RE: Maserati 3200 GT: Spotted

[AW111]

DBRacingGod said:

Maserati 3200? Talk to me.

Speak, oh Oracle.

[DBRacingGod]

AW111 said:

DBRacingGod said:

Maserati 3200? Talk to me.

Speak, oh Oracle.

I’ll put my index finger under your chin, give it a little wiggly-wig. You’ll tell me you’ll take 18 grand, thank you very much and goodnight.

[Kipplemaster]

"I found it an absolute prerequisite to actively ignore any sound advice given in good faith, by anyone who knows what they are talking about."

Love it, A.G, and glad your 4200 has been kind to you. I ignored my own advice in my post above as I didn't bother with an inspection and bought the first 3200GT I saw. But then my first proper service cost £8,000...

The £3k a year I mentioned is for the 3200, which is more expensive to run with cambelt change every 3 years and generally more bits dropping off. I've had mine for nearly 10 years and haven't spent anything like £30k but you should still BUDGET for £3k a year. (I'm terrified the fact I've spent less means the balance is coming at the next service!)

[SVS]

Kipplemaster said:

But then my first proper service cost £8,000...

[Cold]

SVS said:

Kipplemaster said:

But then my first proper service cost £8,000...

That doesn't sound like a service in the routine maintenance way of speaking. It sounds like a list of faults over and above the usual service items were identified and rectified while the car was in for its annual oil change.

[limpsfield]

A.G. said:

To those already attempting to apply any logic in terms of a potential cheap Maserati purchase, don't waste your time. Sadly, the fact is you will never get to own one if you insist on inviting logic to the meeting .

Edited by A.G. on Saturday 24th November 14:47

This was a wonderful read A.G.

I owned a Maserati 4200 for a few years. I have the running costs in a spreadsheet somewhere. It’s there, and never to be opened.

If you are trying to apply logic to this, just go and lease a Skoda Octavia, as it’s not for you.

[limpsfield]

I’ve just realised the running costs for mine are in my profile. I clicked and then clicked back quickly.

Massively flawed, loads of character. Miss mine.

[SVS]

The shame of this is that Italian manufacturers can do high-performance vehicles that are reliable, yet possess bags of character.

Ducati had a terrible reputation for reliability and running costs. But Ducati sorted this years ago and now makes reliable bikes. The infamous electrics have long since been sorted. The eye watering service costs have diminished too. If Ducati can sort these things, why can’t Maserati?

[Pericoloso]

There was a Cambiocorsa coupe 4.2 in an auction I attended today ,estimate 12 - 16 ,bidding ended at 9 so close to the price of

this 3200 for the better . later car.

[paulg390]

Well, having bought a “cheap” Ferrari 456 and running it for 5 years and 9,000 miles with none of the horrors that I was told would befall me I have now sold it and just bought a 4200 GT as I love the look of these and the fact that I can have a mint car with a Ferrari V8, manual gearbox and reasonable mileage for a fraction of what a Ferrari with the same configuration would cost. I am sure that like the 456 there are valid horror stories out there, but I also believe (hope) that if you buy the right car with the major stuff already done, then use specialists and common sense you can run these for far less than the “headline” figures.
The caveat being it is not your daily, you treat it with respect, you are prepared to spend time sourcing your own parts (2nd hand if feasible) and you take it to the guys who know these cars not the dealers / traders with flash showrooms to pay for. Wish me luck !

[geminik]

I think I know a little bit about the 3200GT. I own two :smoking:, a 2000 manual and an asseto corsa, and I organized the 3200GRT 20th anniversary (a quick report here with plenty of pictures : https://www.sportsmaserati.com/index.php?threads/3... )


About twenty owner from all over Europe gathered in Bade Wurtemberg and had a incredible time. All together, the cars drove more than 25000 miles for this event (we even had a guest from Norway) and only one of the car had a problem on the way back with his transmission, so much talk about the poor reliability…
And we had an incredible line up : https://youtu.be/Xq1DhN7ytl4?t=4

So, let’s talk about my cars now.


I bought the first one, the blue, in Greece, unseen (I know, but it was cheap, rare color, manual with only 40000km. Oh, and did I said it was cheap). The car was in storage for five years but had a full service prior the sale (all fluids, filter and belt :1800euro).

Since 2016, I did 9000km with it and it didn’t cost me a lot:

Replacement of the silent blocks of the rear lower suspension triangle : 200 euro
4 new potenza S001 620 euro
Replacement of 8 toric joint of the plenum 3,2 euro
Replacement of the thermostat 76,856 euro
8 new plugs and 2 new coils 158 euro
2 new lambda probe 150 euro
2 annual service (oil/air/fuel filter, selenia racing oil), 170 euro each time

I did all the work myself, nothing to difficult, next year it will be time to change the timing belt, probably another DIY.



The second 3200 is quite special, an Asseto corsa from Japan with 70.000km.

The car just arrived in June this year but we have already did 3000km (mostly for the preparation of the anniversary meeting and the meeting itself, the roads in the black forest are incredible).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9aqSE3zFJE&t=...

For today, I had to replace the front disks (250 euro) the front pads with yellowstuff (35 euro, it seems there was a mistake on the pricing on amazon, I was lucky), do an annual service and that’s all.


So, around 2000 euro for 12.000km, not so bad I think… The red ghibli cup was way ore expensive to maintain.
Of course, if you insist that the official dealer must do all the job, it can quickly be very expensive.

My point of view, incredible cars for their price. For me, it’s the purest design made for maserati these last 40 years, but feel free to have another opinion.

[Pooh]

SVS said:

The shame of this is that Italian manufacturers can do high-performance vehicles that are reliable, yet possess bags of character.

Ducati had a terrible reputation for reliability and running costs. But Ducati sorted this years ago and now makes reliable bikes. The infamous electrics have long since been sorted. The eye watering service costs have diminished too. If Ducati can sort these things, why can’t Maserati?

They can, the 3200 is an old car and my experience is that the more modern cars are fine. I did 12k miles in two years in my GranTurismo S and the only issue was an intermittent fault with a front parking sensor that was fixed under warranty.

[anonymous-user]

Cold said:

SVS said:

Kipplemaster said:

But then my first proper service cost £8,000...

That doesn't sound like a service in the routine maintenance way of speaking. It sounds like a list of faults over and above the usual service items were identified and rectified while the car was in for its annual oil change.

About 4 years ago I looked at a 3200 and rifled through the service history, in it I found a lone invoice (it was 3-pages stapled together) totalling £14,000(+). As far as I can tell it wasn't by any stretch a neglected car nor did it have a big mileage and none of the things listed on said invoice appeared to be a non-routine replacement part... although for the life of me I can't recall all the work done.

Needless to say that put me off. Yes, you can argue that it's a V8 Maserati, but I just don't think it's worth it. Perhaps in decades to come, rarity and the exotic pull may help these appreaciate, like the 60s ones - maybe not enough - but can't help these will languish due to cost to run.

[Equus]

geminik said:

Replacement of the thermostat 76,856 euro

I had a nasty shock there, until I remembered the European proclivity for using a comma instead of a decimal point!

I'm still impressed that they shave prices to a tenth of a cent, though.

[geminik]

Oups, about 65 quid

[sr.guiri]

CS Garth said:

More potential for things to go wrong than Jimmy Saville at a kid's birthday party

[greggy50]

Would rather spend an extra £500 on this to be honest.

The 4200 do seem to be great value and from what I have read are cheaper to run .

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...

[rplo08]

I had a manual one for four years - great fun but I did feel it was trying kill me most of the time . The throttle was more of an on/off switch than a graduated mechanism! It was however always going wrong. One time I took it to Magrath and spent 7k on it only for the warning lights to come on as I left the garage. I now have a Gransport which is a much more reliable but not as engaging.

[Jimbo.]

Equus said:

geminik said:

Replacement of the thermostat 76,856 euro

I had a nasty shock there, until I remembered the European proclivity for using a comma instead of a decimal point!

I'm still impressed that they shave prices to a tenth of a cent, though.

Given some of the costs these things can throw up, a figure like that at the bottom of the invoice wouldn’t be met with too much surprise!

[B17NNS]

DBRacingGod said:

Maserati 3200? Talk to me.

Sell me