hello, coveting a 80's ferrari but have been thinking about a maserati bi-turbo spyder. any maser owners out there that can give the good (i've heard the bad) about the biturbo fuel injected spyder. regards, joseph
try here instead: http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/BiturboZentrum/ and here http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/Maserati/
Here's a previous thread from about two mths ago. Good car if you can find a nice one... http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=76446
What is it exactly do you want to know? I have an 87 Biturbo (coupe, fuel injected). It goes like stink, it doesn't handle that great, but it is fun to learn it's quirkyness. It likes to run hot, leaks oil rather prevalently, get a lot of turned heads (even if they are looks of WTF). Everybody is stunned by the interior. If you take care of her, she takes care of you.
I have an '87 Spyder. '87 is a good year to shoot for because besides fuel injection, I believe that year introduced the water-cooled turbos. Those were two major improvements, from what I've heard, although plenty of people own and enjoy the earlier carbed cars too. Later cars had the 2.8 liter engine, and although they are (reportedly) better cars, when they come up for sale it's always for a lot more money than the 2.5 liter cars. My Biturbo is the most comfortable car I have ever ridden in. Although it's pretty lively, it's not really a sports car. It's fun to drive and a great high-speed tourer, but I would be a little leery of pushing it too hard. The Spider has a shorter wheelbase than the coupes or sedans so it's not quite as stable. Biturbos suffer a LOT from deferred-maintenance problems. Properly sorted, they are a blast, but the cost of maintenance and repairs is very high in proportion to the cost of buying a car, so it seems that many are bought by people who can't afford to keep them up properly. And they have more frequent service intervals than modern "consumer" cars, and having the valve clearances checked or the timing belt changed is a fairly big deal on one of these cars, and it should (per the owner's manual) be done regularly. (This is a common phenomenon to owners of 80s Ferraris and V6 Alfa Romeos, too.) Somewhere out there may be a meticulously maintained Biturbo for sale at a reasonable price, but I would not count on finding that car. A better shopping strategy would be to look for one that is in good condition and just plan on spending a big chunk of money and/or time going through it to replace belts and hoses, clean electrical connections (VERY IMPORTANT), and get everything sorted out. Biturbos are a good deal but they are not really the bargain they appear to be because frankly most of them will need work, and the few people who know how to (and are willing, not always the same thing) to work on them will not come cheap. The main problem area is probably electronics. The fuse boxes were pretty bad and they can cause all sorts of mayhem. And, after eighteen years other connections may be corroded. When I got my car I spent part of an afternoon cleaning the connections on all the relays; when I was done my horn and hi-beams worked when they had not before. Although it's unpleasant and not glamorous at all, going over all the relay and fuse connections and grounds would be an important part of sorting out the car. Another weakness of sorts seems to be head gaskets. This is based purely on anecdotal information, but I seem to hear more reports of bad head gaskets than one would expect for relatively low-mileage cars. I may be overly sensitive about this, though, because I just learned that one of mine needs to be replaced, and my car is under 40K miles. But, there is an active and very helpful Biturbo community---definitely the BiturboZentrum group mentioned earlier is vital. And parts are not really a problem. They are more expensive than Ford, but less expensive than Ferrari parts by a long shot. I'm not sure if this will make sense, but I would say only buy one if you really want one. It will probably require a certain level of sacrifice and (initially anyway) you will probably have some headaches to deal with. If this is your first old Italian car, they may come as a bit of a shock. So in order to have a good Biturbo ownership experience you will need to be dedicated enough to work through the initial unpleasantness and get the car sorted out and working well. To make it worth the money you may well have to put into it, you would probably need to keep it for a while. But, a tuned and sorted Biturbo is a joy to drive and of course carries with it the inimitable Maserati panache. Good luck!
i used to have a 84 bi-turbo, i have nothing but problem with it. one day, all the problem disappear --- i crash the car, gone.
