maserati 4200 good or bad idea
Discussion
been looking for a while now mainly at db7s ,but keep straying over to the maser forum , they seem to be great value compared to the db7 10 k cheaperso going to take a look at a couple in the next few days one manual one cc.
what should i look for and am i doing the wright thing thinking of one of these or will it bleed me dry in a short space of time
what should i look for and am i doing the wright thing thinking of one of these or will it bleed me dry in a short space of time
I was looking at a 4200 CC a while ago and was very impressed with the car. It felt very well put together and was a good drive, although a bit too GT for my taste. I have heard that they are quite robust so assuming you buy carefully and have a reasonable maintenance budget, they shouldn't be too hard on the wallet.
Works for me. Genuinely seats 4, sounds nice, nice inside, and servicing not too bad via independents. Power steering is over assisted though, so no real feedback - certainly compared to a TVR. But as a GT/daily driver/family car/high days and holidays car it's pretty much unbeatable at the price. I did look at Astons before buying mine, of a 456, or an SL, and even toyed with getting a Cerbera again. But no regrets with the 4200 - right choice for me at least.
Hi,
My 2p worth.... I have a gransport MC Victory, great car to drive fantastic noise.
The only downsides fuel consumption between 10-20 mpg, I find servicing quite expensive, but my previous car was a boxster.
Also you a get a few niggly electrical problems, eg mine sometimes gives a false dash light, resetting usually fixes it.
I have no regrets buying mine.
pete
My 2p worth.... I have a gransport MC Victory, great car to drive fantastic noise.
The only downsides fuel consumption between 10-20 mpg, I find servicing quite expensive, but my previous car was a boxster.
Also you a get a few niggly electrical problems, eg mine sometimes gives a false dash light, resetting usually fixes it.
I have no regrets buying mine.
pete
Lovely cars and if you buy well are incredibly good value and reliable. BUT, they must have been maintained properly and they must have been used regularly. Had mine for 2 years and it was an occasion every time I got in to it. I drove mine almost as a daily driver with no problems at all. Mechanically they are robust but as mentioned above electrics can occasionally play up but usually reset themselves. So much more versatile than an Aston and just as good looking, if not better looking. Good luck.
I think only you can answer that after driving them.
I owned a GT but have had several CC's pass through my hands (I'm in the trade) and currently run a QP with CC box.
I went for the GT as having spent many years dealing in used Alfas I'd had some terrible experiences with Selespeed 147s and 156s which in principle is the same system albeit with different hardware. My theory was that at least with the manual there's only the clutch to go wrong and when it does you can drive round it. However in practice I found the manual to be obstsructive when cold, easy to wrong slot on fast up changes and in general a bit notchy - and yes I did have it adjusted twice. In it's defence I ran the same clutch for over 30K miles and the clutch itself was light and easy to moderate on hill starts.
My experience with CC's suggests that the later the car the better they are presumably due to software and hardware updates. I have had two occasions where I've had to replace the reverse toggle though. They can still be a pain when manoevering, especially reversing uphill. However I feel that with experience they can be more rewarding than the manual and from experience the market for the manual is very small and they can be hard to sell on - the flipside of this is that you should be able to pick one up for a lot less than a CC.
I owned a GT but have had several CC's pass through my hands (I'm in the trade) and currently run a QP with CC box.
I went for the GT as having spent many years dealing in used Alfas I'd had some terrible experiences with Selespeed 147s and 156s which in principle is the same system albeit with different hardware. My theory was that at least with the manual there's only the clutch to go wrong and when it does you can drive round it. However in practice I found the manual to be obstsructive when cold, easy to wrong slot on fast up changes and in general a bit notchy - and yes I did have it adjusted twice. In it's defence I ran the same clutch for over 30K miles and the clutch itself was light and easy to moderate on hill starts.
My experience with CC's suggests that the later the car the better they are presumably due to software and hardware updates. I have had two occasions where I've had to replace the reverse toggle though. They can still be a pain when manoevering, especially reversing uphill. However I feel that with experience they can be more rewarding than the manual and from experience the market for the manual is very small and they can be hard to sell on - the flipside of this is that you should be able to pick one up for a lot less than a CC.
I hankered for a manual one, but as I couldn't find one ended up with the CC. In retrospect it was the best choice, certainly for what I use the car for. I tend to leave it in auto but override and 'manually' down-shift before overtaking, before bends etc. There is a certain joy of just keeping your foot planted and snicking up through the box, plus I've other cars with 'proper' manuals if I need a fix of a stick-shift. Interestingly it's my least driven car but I've never gone for a non-existant gearchange lever...but conversely in the other cars quite often I've been coming up to bends or slowing for traffic and I unconciously go for a non-existing paddle!
When you're driving the CC, remeber it'll shift multiple gears pretty much instantly, so the typical move to 'squirt' past traffic is two quick clicks on the left then floor it. Don't wait for it to 'kick down', flick it down manually in advance of needing the lower gear. It will also give you some pretty effective engine braking too.
It's not perfect though - slow speed maneuvering is nothing like a conventional slush-box auto. It can be real jerky, and it also doesn't 'hold' on hills like a normal auto. Unless you're using the handbrake you have to hold the car on the brake with your left foot up until the clutch bites and you're off. This can result in much difficulty trying to get into a parking place on a steep hill. So I guess if you do lots of town driving/parking in a hilly area then there's a good arguement for the manual. But otherwise the CC is a real fun system to use.
It's also the first car I've had with traction control, and to be honest it's not up to much...but I can't compare it to anything else. You are typically off the gas in recovery-mode before the traction control catches up, and so at the point you want to put some power back on it's still keeping the power off. This all happens in fractions of seconds, but it's not that quick at picking up a loss of traction. I guess for folks that have never had a powerful RWD car before (a la TVR) it's a decent enough safety-net, but I find it a bit slow and intrusive. When I first got the car I always made a habit of switching it off, but given it always resets to on when you turn the ignition back on I've kind of given up now and just live with it. I presume the manual is the same in this respect.
When you're driving the CC, remeber it'll shift multiple gears pretty much instantly, so the typical move to 'squirt' past traffic is two quick clicks on the left then floor it. Don't wait for it to 'kick down', flick it down manually in advance of needing the lower gear. It will also give you some pretty effective engine braking too.
It's not perfect though - slow speed maneuvering is nothing like a conventional slush-box auto. It can be real jerky, and it also doesn't 'hold' on hills like a normal auto. Unless you're using the handbrake you have to hold the car on the brake with your left foot up until the clutch bites and you're off. This can result in much difficulty trying to get into a parking place on a steep hill. So I guess if you do lots of town driving/parking in a hilly area then there's a good arguement for the manual. But otherwise the CC is a real fun system to use.
It's also the first car I've had with traction control, and to be honest it's not up to much...but I can't compare it to anything else. You are typically off the gas in recovery-mode before the traction control catches up, and so at the point you want to put some power back on it's still keeping the power off. This all happens in fractions of seconds, but it's not that quick at picking up a loss of traction. I guess for folks that have never had a powerful RWD car before (a la TVR) it's a decent enough safety-net, but I find it a bit slow and intrusive. When I first got the car I always made a habit of switching it off, but given it always resets to on when you turn the ignition back on I've kind of given up now and just live with it. I presume the manual is the same in this respect.
I think the comments above are fair, on the open road the CC is a great way to go but for me it was simply not good enough in town or stop start traffic. My manual version changed gear without any real problem and found it to be a really good box, it is I believe the same Getrag box as used by BMW in the E39 M5, so no problem with the box itself.
I had no problem selling my one on and there are less things to worry about with the manual as the CC does have a propensity to eat F1 pumps and is heavier on clutch wear. Much will depend on how and where you drive the car but for me I would have another manual over the CC any day.
I had no problem selling my one on and there are less things to worry about with the manual as the CC does have a propensity to eat F1 pumps and is heavier on clutch wear. Much will depend on how and where you drive the car but for me I would have another manual over the CC any day.
Colossus said:
I think the comments above are fair, on the open road the CC is a great way to go but for me it was simply not good enough in town or stop start traffic. My manual version changed gear without any real problem and found it to be a really good box, it is I believe the same Getrag box as used by BMW in the E39 M5, so no problem with the box itself.
I had no problem selling my one on and there are less things to worry about with the manual as the CC does have a propensity to eat F1 pumps and is heavier on clutch wear. Much will depend on how and where you drive the car but for me I would have another manual over the CC any day.
Not sure how true those last two statements are.I had no problem selling my one on and there are less things to worry about with the manual as the CC does have a propensity to eat F1 pumps and is heavier on clutch wear. Much will depend on how and where you drive the car but for me I would have another manual over the CC any day.
Had my clutch wear read when I bought the car, 76% remaining. Had it read at the last service, seven years later and 20000 miles, 54% remaining. It really depends how you drive it!
F1 pump is almost always caused by the relay failing and leaving the pump running permanently, and anyway, there's a much cheaper fix for this now, use an Alfa Selespeed pump instead, it's a quarter of the price and identical.
To be honest, we'd be better off discussing religion/politics/offside rule, it really is impossible to say unless you at least driven, or better owned one!
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