Walnut Creek Maserati Dealership - Avoid

All - just wanted to let the forum know about our very bad ongoing issue with WC Maserati Dealership and Maserati USA:

I bought the wife the Levante in June 2017. It is a piece of sh%t, has been in the service shop on and off since late August 2017. Myriad of issues from electric to software, lots of gremlins on the unit we happen to get. Main issue is the car pops from either Drive or Reverse into Neutral while driving for no apparent reason, you can imagine the danger - NHTSA has an active recall for the this issue with the Ghibli and "some" Levante - so if you own one please check. We first experience the issue back in Sep 2017 and still dealing with until now. So many issues on how this is being handled by Maserati USA and WC dealership.

Dealership service manager did not even know about the recall until I showed him the NHTSA notice in October when it happened the second time. When it happened in Sep, wife was told "maybe" that the shifter was accidentally hit - and they have not heard of the issue happening before - the NHTSA bulletin was first published back in Oct 2016. In Oct they tell us they've "downloaded" the info from the car and will send to Maserati for more info. Weeks go by no word, and I do all of the follow-ups. November - it happens again, we take it in, the service tech was able to experience it when he drove, spoke to the Manager, so now its recorded in the service history - we leave the car as they wait for Maserati's advice. Weeks go by, am told, per Maserati - software is in the works and will be available before year-end and drive the car in Sport to bypass the issue? January 2018 comes and me following up, no follow-up call from service at all - software will now be available mid-Feb - comes and goes - I finally called Maserati USA to get an explanation - get "should be by end of Feb" - up until today no time-table on when "fix" will be available - frustrating part is, if I do not follow-up, nothing from either Maserati or Dealership. It is now March 22 - guess what - car is back in the shop because battery keeps going dead, this is another ongoing issue while wait for the "neutral fix" - so much so that we've used up our allocated "free battery jump" from Triple A roadside service for the year - what does the service manager tell us - we have no idea - oh, first couple of times it happened - car was parked in an inclined on our driveway - manager said back then its a software issue and an upload should fix it - this was back in January - I'm in talks with my attorney of what our options are. I get that we got a bad unit - but its how its being dealt with is really the issue - During this ordeal I've put in multiple calls into the dealership higher-ups with no follow-up whatsoever. So my advice is avoid WC Maserati, I usually refrain from giving these type of "reviews" but I thought I'd share and it may help someone else to not have to go through it. Rant Over!

 

Albert:

Yeah, I'm having her look at the Tesla's.

Spoke again yesterday with WC to see if I can get someone there to work with and same response - got passed from one "manager" to another, "we have your information and someone will be in touch". I am going to formally file a complaint with Maserati USA to buy back and see how that goes.

 

Point of posting is to share information and hope it helps someone avoid the same issues in the future. Call what you want, but its information I wanted to share and everyone is free to comment, agree or not, that is the whole point of a forum.

Not relevant

As I've stated, we got a bad unit, but it does not explain the issues I've stated, no follow-ups, no answers as to when, given the run around. More to your point, its a known issue, why can't they fix my unit after 6 months from the first occurrence? Also, I've experience the issue above 2 mph, on one occurrence it may have been between 9-10 mph in a parking lot.

We actually did not know about Maserati's Roadside, I'm sure were told just never registered.

 

Thanks guys. Contacted Maserati NA and they said they would work with us, see how it goes. I've thought about the "lemon law" which is pretty straightforward in CA, and our unit definitely qualifies, hopefully Maserati will make it right, if not, abritration via LL, is the only other option.

 

Just to close out this thread - after much back and forth since my last post, having an attorney involved and Maserati NA's heehawing - they finally did the right thing and replaced our car with a 2018 unit - not totally happy or got what I wanted, but it was enough to put it to bed. Again, the dealership wasn't much help, only involvement was to process the trade paperwork and still really disappointed with them, they didn't advocate on our behalf - "their customer", anyways, case closed.