearance with very little improvement for users and there's a significant loss in ease of use. More ads as well.

    So maybe you should make a pitch to them. I know I'd like to see an improvement.

    BTW, this Maseratiforum.net, it is free isn't it?

    Bob S.
     
  12. scott61

    scott61 F1 Rookie

    Feb 11, 2004
    2,606
    North of Boston
    The Yahoo site is a great source of info for Pre-2002 Maserati but when I started thinking almost 2 years ago about getting a Maserati I found them not to receptive of the newer cars. I had many posts ignored and felt they did not consider the new ones as true Maserati's. Have not really been back there as I also found the format a pain with all the Advertisements that come up as you click thru posts. Maybe as some of those people buy new Maserati's things will change there and i agree with you we should be one community. Maseratiforum.net might be fairly small right now but I have been there since it started 1 1/2 ago and have seen it steadily grow and think it will be the premier site in the future. It is free like F-Chat but I do subscribe and pay to help support it just like here.
     
  13. mak

    mak Karting

    Sep 29, 2004
    87
    Hi Scott, thebimbo here... yep there is indeed a split between the newer and older cars. Some say the very new cars are not real maserati's as have F motor with the 3200GT as the last in the line. Others dismiss anything during and after the bi-turbo era. The Yahoo groups id definitely not the place to look for info for the newer cars...

    What is stranger is that the dealers don't even bother with the vintage crowd in any of their marketing activities so this situation is unlikely to change - the vintage croed often diss the cars that they have never driven. Strangely here in Switzerland several 3200GT owners became attracted to vintage cars from the events and have bought a car now!

    I like most of the cars from all eras but couldn't do with the hassle of a vintage car as know zilch about mechanics. Nevertheless it's great to see them at events and they sure will surprise you despite you having more horses...
     
  14. staatsof

    staatsof Nine Time F1 World Champ
    Silver Subscribed

    Mar 13, 2005
    91,378
    Fuggetaboutitland
    Full Name:
    Bob
    That's because very few people had these cars. Who was going to answer anything? There are a number of people on that site that have cars from 60's thru to now.

    I've been at this site for a lot of years and I don't think you could say they don't consider this a "true" Maserati. Yeah there are those that consider anything after 1981 not "real" Maserati's but those are few. Frankly they're a lot more insulting of the Biturbo's than anything else and that's because of the bad reputation here in the USA. The current car was started by DeTomaso, was a twin turbo and ended up being "upgraded" by Ferrari. The change in tailights was dumb dumb dumb. Of course the original Giugaro design was severly modified by the management of Maserati.

    There are plenty of people that are excited about what they've done with the new engine and suspension but frankly with all the management changes and less than stellar sales here in the USA most are worried about survival of Maserati. There have been some interesting discussions about those points over there. I expect there have been here on Ferrarichat as well.

    As was mentioned by a previous poster, the factory is the one with the "attitude". When they were debuing the 4200 coupe here they wanted to come to a local Maserati Club dinner and talk with us. They were supposed to bring a car with them as we were all very excited about the new model. They made their speech, ate our dinner and then when we suggested they include a free introdutory membership packet to the Maserati Club with each new purchase they promply said that they weren't interested in our club because that is only about old cars and that they thought there buyers weren't going to be interested in a club. If you don't invite them they won't fricken join!

    So why the F*CK did they show up, eat a free dinner and bring no car?

    I can tell you that pissed a lot of people off that day. There were at least 5 potential sales lost that day. The point was it cost them nothing, might bring in some new sales, it promotes the marque and was the polite thing to do.

    It makes you wonder what they'll do to the current set of new owners if it suits their purposes.

    There are a lot of owners of middle to late 90's Maserati's in Europe that feel this way. That includes a lot of 3200's.

    Just pain dumb.

    Bob S.
     

Share This Page