RE: You Know You Want To: Maserati Quattroporte

[LukeBird]

Absolutely gorgeous; without the chintzy additions of the later cars, these are much prettier.

[cidered77]

Harji said:

Quattroporte, the name sounds exotic, but it means 'Four Door'. No doubt there are Italians driving Jaguar Four Doors, as I'm sure four doors in English sounds as exotic to the Italians as the QP sounds to us.

"Sacked Robert Di'Matteo was swooped away from Stamford Bridge in his quattroporte..."

/

Bob Matthews drove off in a four door.

[LaurasOtherHalf]

The Don of Croy said:

Me likey.

I'm in...which sunglasses would look best partnered with this?

[Maty]

Worst case scenario it eats it's gearbox, what would you be looking at to repair/replace?

[si_xsi]

is it just me or does the interior shot look like some of the swicth gera has been lifted fomr late 90's early 00's mercs with radio and sat nav?

Lovely car though, always liked these, take one of these over a Jag XJR any day.

[SprintSpeciale]

The Don of Croy said:

Me likey.

I'm in...which sunglasses would look best partnered with this?

Maserati have kindly answered that question for you. Superb Lozza items with the three grille vents motif echoed across the arms..

[Sivraj]

Yes, Yes I defiantly would.

[300bhp/ton]

Maty said:

Worst case scenario it eats it's gearbox, what would you be looking at to repair/replace?

Common sense would say to find out who makes the box, is it common to any other vehicles. Who supplies and sells parts for it and what are the common failure points.

I'm fairly certain if you buy a new box direct from Maserati and get them to fit it, or even if you use a Maserati specialist then it could cost a small fortune.

However you'd need to weigh up the worth of this versus trying to find a cheaper way of repairing it. A £14k and still dropping, is a full Maserati history really worth that much more than an otherwise documented history?

I guess it would also be interesting to know how easy, if at all possible it is to convert it to the later automatic transmission.

[simonigrale]

Never known the gearbox to fail? Maybe an actuator or a clutch. Most of the Parts are Fiat or Alfa. I always enjoyed the duo over the auto. The duo is faster and sharper, plus you get the better balance of the gearbox being on the rear axle on a duo. Unless you start to spend upwards of 35k and you get into a Sport GTS. Auto.

[carlingofblack]

Already keen prices, but wonder if good ones will come down even more now the model is out. New design seems much less inspired....
I love them, and if running costs weren't too much of a factor, would try one as a daily. Duo Select does worry a bit though, it seems caution surrounds all non manual boxes as used buys on Audi, BMW, Merc and VW's DSG etc. so we're all in the same boat I think!

[Si_man306]

Nice one of these in the film Hostel II yesterday...had no idea they were so cheap now!

The ultimate smooooth italian gangster-mobile.

[Benmac]

300bhp/ton said:

Common sense would say to find out who makes the box, is it common to any other vehicles. Who supplies and sells parts for it and what are the common failure points.

I'm fairly certain if you buy a new box direct from Maserati and get them to fit it, or even if you use a Maserati specialist then it could cost a small fortune.

However you'd need to weigh up the worth of this versus trying to find a cheaper way of repairing it. A £14k and still dropping, is a full Maserati history really worth that much more than an otherwise documented history?

I guess it would also be interesting to know how easy, if at all possible it is to convert it to the later automatic transmission.

The gearboxes themselves are fine and plenty strong enough. They don't need replacing. The weak point is the clutch. Driven hard they can last as little as 10k miles but driven more normally you can get loads more miles out of them. I had the clutch changed on mine this time last year and it had done 20k miles on it at that point and was only 40% worn. I changed it then as one of the release bearings was making a racket, which they do and as the clutch was coming out to swap that it made no sense not to change it as the parts themselves are not crazy money (£700ish IIRC). All in including doing the bearing and the flywheel it cost me £2k to do at a main dealer. I did get a special price as it was the week before Christmas and the workshop was quiet but various well respected specialists will do the job for that sort of money. The mechanical aspect is apparently very straightforward but you have to code the new clutch to the car to get the shift quality right and to do that you need some special software that only dealers and pukka specialisists tend to have.

[IanMorewood]

Would like a lot but wouldn’t like the ownership bills.

[ZesPak]

IanMorewood said:

Would like a lot but wouldn’t like the ownership bills.

Agreed, I'd love one of these. But it'll cost me a fortune to tax and insure. And to drive.

I hate to say it, but since it's a family car, I'd rather have a V6 diesel in it

[will261058]

Who cares about the gearbox when it looks like that!

[ITP]

http://mobile.pistonheads.com/classifieds/classifi...


Someone mentioned an 08 GTS. Here's one, know it's more than the 15k one but look at it......

There has been lots of talk about what great value the M135i is recently, you could have this for the same! The fact that the little 1 series is actually faster and could be run almost for free in comparison I would conveniently ignore....and put my 30k here!

Just think how much happier you'd feel having this as the first thing you see when you open your door in the morning!

[heavyearly76]

Yes. I want one. Just in case anyone needs more persuasion :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IuDdbCvNXFs&fea...

I don't know what the hell they're saying but who cares...

[e30johns]

g3org3y said:

Very very nice

Although similar price for this:



E60 M5 Clicky

Difficult (but nice!) decision.

280bhp?!

[Contigo]

jaisharma said:

Never had an M5 but love my QP - every journey is an event which is just how it should be!

Every journey in the M5 is an event too so it sounds similar. The only thing I can compare to is the 3200 which in itself was an event when I drove it. I reckon the GranSport is the one to have if size/practicality is not a requirement but if it's a 4 door executive saloon you need then the Quattroporte takes alot of beating.

[jaisharma]

Contigo said:

Every journey in the M5 is an event too so it sounds similar. The only thing I can compare to is the 3200 which in itself was an event when I drove it. I reckon the GranSport is the one to have if size/practicality is not a requirement but if it's a 4 door executive saloon you need then the Quattroporte takes alot of beating.

I do need four good size seats. I guess then the main difference is that a QP is a nicer looking car to my eyes, and appeals to my liking of things that are a little off-beat. That is not to denigrate the M5 at all.