GranTurismo Running Costs

[Funkstar De Luxe]

I'm now in the market for a GranTurismo (specifically 2009ish MC Shift, 4.7).

I'm told stories of 2k per annum running costs, which is high, but manageable considering how much we'd love the car.

My question is, specifically WHAT is that 2k being spent on? How frequently are expensive parts dropping off these cars? I don't give a f about resale value, so I intend to do all my own servicing - likely yearly, regardless of what Maserati recommend. I'll also get myself the appropriate dealer tool device. My intention is to keep it long term

[Funkstar De Luxe]

tokyo_mb said:

I have a 2015 MC Stradale. I don't add up the running costs as that would spoil the pleasure, but I can get to £2k a year relatively quickly. Remember these are £100k cars and the parts costs reflect that, not the very reasonable prices that they can be bought for after a few years and tens of thousands of miles

The rough numbers below are guesstimates based on what I have seen/experienced. Others more knowledgeable may correct me on some of the specifics, but if you go in with your eyes open you will not get a nasty shock later.

Annual costs	Description
£695	Road tax
£lots	As many miles as you do at no more than 20mpg (you might do better than this, but probably won't)
£750-£1,000	Servicing, every 2 years, but you probably want to do an oil change more regularly; major service is every 4 years (every second service). This annual cost assumes you use an independent and you don't do some of the more expensive/more optional things every major service (e.g. Lambda sensors)

Periodic costs	Frequency	Description
£4,500	roughly every 40k miles provided driven sensitively	Clutch, if an MC Shift (F1 gearbox, indicated by 1/R buttons and absence of automatic gear lever) car
£450	every 2-3 years, more frequent if alignment not right (which it often isn't)	Tyres front - based on Michelin Pilot Sport 4S
£700	every 2-3 years	Tyres rear - based on Michelin Pilot Sport 4S
£1,250	Maybe once every 4-5 years.	Wheel bearing replacement when ABS sensor fails - which they do. Symptoms being warning lights ABS / ESC / parking brake off. The warning lights could just be low battery voltage, but if they persist once that is fixed it is likely to be a failing ABS sensor, which necessitates replacement of the whole hub assembly.
£1,500	Assume one every 3-5 years	Front suspension kit. These are big, heavy cars and the bushes fail necessitating replacement of arms as a whole.
c.£750	Assume one every 5-6 years	Rear suspension kit/bushes.
£ multiple thousands	c.10 years	Subframe repair or replacement if you/previous owners haven't kept up on rust prevention. More likely on an older car such as that you are considering. Do get a pre-purchase inspection from someone knowledgeable if you don't want a nasty surprise.
£ ?	Periodically	Paint. After several thousand miles you will get some road rash on the wheel arches, front grill strakes etc. which you will likely want to get sorted periodically.

This ignores all the other stuff I could have mentioned: new batteries, brake discs and pads, wheel refurbs etc. Obviously if you can do elements of your own servicing the costs would come down, and if you use a main dealer they would go up considerably.

This was excellent, thank you so much! Not as bad as I was expecting to be fair, although 40k miles clutch changes are a shock to me.

[Funkstar De Luxe]

Some amazing info on here lads, thank you so much.

The car I was looking at, I was unable to get a response from the dealer. I could have called, but the fact that they failed to respond to a couple of mails is enough to put me off that example.

So what I’m looking for now is a 2011 or newer GranTurismo S with MCShift. My plan is to maintain it myself (as much as is possible) and to keep it very long term.

Shame the dealer software is so difficult to get a hold of. I’ll keep digging in that area

[Funkstar De Luxe]

corradokid said:

Just to also note, I’ve just purchased mine which is a 2009 GTS. Over the past 5 years/10 thousand miles the previous owner spent circa 14 thousand in maintenance. That didn’t include the major one which is a clutch, and I’m now budgeting for. So the big bills are real. It was also purchased by him from the renowned specialist you will hear about so not exactly a dog to start with.

I’ve got to say, it does sound like it was at least a bit of a dog 😂

[Funkstar De Luxe]

m4tti said:

Why would you think it’s a dog? It simply cost money to run and service at an independent. Sounds like it’s had a lot of work done, which is good.

You’re not going to Euro car parts and doing this cheap.. even the compatible oem parts will be expensive. Look on euro spares.

A lot of these parts are shared with the Ferrari 360/430. I’ve tried to reference the Maserati part instead of Ferrari and a lot of the time it’s no cheaper…

Sounds like it spent more time in the shop than the road. 14k over 5 years (not even including the major clutch service) says that the owner was obviously having problems with it all the time. I don’t care too much about the cost, I care that it’s not a car that’s always needing something. Sharing Ferrari parts is not an excuse, there’s nothing magical about putting something on a Ferrari.

[Funkstar De Luxe]

m4tti said:

Roughly 3k a year… which could be skewed on certain years, with a couple of big bills, sounds quite feasible.

You need to be aware these cars aren’t like a Mercedes.. it could be needing something quite regularly.

Expensive maintenance is fine. “Needing something quite regularly” is not. My brain can’t and won’t comprehend a car being unable to run 12 months without it “needing something” doing.

My plan is essentially to buy one and to run it daily, and until it’s worthless or dead. If a GT really can’t manage a year without needing repair it’s most definitely not for me. I don’t want a garage queen, I wanted something I can use and pound the miles on. Not something I worry won’t start every morning

[Funkstar De Luxe]

I should point out that an average £3k per year” without it including the big clutch service is what tells me something is wrong.

I bet that car has cost £1 per mile in maintenance alone. And how long is it out of the owners hands during that time too? If that’s a realistic state of affairs the “GranTurismo” is really the wrong name for it. “Regina del Garage” doesn’t quite have the same ring.

[Funkstar De Luxe]

Edit, maybe I sound a bit too grumpy here. I’m just disappointed that it seems highly unlikely that I can use this as a daily driver. I’ll have a sleep on it.

[Funkstar De Luxe]

will-w said:

I think you might need to manage your expectations a little bit - the GT is still a hand made car with a highly strung Italian heart - she will cost you money to run, there’s no two ways about it.

Service intervals are 12.5k miles or 2 years, whichever is sooner. If you’re doing more than 6k a year then you’ll be looking at an annual service of between £800 and £1,300.

I appreciate you say that you plan on doing most servicing yourself - great - however it will have a significant impact on the resale value of the car when you do decide you’ve had enough and want to sell it, as no one will want to buy it.

That’s a pretty standard service interval - in fact it much higher than I’d expected.

To be honest, I don’t consider resale of anything I buy. Rule of thumb is that the money spent on a car is gone.

[Funkstar De Luxe]

Also, I don’t think the GranTurismo is hand made. I don’t even think it’s hand assembled. They’ve built nearly 40k.

Not that that’s an excuse for frequent repair.

[Funkstar De Luxe]

I’d like to know more about the sub frames. I find it crazy that a ~10 year old car with 50k on it has a rotten sub frame. Wouldn’t even expect that from a Dacia.

What’s the failure mode?

Also, the wheel bearings are unavailable?! They 100% will not be unique to the GT. Surely no bearing manufacturer would produce such a small run of unique bearings.

[Funkstar De Luxe]

Funkstar De Luxe said:

I’d like to know more about the sub frames. I find it crazy that a ~10 year old car with 50k on it has a rotten sub frame. Wouldn’t even expect that from a Dacia.

What’s the failure mode?

Also, the wheel bearings are unavailable?! They 100% will not be unique to the GT. Surely no bearing manufacturer would produce such a small run of unique bearings.

Here, in this post, we see a man desperately trying to fool himself into parting with his hard earned money to buy a Maserati 😂