Early Quattroporte - Any good?

[pdavison]

As the title suggests, the early versions of these are looking fantastic value and a wonderful alternative to the usual M5 / AMG's ... but are they any good?

I'm in the process of selling my 348 GT Competizione as I need something a little more baby friendly and thought this might be an ideal alternative.

Any thoughts / advice much appreciated.

[sjn2004]

Hi, try over at www.maseratiforum.co.uk as there have been a few posts covering this.

[masermartin]

Hi there. It depends what you mean by "early". The Quattroporte I think you're talking about is the Quattroporte IV ( this), with the current one being the Mk V. Earlier ones (Mk I or Mk III) would be a bit more ... specialist I guess.

There are plenty of places who will service them for you. As with all the turbocharged Maseratis, you need to be careful about the oil change intervals (supposed to be 6k but with the V8's especially, more often is better) and their official belt change intervals are *ahem* optimistic. 3 years or 18k miles is probably better, but it's not as horrific a price as you might imagine.


Generally yeah they're different. Can't advise on reliability, as I've not got one, but I did briefly toy with the idea before eventually settling on the Ghibli.

[pdavison]

I actually mean the earlier version of the latest shape which I believe is circa 2004/5. Much as I love the even earlier cars, I would want to use it everyday and I don't think they're ideal for this type of usage.

I'll have a look over at the other forum too.

[lambo_xx]

The early cars don't have a proper auto box, it's a flappy paddle one and from what I've been told they aren't that great. You may get used to it, although it'll never be great.

If you could strech to it then I would go for a post 07 car which has an proper auto box with paddles.

Hope that helps

[hdiam1950]

Having just test driven a late 05 Q-P my comments are a great looking car ,beautifully appointed but totally spoilt by one of the worst auto boxes i have ever driven.no idea how they ever sold any.later ones should be lovely. Harry.

[pdavison]

Thanks all, don't think my budget will stretch to a later one unfortunately but a sloppy gearbox would spoil the experience for me I think.

[QP Noor]

Lots of ive heard and someone has told me comments on this thread..

I have a 2006 QP (Had it over a year), which has the Duoselect/CC gearbox and not the ZF auto transmission.

Its an absolute joy to drive, it takes a day or two to get used to it, but then its just brilliant, the changes are lightening quick and really come into their own when you are on the open road.

Its a F1 gearbox just like the ones in the Ferraris (similar to the egear system on Lmabos)) so the normal caveats will apply when doing alot of town driving. Once you know what you are doing even town driving is fine.

Dont let the doom mongers put you off, they are a great car and amazing VFM.

I suggest you go have a look at a few and see what you think for yourself.

[pdavison]

Ah ha ... at last a positive voice. I'll go and have a try in one once the GTC sells, unless a friendly owner in the Hampshire / Surrey area would be willing to take me for a spin in their's?