A Curve Ball

The Angry Welshman said:
all 2nd hand cars can go wrong.... and why not diesel?

Jaguar is also in my thought process too, but at the moment the Mazza is winning
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It depends what your priorities are really, and what you want out of the car.

Diesel has some pluses, but drawbacks are lack of refinement, not silky smooth like some petrols, a lack of responsiveness as less revvy, so a lack of excitement, and a lack of nice engine sound. Generally diesels aren't known for optimum driving experience by enthusiasts.
 
Jaguar XF would be a similar to look at with better reliability and nicer driving experience.

The Maserati has some design quirks, there have been videos by James May lamenting the car's poor usability in some areas, e.g. infotainment. It all adds up to a less satisfying driving experience.
 
Journey said:
Diesel Particulate Filter - it'll likely get clogged and fail if doing loads of short trips than constitute 60 miles per week.
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Thing is someone doing a lot of short journeys probably won't put the mileage on it to kill the DPF - someone else buying it later down the line might not thank them for it though.

Some problematic vehicles aside (like some Range Rovers) the DPF will probably still do around 50K miles without a proper regen before topping itself.

The more likely issue is EGR problems or generally the engine getting a bit sooty and reducing MPG and feeling a bit laggy - even though I put a fair bit of mileage on my diesel vehicles my regular use is probably borderline conditions for a diesel - I can definitely notice the difference after I say do a couple of 100+ mile motorway trips and for awhile the MPG will jump up 5-10% on my regular runs compared to normal and the vehicle run a bit smoother/more responsive.
 
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According to the ad it's been maintained at a Ferrari dealership. I'm pretty sure that the costs for this would be eye watering. It may be an 9K car, but I would not be surprised if a service at a Ferrari dealership was around £2.5k, so that's why myself and others are saying it's not a cheap car to run, but maybe you've allowed for that. I would do a bit of research into Maserati maintenance costs before making your mind up.
 
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radderfire said:
According to the ad it's been maintained at a Ferrari dealership. I'm pretty sure that the costs for this would be eye watering. It may be an 9K car, but I would not be surprised if a service at a Ferrari dealership was around £2.5k, so that's why myself and others are saying it's not a cheap car to run, but maybe you've allowed for that.
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In this respect the costs will depend quite a lot on what you can do yourself and what is available to you independent specialist wise, etc.

One of the problems with a less common cars and brands like that is parts availability and cost - often they do use parts from a more common car but that fact is not common knowledge so you'll get rinsed for it :s (as tends to happen with brands like Infiniti).
 
Rroff said:
Thing is someone doing a lot of short journeys probably won't put the mileage on it to kill the DPF - someone else buying it later down the line might not thank them for it though.

Some problematic vehicles aside (like some Range Rovers) the DPF will probably still do around 50K miles without a proper regen before topping itself.

The more likely issue is EGR problems or generally the engine getting a bit sooty and reducing MPG and feeling a bit laggy - even though I put a fair bit of mileage on my diesel vehicles my regular use is probably borderline conditions for a diesel - I can definitely notice the difference after I say do a couple of 100+ mile motorway trips and for awhile the MPG will jump up 5-10% on my regular runs compared to normal and the vehicle run a bit smoother/more responsive.
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i do what i class as 1 proper journey a week, thats to the office ( i have to attend once a week) thats a circa round trip of 40miles. Then after that its the odd trip to to asda/aldi/lidl which are all just a mile away from the house. i say odd trip as i do my weekly shop on the return home from the office
 
The Angry Welshman said:
a car with circa 90k on the clock in 10yrs in the UK is not a fair weather car.....lets be honest
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I didn't see that but. I thought you were talking about the 90s Ghibli.

I didn't even know they made a diesel. Not sure I see the appeal in that to be honest. Seems to have a lot of the downsides in maintenance costs etc with none of the upsides other than looks.

I'd still be concerned about winter use in a 10+ year old Italian car it you want to keep it in good condition, which I imagine you do, as image is the only logical reason I can see that justified this idea. For the bulk of the past it will presumably have been maintained like a £100k of whatever car a d it was new so had less wear. It'll get increasingly harder to keep rust at bay and itll be difficult to justify the maintenance costs when it's worth pence!

At least the V8 model has the engine to redeem itself.

You seem dead set on it though so good luck to you!
 
The Angry Welshman said:
So im 50 in a fews months time and im looking at a Maserati Ghibli as a nice birthday pressie.
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How high do you sit in the seat? I'm tall and many years ago I took a Ghibli for a test drive which lasted perhaps a minute before I discovered that the mirror mounting assembly blocked too much of my vision when the car was even slightly pointing downhill.
 
jellybeard999 said:
I didn't see that but. I thought you were talking about the 90s Ghibli.

I didn't even know they made a diesel. Not sure I see the appeal in that to be honest.

I'd still be concerned about winter use in a 10+ year old Italian car it you want to keep it in good condition, which I imagine you do, as image is the only logical reason I can see that justified this idea. For the bulk of the past it will presumably have been maintained like a £100k of whatever car a d it was new so had less wear. It'll get increasingly harder to keep rust at bay and itll be difficult to justify the maintenance costs when it's worth pence!

You seem dead set on it though so good luck to you!
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So yuo didnt know they made a diesel, its not for to judge the appeal to others.... the car brand new was circa £48k, so not sure why you have put 100k

Winter driving and rust really...its a car, its not going to be sat in a showroom for people to pur over. As for maintenance costs thats the same for all cars.

not sure i can take the post seriously with all good intentions, sorry
 
Quartz said:
How high do you sit in the seat? I'm tall and many years ago I took a Ghibli for a test drive which lasted perhaps a minute before I discovered that the mirror mounting assembly blocked too much of my vision when the car was even slightly pointing downhill.
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im not that tall, around 5ft 9 and do like to sit nice and comfortably and not too up right in the seat
 
I’ve looked at these in the past, but ultimately they are a tough sell. They’ve generally been new-ish ones, and had already started to look a bit worn out.

Yes, they look interesting and have a cool badge, but unfortunately the fun stops there.

The diesel engine is a cheap unit sourced from Jeep, it’s very laggy. It sounds ok thanks to speakers in the exhaust (but these can fail). The petrol V6 engine is far superior, it’s actually assembled by Ferrari and sounds great. It’s nothing too complex so shouldn’t have too many problems. I’d strongly advise you to look there, but just keep in mind you’ll be doing well to get over 20mpg.

The overall build quality feels like a cheap car, a lot of the switches and things are from cheap Chevrolet models.

Reliability is all over the place, but running costs and parts are very expensive for what isn’t actually a performance car. For example, a main dealer will charge you around £5,000 for a set of new discs and pads. You can obviously have this done more cheaply but it will still be expensive.

If the car appeals because it’s sub £10k and a bit tired, just bear in mind you could end up throwing many more thousands at it keeping it running.
 
Sounds like you've made your mind up to be honest, let us know how it goes.
 
tom_e said:
Sounds like you've made your mind up to be honest, let us know how it goes.
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i actually havent.... i still got a few months before i need to decide. which is why im asking for real world opinions on the actual car and people who my have bought, driven or test drove one
 
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The Angry Welshman said:
i actually havent.... i still got a few months before i need to decide. which is why im asking for real world opinions on the actual car and people who my have bought, driven or test drove one
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I should think there wouldn't be too many diesel Ghibli owners on the forum really. Your best bet might be something like an owners group on facebook or similar (There's usually an owners group, and you'll get a lot more knowledge there)
 
What's the point of a Maserati if it has the same Fiat developed Diesel as used in a Jeep Cherokee?

Ferrari engine or no point - it's not like it's a particularly beautiful car, so all it's really got going for it is that you can say "I drive a Maserati"
 
Does a diesel Maserati have any redeeming features at this price point to offset the running cost risks besides the badge?

Odd purchase, especially for low mileage usage where you barely even see the difference in fuel costs.
 
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