Living with a Maserati GranTourismo

[Sixx]

Is there anyone out there who uses a GranTourismo as a main car. I am considering looking at one and will have access to other cars but I hate the idea of having the best car I have as the one I use least. I have heard various horror stories about reliability and a wife's friends husband told me that when he serviced his quatroporte and it needed the brakes relaxing he was looking at a £14k service bill. Having been stung with massive bills for my old GTR I don't want something that I can only do 2000 miles a year in because I live in fear of wearing anything out.

So my two questions:
Are the reliable enough to use everyday and guarantee that they will get me to the airport at 04:30 in the morning
Am I going to be paying more to service it than I am to buy it

[andymadmak]

Assuming the Gran Tourismo is not too different an ownership experience to my Spyder, I'd say they can be used every day. Indeed, from what I understand of it, regular use enhances reliability.
Servicing is best carried out by a dedicated indie rather than main dealer in my experience. Firstly cos its a darn sight cheaper, and secondly what you get charged for will actually have been done........
If its a CC gearbox then budget for a clutch every 12 - 18k miles though (especially if used in town a lot)

Andy

[w5pwr]

I use my GT S everyday, I am very impressed with the build quality and so far had no issues...

Does like to drink the fuel especially if you are stuck in traffic, much more relaxing drive than my 997T, although not as quick!

Since I had mine, I have only seen two over Maserati's GT/S, so round North Herts is quite a rare car!

I cannot comment on service costs, but the ball park figures I got from the dealer didn't seem to bad, although I was surprised by the cost of the tyres and being a heavy car, they can wear out quite quickly.....

Edited by w5pwr on Monday 1st August 18:58

[Sixx]

Thanks for the feedback - although the Nissan dealer told me my GTR would be cheap to service.... Until the bill came for 5.5k!

[Raja]

They are reliable to use everyday. I've run one for a year so far and bar when it snows its been fine in all other conditions. The car is huge though, and some car parks are a very tight fit.

As for getting to an airport in the early hours of the morning, the car is bloody loud and don't be surprised if you see flashing lights behind you.

Also, expect lots of positive attention and oh, you might as well buy shares in BP or Shell.

I doubt servicing and cost of replacement parts will be cheap. I've not run mine long enough to find out yet. I'm sure Evo did a buying guide on the granturismo recently. You might want to get hold of it.

[Pork]

Raja said:

I'm sure Evo did a buying guide on the granturismo recently. You might want to get hold of it.

They should probably be doing a selling guide - Harry Metcalfe's GT is currently for sale at Meridien.

[crostonian]

But he has replaced it with a GT S.

[DayTrader]

Sixx said:

Thanks for the feedback - although the Nissan dealer told me my GTR would be cheap to service.... Until the bill came for 5.5k!

What was that for? Oh, and never take it to a Micra dealer - use Litchfield's.

[pork911]

its far worse not to use it regularly

[Mike82]

tyres.... i just paid out for one on the rear and was shocked!! was more than double what a paid for one on the sagaris. Any tips for how much and where is best? Also, obviously depends how you drive but rough idea of what milage you can expect out of them? I saw one guy quote 3,500 miles! Only two months in and smiles per mile is off the scale, so far very happy and very impressed with my GT S (reaches for wood(still scared from tvr days)

[maser_spyder]

For tyres, the guys on the Maserati forums normally recommend Falkens rather than the factory fit Pirellis (I think?), basically the same performance, but cost 30-40% less.

The horror stories you hear are generally from people who's mother's uncle's milkman's pet dog had a Maserati Biturbo in the 80s and it cost them a fortune.

ACTUAL owners will normally give a very different story (as seen above).

[jamesparrett]

Pork said:

hey should probably be doing a selling guide - Harry Metcalfe's GT is currently for sale at Meridien.

and if you would like to purchase it, please get in touch! Joking aside, we do not see or hear of many horror stories but the cars in regular use are certainly the most reliable. Everyone who owns a Gran Turismo in any guise loves their car. That is enough for me to be confident when recommending them!

[jontysafe]

How does the GT-S compare drive wise to the 612? When I come to change I'll be looking at both. Already been to Meridien to look at a silver 612 F1 about 6 months ago but didn't like the PX offer!!

[Zippee]

maser_spyder said:

For tyres, the guys on the Maserati forums normally recommend Falkens rather than the factory fit Pirellis (I think?), basically the same performance, but cost 30-40% less.

The horror stories you hear are generally from people who's mother's uncle's milkman's pet dog had a Maserati Biturbo in the 80s and it cost them a fortune.

ACTUAL owners will normally give a very different story (as seen above).

That'll be the same people then who apout the horror stories on the TVR forums.
I'm hoping to change my TVR late next year and the GranTurismo is on my list to look at along with 996/997turbos, E92 M3s, SL55s and 360s. Seriously if I listened to all the doom mongers and horrors stories on the web I'd be changing for a micra. My research on all the above is running costs will be similar to my current TVR (2-3k pa, sometimes a lot less, other times more)

[tcant]

Mike82 said:

Only two months in and smiles per mile is off the scale, so far very happy and very impressed with my GT S (reaches for wood(still scared from tvr days)

My TVR experience was probably one of the worse, it got to a stage where I didn't want to drive it despite spending £££££££'s putting everything right. I sold it and bought a Maserati Gransport. The 'rumours' of poor build quality and unreliability are urban myth (certainly from the the 4200's onwards). I drive mine daily and it is fantastic. Having spoken to the guys who service mine, the Gran Turismo's are absolutely bullet proof with quality interiors and 'normal' servicing regimes. They had not had any horror stories with them.

I will definitely be going to the GTS for the next car.

[maser_spyder]

tcant said:

Mike82 said:

Only two months in and smiles per mile is off the scale, so far very happy and very impressed with my GT S (reaches for wood(still scared from tvr days)

My TVR experience was probably one of the worse, it got to a stage where I didn't want to drive it despite spending £££££££'s putting everything right. I sold it and bought a Maserati Gransport. The 'rumours' of poor build quality and unreliability are urban myth (certainly from the the 4200's onwards). I drive mine daily and it is fantastic. Having spoken to the guys who service mine, the Gran Turismo's are absolutely bullet proof with quality interiors and 'normal' servicing regimes. They had not had any horror stories with them.

I will definitely be going to the GTS for the next car.

Similar to me then.

The only thing I was budgeting for was a clutch. Tested at 76% on the first service six years ago, I've now done 20000 miles in the car, and was expecting a replacement in the very near future. Tested last month when it was serviced, and reading 55%, so not even close to needing replacement. I was pretty pleased with that.

The only thing that's been recommended for mine that's out of the ordinary is an engine mount, about £120 so hardly going to break the bank. Going to get it done when I get home, along with a good wash and polish.

The actual servicing costs are relatively high, around £1200 on average (based on 600 one year and 2000 the next, etc.), but that's surely to be expected for an italian exotic. It's also based on stuff like spark plugs, which you think of as being cheapy service parts. Yes, they are, but they cost about £10 each, plus vat, and there's eight of the buggers. That's a oner before you've even fitted them, so easy to see where the costs go.

[Mike82]

I love the tvr's but have to say my sag was a mare! great great car, but had it one year, went from 5000 to 9,500 miles and spent between 4-5,000 not inlcuding petrol!! as above i was worried to go out in and lost the enjoyment listening to every noise (difficult over the exhaust!) onwards and upwards with the GT S and hope it fairs better, as I say, so far so good (bar being causght out with a tyre). Cant wait for the weekend now!! trip north with a min of 2 tunnels! yes, I'm a kid!

[Colossus]

Have had my GT-S for just over 2 years now and covered 12,500 miles, with the last 2,500 over the last two weeks! I use it as my main car and it has been completely reliable in that time. It went in for its first service just before we went away, which cost about £1,200 including the dreaded VAT, which I didn't think was too bad for what is essentially a hand made exotic. I will also need two rear tyres very shortly but can't really complain given the mileage they have done but over £400 a tyre is not great!

The only issue I had when the car went in for servicing was the F1 clutch was very jerky when moving away from cold but was never a real problem after a bout 2 minutes of driving. The clutch was stripped a problem found and a new clutch was authorised by Maserati under warranty. At 10,000 miles the computer was saying it was 41% worn although I was also told that due to the fault this could not be taken as accurate. Either way I am happy to have a new clutch and the car drives so much better now as a result.

These are simply stunning cars that offer real every day useability but also provide a real sense of occasion every time you start it up. This coupled with very reasonable (relative to what it is) running costs makes it a stunning buy. Oh, it is also fantastic to drive!!

[Sixx]

Thanks for all the feedback guys - I am shocked that there are no horror stories. One of my wife friends husbands (getting tenuous there!) is supposed to have paid ¢14400 on his QP for break and disks, but they may have been carbon or ceramic, her knowledge had limits!

£400 for tyres I can live with - the GTR was costing me £526 and they wanted to replace them in pairs.

So thanks to everyone for taking the time to reply - I feel more confident that I did before.

Now I just need to decide if I go for a GT-S or a Vantage - I appreciate the flaming will now start

[LongLiveTazio]

What was the 5.5k bill for on the GT-R, out of interest? Seems to be a lot of defensive comments from people who rate the GT-R about its servicing costs (when compared with, say, a 911 Turbo), i.e. big bills are unusual/not the norm...