RE: Maserati GranTurismo S Auto: PH Carpool
Discussion
Have had mine for three years & can't fault it being an MC Shift I'd heard the horror stories about the clutch but it has so far proved unfounded, I have to say having had a DB9 I found the GT to be the better car, it has a proper boot & rear seats that can be used being 6'6 & still being able to fit the 5 & 9 year old in are a great bonus, also the engine note (tubi system fitted) when you hit the sport button is amazing & when you want to be a bit more subtle just turn it off it's great.
The only reason for it being sold in March is that I've got a CL63 bi turbo itch to scratch.
The only reason for it being sold in March is that I've got a CL63 bi turbo itch to scratch.
AM7 said:
Vee12V said:
Is that your car in that video? 4.7 should have oval shaped exhausts /pedantic
Not if it's fitted with the proper auto, cars fitted with the MC Shift gearbox had oval exhaust tips, very pedantic 
My 'lottery win' daily driver, although I've yet to win 
Great to hear of someone owning and really using one of these. It's a big car, yes, but it's a beautiful car and so few really are these days.
It does sound great too, I wonder if the OP is the bloke who I saw driving his past the Bank of England last summer as it was popping and banging and burbling away in a way I've never heard others doing.
If I did win a few million, I'd get one to go with the F40
M
Great to hear of someone owning and really using one of these. It's a big car, yes, but it's a beautiful car and so few really are these days.
It does sound great too, I wonder if the OP is the bloke who I saw driving his past the Bank of England last summer as it was popping and banging and burbling away in a way I've never heard others doing.
If I did win a few million, I'd get one to go with the F40
M
AM7 said:
Not if it's fitted with the proper auto, cars fitted with the MC Shift gearbox had oval exhaust tips, very pedantic
Some full auto 4.7s have oval pipes - MY 2010, 11,12 fitted with the sports pack or all face lifted GT Sports (came in MY 2013) - but four pipes were standard like mine has. Personally I love the original cars from launch to July 2012 build as the GT Sport front bumper just looks all wrong IMHO.
There are some issues with batteries like many big engined cars which are not used enough. I keep mine on a tender after a couple of flat battery issues early on in my ownership.
EC2 said:
Auto is a six speed regular ZF unit with full manual control as a 4.7 and partial manual control as a 4.2. The MC shift is a manual gearbox without a clutch pedal much like a Ferrari 599 or 430.
Very different gearboxes - I have the 4.7 auto and it works for me.
thanks...have I understood correct..Very different gearboxes - I have the 4.7 auto and it works for me.
Partial control... the auto box will make changes for you if revs demand
Full control... auto or full manual choice, no intervention form car
MC.... full manual.. no auto mode?
Gorgeous cars!
Maybe one day!
I think I may have parked next to the OP at the Ferrari day at Silverstone last year and I remember admiring it then (Ruby Black Z4C). Sadly I didn't meet the owner.
Was lucky enough to get invited to a day driving various Maseratis at Millbrook back in 2008; a real highlight.
The interiors make them a very special place to be and the exteriors are stunning but not shouty like other Italians - well until you fire them up!
Brave man keeping one on the street - congratulations and keep enjoying it.
Maybe one day!I think I may have parked next to the OP at the Ferrari day at Silverstone last year and I remember admiring it then (Ruby Black Z4C). Sadly I didn't meet the owner.
Was lucky enough to get invited to a day driving various Maseratis at Millbrook back in 2008; a real highlight.
The interiors make them a very special place to be and the exteriors are stunning but not shouty like other Italians - well until you fire them up!
Brave man keeping one on the street - congratulations and keep enjoying it.
Excellent write up.
I have an MC Shift as my daily and I do plenty of driving in central London. You need to adapt your driving style to cater for the way it drives, but isn't that the same for any other car? Once you have I find it absolutely fine for town driving. I am even become immune to tight parallel parking.
What sold me is that the car is seriously practical - large enough boot, totally usable rear seats and below average service costs as it only needs to be done once every two years or 12k miles.
Looks, noise and heated seats for its class nothing beats it.
The only thing that is annoying is the size. B road hustling can be butt clenching when someone is coming the other way and their road craft is not great and they stray across the centre line.
I have an MC Shift as my daily and I do plenty of driving in central London. You need to adapt your driving style to cater for the way it drives, but isn't that the same for any other car? Once you have I find it absolutely fine for town driving. I am even become immune to tight parallel parking.
What sold me is that the car is seriously practical - large enough boot, totally usable rear seats and below average service costs as it only needs to be done once every two years or 12k miles.
Looks, noise and heated seats for its class nothing beats it.
The only thing that is annoying is the size. B road hustling can be butt clenching when someone is coming the other way and their road craft is not great and they stray across the centre line.
An acquaintance of mine had one of these and joined us on a run to Le Mans a few years ago. The owner turned up and said his oil light was flashing but he wasn't bothered as the light had gone out now 
Once I'd established it was the oil level light not the oil pressure light I set about checking the oil for him and it soon became clear why the oil level light had been flashing, the engine had next to no oil in it
The reason the level warning light had gone out was because the oil level was lower than the dip stick itself. It would seem when it gets to that point Maserati deem the oil level warning unnecessary, presumably because the oil pressure light will take over shortly after
The car had been serviced just a few hundred miles before the Le Mans trip and while the owner was clearly mechanically challenged to the extent he didn't even know how to check his oil I can only surmise having been serviced so recently these engines have a more than natural appetite for oil.
Almost three litres of oil later we were back on the road, but not for long
Pulling into the next services the owner started telling me how he couldn't always get the next gear, Hmmmmm
Much searching for the auto box dip stick had me coming to the conclusion it was an automated manual so nothing to do but press on.
Twenty miles later at a toll it wouldn't go into gear, until that is we pushed it as fast as we could at which point I'm assuming the ECU saw enough road speed to allow the hapless driver to get his first forward gear.
The Masser limped to Le Mans where it sat in the campsite all weekend, to our amazement on departure it decided it was going to function as a car, until yes you guessed it the gearbox issue came back with a vengeance.
This time it was game over, no amount of pushing, no frantic flapping of the paddle shift to wake it up, and no amount of swear words would make that Masser find a gear.
We waved it goodby as it headed for Old Blighty on the back of a low loader, the owner sold it a few weeks later in utter disgust vowing never to buy another Fiat product again.
I must say it sounded good for the brief period it actually worked but it wasn't actually that fast, more mouth & no trousers if you ask me as even my 18 year old TVR could easily stay with it up to the 120 mark after which I must admit it had the legs on me.
Saying all that it didn't really run long enough to make the top speed advantage any kind of victory, as I blasted past it on the back of the low loader I estimate it's terminal velocity was no more than a Ford Transit assisted 80.
I wish the owner of the feature car all the best with his beautiful Masser and I pray he doesn't suffer the same issues I witnessed with the one & only GranTurismo I've had contact with.
Perhaps my mate was unlucky, perhaps the traditional auto gearbox that replaced the robotized manual box is much better, to be honest it would really struggle to be any worse.
The only thing we can say for sure is every 10 years or so for the last 30 years Maserati has been telling us their new car brings with it a new era of vastly improved reliability.
So I fully expect them to be peddling the same message in the next ten years, which begs the question... What happened to the new era of reliability you promised us on the outgoing range?
To be honest as nice as it looks and as good as it sounds, after what I witnessed I'm not sure I'd buy one with my own money
Once I'd established it was the oil level light not the oil pressure light I set about checking the oil for him and it soon became clear why the oil level light had been flashing, the engine had next to no oil in it
The reason the level warning light had gone out was because the oil level was lower than the dip stick itself. It would seem when it gets to that point Maserati deem the oil level warning unnecessary, presumably because the oil pressure light will take over shortly after
The car had been serviced just a few hundred miles before the Le Mans trip and while the owner was clearly mechanically challenged to the extent he didn't even know how to check his oil I can only surmise having been serviced so recently these engines have a more than natural appetite for oil.
Almost three litres of oil later we were back on the road, but not for long
Pulling into the next services the owner started telling me how he couldn't always get the next gear, Hmmmmm
Much searching for the auto box dip stick had me coming to the conclusion it was an automated manual so nothing to do but press on.
Twenty miles later at a toll it wouldn't go into gear, until that is we pushed it as fast as we could at which point I'm assuming the ECU saw enough road speed to allow the hapless driver to get his first forward gear.
The Masser limped to Le Mans where it sat in the campsite all weekend, to our amazement on departure it decided it was going to function as a car, until yes you guessed it the gearbox issue came back with a vengeance.
This time it was game over, no amount of pushing, no frantic flapping of the paddle shift to wake it up, and no amount of swear words would make that Masser find a gear.
We waved it goodby as it headed for Old Blighty on the back of a low loader, the owner sold it a few weeks later in utter disgust vowing never to buy another Fiat product again.
I must say it sounded good for the brief period it actually worked but it wasn't actually that fast, more mouth & no trousers if you ask me as even my 18 year old TVR could easily stay with it up to the 120 mark after which I must admit it had the legs on me.
Saying all that it didn't really run long enough to make the top speed advantage any kind of victory, as I blasted past it on the back of the low loader I estimate it's terminal velocity was no more than a Ford Transit assisted 80.
I wish the owner of the feature car all the best with his beautiful Masser and I pray he doesn't suffer the same issues I witnessed with the one & only GranTurismo I've had contact with.
Perhaps my mate was unlucky, perhaps the traditional auto gearbox that replaced the robotized manual box is much better, to be honest it would really struggle to be any worse.
The only thing we can say for sure is every 10 years or so for the last 30 years Maserati has been telling us their new car brings with it a new era of vastly improved reliability.
So I fully expect them to be peddling the same message in the next ten years, which begs the question... What happened to the new era of reliability you promised us on the outgoing range?
To be honest as nice as it looks and as good as it sounds, after what I witnessed I'm not sure I'd buy one with my own money
My wife had a Gran Turismo from new in 2008 until last year, covering 16,000 miles. It was a second car for her and not a daily driver. That said, we found it very reliable and only sold it because we are now spending fewer than 90 days a year in the UK.
On the plus side, it will genuinely seat adults in the back (which most 2 plus 2s will not), was relatively economical (over 20 mpg overall during our ownership) and had a good paddle set up for the autobox which was the only way I ever drove it. The ride was comfortable, the steering was nicely weighted, it sounded fantastic and it was pretty well finished. It was a pretty car - particularly in the special order pearlescent white which was a savagely expensive option at £5,000 but which really lifted the car and (in my opinion) was a nice change from the usual grey and variations of grey in which most are finished.
On the downside, the SAT NAV / media system went on the blink in our last year of ownership and would go through a 20 minute reboot every time the car was started. This was £3,500 retail for the part and the car was out of warranty. The dealer persuaded Maserati to chop that down to £1,000 for us as a goodwill gesture in recognition of the low mileage. When the car was relatively new we lost three painted covers for the headlamp washers. We had the spacesaver spare wheel option which is in a bag which takes up most of the already very small boot. The children hated riding in the back because the window line for the rear side windows was too high for them to see out and the lack of a view made them carsick. A lot of the interior 'leather' is not in fact leather but a fragile synthetic. We found this is very susceptible to scuffs and rips on the rear console where feet easily scuff it. The dealer confirmed this was a common problem. It is also a very big car - both wide and long - that hides its bulk well but which makes it less than ideal as a city car: hence we bought a little Mini for my wife to use as a shopping car in Central London.
On the plus side, it will genuinely seat adults in the back (which most 2 plus 2s will not), was relatively economical (over 20 mpg overall during our ownership) and had a good paddle set up for the autobox which was the only way I ever drove it. The ride was comfortable, the steering was nicely weighted, it sounded fantastic and it was pretty well finished. It was a pretty car - particularly in the special order pearlescent white which was a savagely expensive option at £5,000 but which really lifted the car and (in my opinion) was a nice change from the usual grey and variations of grey in which most are finished.
On the downside, the SAT NAV / media system went on the blink in our last year of ownership and would go through a 20 minute reboot every time the car was started. This was £3,500 retail for the part and the car was out of warranty. The dealer persuaded Maserati to chop that down to £1,000 for us as a goodwill gesture in recognition of the low mileage. When the car was relatively new we lost three painted covers for the headlamp washers. We had the spacesaver spare wheel option which is in a bag which takes up most of the already very small boot. The children hated riding in the back because the window line for the rear side windows was too high for them to see out and the lack of a view made them carsick. A lot of the interior 'leather' is not in fact leather but a fragile synthetic. We found this is very susceptible to scuffs and rips on the rear console where feet easily scuff it. The dealer confirmed this was a common problem. It is also a very big car - both wide and long - that hides its bulk well but which makes it less than ideal as a city car: hence we bought a little Mini for my wife to use as a shopping car in Central London.
Harry Metcalfe has a lot of good things to say about his GranTurismo S 4.7 MC Shift here. Great vid, sounds lovely.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4K5cgzjY6o
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4K5cgzjY6o
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