Maserati Ghibli: PH Carpool
Family car goes from a Saab to a Maserati!
Car: Maserati Ghibli 2014 (petrol)
Owned since: July 2014
Previously owned: "Austin Mini, Austin Allegro (complete with square steering wheel - a brilliant car when it was not broken down!), Ford Fiesta, Ford Escort, Saab 9000 x2, Saab 9-5 Aero."
"You can see I had had three big Saabs and, as the children had left home, a smaller car was in order. However, Saab effectively went bust for the second (or third) time before the new 9-3 was launched so that was not an option. I had always loved the look of the Quattroporte but these had got bigger and bigger and were too expensive anyway.
"When I heard Maserati was developing a smaller and sportier model with a selection of turbo engines I was interested. I am a big fan of turbos, liking the combination of smaller engine economy but larger engine performance. To be quite frank the third thing was that I had just inherited some money, so a Maserati was within reach.
"Clearly the reasons are a mix of the logical and the emotional, probably more of the latter if I am honest with myself. So what alternatives did I consider? I looked at Jaguar but timescales for both the XE and new XF didn't fit. I might have gone for the new Mercedes C-Class but at the time the engine I would have wanted was not available. I had looked at an Audi A6 when choosing the Saab Aero in 2005 and ideally at that time would have wanted the Audi with the Saab Aero engine! In 2005 we did venture to the local BMW dealer (for a 5 Series) but they treated us so badly I have been put off them for life.
"Ultimately if the objective judgment is that my heart ruled my head then so be it. I have no regrets."
"Let's start with the 'peculiarities' of my car. Having decided upon the 330hp 'base' Ghibli (diesel too rational, 410hp much more expensive), I then had to choose optional extras. It was a no-brainer for me to have the gearshift paddles and I also wanted heated front seats. I agonised over the Skyhook variable suspension and decided against. Whether the standard suspension is much less stiff than Skyhook is not terribly easy to find out. The other option I was talked into by my youngest son was 19-inch wheel. One final (actually almost rational) extra was a space saver spare wheel.
"So what about the unexpected things that are common to all Ghiblis of my specification?
"The sales literature describes all models as having 'active cruise control'. I thought that the word 'active' implied that it would reduce the car speed to maintain a safe distance from anything in front. In fact the cruise control is a plain vanilla cruise control as I had in the Saab. I am not sure what Maserati thinks a cruise control without the word 'active' in front of it does differently from what it provides.
"There is an idiosyncrasy about all Ghiblis with heated front seats. The passenger seat goes off significantly sooner than the driver's seat. At first service the dealer established that all the Ghiblis they had did this - it was not a fault in my car. Maserati is concerned about the driver feeling too warm and falling asleep so the driver's one shuts off before the passenger one but this is configured for left-hand drive cars so all RHD cars with heated front seats have them designed to keep the front seat passenger more awake than the driver! As I am usually the driver in cold weather it is left to my wife to moan about having to switch her heated seat on too frequently!
"Finally there is seemingly no provision to adapt the (bi-xenon) headlamps for driving on the continent. Apparently if you have the tilting headlights option there is a setting to adjust their aim. The best the dealer could come up with was to set the headlamps to the maximum down position in the vertical plane, as one would for a fully loaded car.
"I am being very picky, but if people do not point these things out there is even less chance of eventual improvement."
Things I love:
"The looks, the engine sound, the driving experience and the friendly interest shown by others. I am not a great one for aesthetics but I think that its shape is a thing of beauty. Many supercars look mean. The Maserati looks beautiful.
"The engine sound is awesome. I normally drive it in sports manual mode with all four exhausts in use and, although I only occasionally take the revs up very high, the sound is still great, even at moderate volume.
"I enjoy driving it - I am almost up to 30,000 miles after two years of ownership and I am not somebody who buys a car like this just to take it out of the garage at weekends and give it a polish. Whilst it is comfortable for long distance motorway cruising I suppose that I get most pleasure accelerating out of roundabouts and away from motorway toll stations (over the Channel). I have no intention of testing the road holding to the limit but do enjoy some winding roads that I am familiar with at a safe margin.
"The ZF gearbox, both when changing manually and when left in automatic mode, is brilliant. You only have to look at the list of cars that use this gearbox to know that it cannot be bad. As it is not that common people often strike up a conversation. Most think it is much more expensive than it was, and all the attention has been friendly."
"These are niggles rather than major issues but the engine takes quite a while to warm up properly - this would of course be a major fuel economy issue if you wanted to use it for short trips.
"The car has had two issues that have required a warranty repair, both during a routine service. The first was a replacement heater valve actuator. The more significant one was a replacement for the oil pressure transducer.
"To replace it the fuel injection rail has to be removed, which has seals that are strictly one-use only. The garage did not realise this until they had been removed, leaving the car stuck in the garage for several days longer than it should have been whilst a new fuel injector rail came from Italy. A courtesy car was of course provided by the dealer.
"The seats are comfortable but not as comfortable as those in the Saabs but I think that this is more a reflection of the excellent quality of Saab seats."
Costs:
"Obviously depreciation is considerable but, as I tend to keep cars for long periods, that's spread out. I used the usual car broker websites to try to get a decent discount with no success and had very limited success getting much off the list price when negotiating with the dealer.
"The insurance premium was, to my amazement, slightly less than for the Saab Aero, albeit with a £750 excess.
"What about fuel economy? I can get 30mpg on long trips and between 26mpg and 28mpg on more everyday 10- to 30-mile ones. I think Sport mode should get you slightly better fuel economy than the normal or ICE mode as having all four exhausts in use should decrease the back pressure a bit.
"I purchased a three-year servicing package with the car but am conscious that servicing will not be cheap beyond that. Servicing is every 12,500 miles or two years. The thing I am dreading replacing is the brake pads - they appear to be silly prices.
"I replaced the front tyres at 15,000 miles and the rear ones at 20,000 miles. The former was a great disappointment to me. Reading some Maserati blogs (mainly by American drivers), replacing the front tyres after this mileage (or even less) is common. The Maserati dealer said the wheel alignment is "quite aggressive to optimise handling". As each tyre costs between £150 and £200 there is an incentive to avoid burning rubber too often."
"About 12,000 of the 30,000 miles have been on four trips across the Channel. Two of these were part of my mad project to drive around the coast of Europe (though not all in one go). Part one covered the French coast between the Belgian border and the Atlantic coast of Spain. The second, from which I have just returned, involved four weeks driving around the coast of Spain and Portugal - 4,500 miles in total. We almost got on the car ferry for Algeria in Algeciras by mistake but avoided leaving the European continent! I probably got more driving pleasure from the two trips to Italy. The owners of where we stayed appreciated the car though as any Italian would.
"The other European trip was again to Italy but via some friends in Germany, a spell in Austria and back via Switzerland. Driving wise the Great Dolomite Road from Cortina to Bolzano was the highlight. We will find an excuse to drive this again.
"Whilst it is of course comfortable on long journeys I probably enjoy the actual driving most on local rural roads that I know well."
What next?
"I would plan to keep this for another six to eight years, and who knows what might be available then? I will then be seriously old and we plan to move to a more urban location. Some sort of hybrid might therefore suit the bill so that the short urban trips could be made in all electric mode. We will just have to see what is available nearer the time.
"As regards modifying the car my only wish is to keep it looking as near new as possible for as long as possible!"
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