Test drove a 2006 GranSport LE Cambiocorsa today

Yesterday I went to a dealer to see a DB9. It was sold. While walking through the lot admiring the MP4-12C’s we stumbled across a 2006 GS LE with just under 12K miles. The car looked gorgeous, and best of all it had a back seat. You see, the reason I’m looking at Astons and 612’s is that I need a back seat. Every car we have except for my wife’s Tahoe is a 2 seater. Daddy needs 4 seats, I digress... Anyway we saw the GS and my wife immediately said “buy it!”. That doesn’t happen too often so I looked closer.

It’s silver with silver/black interior, not a visual flaw on it. Got the key and while standing at the rear of the car the dealer pressed the blue start button. Man oh man, talk about the BEST start up growl I’ve heard in ages. This thing sounds amassing. I was ready to buy the car just for the sound. So I began to look closer. Outside of a few very minor items such as “slightly” sticky vents and the remnants of a radar detector everything looked good. Then came the car fax. 4 owners? Bubble burst, something must be wrong. So like any overly internet read guy we went home and I spent the night researching these cars. As I drove home I couldn’t get over the exhaust note, I still can’t as I’m writing this.

Fast forward to the end of my reading. Cambiocorsa, FD DBWEM mods, doesn’t like rush hour traffic, clutch replacement every 15K miles, maybe not for me. You see this will be my DD, a replacement of my current DD of over 12 years, a rock solid and smooth SL600. And traffic in the heart of Silicon Valley can be rough. Went through Maserati Life and F-Chat which was full of great guys & info, including the fact that a few folks & families including master Rob’s himself use this car as a DD. That said I decided to go this afternoon and give it another shot.

Sights and sounds all an A+, but the drive itself was less than enjoyable. First driving impressions was that the car felt high, narrow, and long, like I was driving a hotdog. Kept it in sport mode most of the time and took it on a ride through the hills of Los Altos above Stanford. The suspension was very crisp, but a little too &#8220;vertically&#8221; stiff over the bad CA roads for my liking in a DD. Steering was exceptionally responsive, no comparison to the SL, but it was light, too light for me. It made the car feel like it weighted <2000 lbs. Power was as to be expected but in truth I wasn&#8217;t really able to concentrate on either because of the clutch. Sorry but the thing is terrible. Sluggish, sloshy, and unpredictable, worse than any 355 F1 or 360 F1 that I&#8217;ve ever driven. Auto mode, forget it. If I was in any of my other cars I would have pulled over and called a flat bed. We were up in the hills so it was tough to get assimilated with the clutch in 45 minutes of driving, and I&#8217;m sure with more practice I'd do better, but all things considered I&#8217;m going to pass. I just couldn&#8217;t see using this in daily traffic. Now if it was a Sunday car I may take it, especially considering value/price. Remember I said that it was like driving a hotdog? This is true, but it&#8217;s clear that with a little more time behind the wheel it would be more like driving a rocket. My biggest fear would be that because the steering is so light that I&#8217;d put it into the side of a mountain before I realized what happened.

For those M guys out there who are used to the Cambiocorsa this could be a good car assuming everything checks out. This evening I received some very minimal documentation which states that at 8K miles the clutch had 76% left. If you&#8217;re interested in the docs pm me. Here is a link to car:
Used 2006 Maserati GranSport For Sale | Palo Alto CA

Larry

 

I really wanted to like this car. As you said it just wasn&#8217;t going to work for me as a DD. Too bad I couldn&#8217;t have driven it harder.

I do think it looks good in silver from the front. The rear does get lost with the mass produced Japanese & Korean cars though.

Thanks for your help. I must have read over 50 of your posts on Sunday night. Very informative.

Larry

 

All things considered I'm now in search of an '07+ GT or GT S with a ZF auto. Anything I should look out for? I assume it's a good old ZF as we've come to know and love. The GT sure looks good in dark blue...