Autocar Article on Used Gransport

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TimR

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Unreliable..? From what little I have learned about the Gransports, their age is a significant contributing factor with reliability problems. When they breakdown, it’s presumably pretty annoying as they often, it seems, won’t go in gear, or drive, which in turn quickly escalates into low loaders, and garage fees etc etc…
To say spare parts are why they are cheap is an odd assessment. Look at Europe. Same car. Same issues. ( except the rust) Significantly(?) higher prices…Perhaps I’m not appreciating the UK market context as well as I should…?
 
lozcb

lozcb

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TimR said:
Unreliable..? From what little I have learned about the Gransports, their age is a significant contributing factor with reliability problems. When they breakdown, it’s presumably pretty annoying as they often, it seems, won’t go in gear, or drive, which in turn quickly escalates into low loaders, and garage fees etc etc…
To say spare parts are why they are cheap is an odd assessment. Look at Europe. Same car. Same issues. ( except the rust) Significantly(?) higher prices…Perhaps I’m not appreciating the UK market context as well as I should…?
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There are significant numbers produced of this model whether it be 4200/gransport/spiders , surely it would be worth some enthusiastic Turkish/eastern European generic parts manufacturer to buy up the moulds/engineering tech to reproduce some of the more crucial parts that will be required ..........thats if Maserati are willing to let go of the manufacturing rights
 
HTAFC4200

HTAFC4200

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lozcb said:
There are significant numbers produced of this model whether it be 4200/gransport/spiders , surely it would be worth some enthusiastic Turkish/eastern European generic parts manufacturer to buy up the moulds/engineering tech to reproduce some of the more crucial parts that will be required ..........thats if Maserati are willing to let go of the manufacturing rights
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Let's face it, I'd guess a majority of these cars have done next to no mileage and their owners most likely enthusiasts who want to keep them.

It's parts supply that causes problems.

Surely as a historic and niche brand, Maserati would want to see more of their cars and their heritage on the road?

Not everyone who owns a Maserati is able to replace with a MC20 etc so they wouldn't be hindering new car sales.
 
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TimR

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Mmm…luv ‘em or hate them, I don’t think you could accuse Maserati of being precious about their cars. The impression I have is that they’d rather you bought a new car.
I have mixed feelings about it. It does go against the grain a bit but I sort of find the attitude refreshing in a way…!
I had’nt stopped to think that licensing of remanufactured parts maybe a significant issue, preferring to tell myself that demand needs to reach a kind of critical mass before anyone in their right mind would feel like getting into it.
Its still relatively low volume production, and all that it means for spares availability…
 
lozcb

lozcb

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Maserati has a long history of producing cars in low numbers ( and also shooting itself in the foot once success has been gained ) , its only the success it achieved since the revival by Ferrari of the 3200/4200 that Maserati finally ventured into the mass market with the Granturismo and Quattroporte models and subsequent from 2013 onwards , moving away from the Ferrari derived V8 IMHO was a big mistake , Venturing and placing too many of their eggs into the Asian market i think personally will eventually back fire on them .........they ought in my view stick to what they do best , moving into the mass market will not bode well. Its too expensive a purchase to be part of the throw away disposable market and customers will soon realise that and will have seconds thoughts about returning to the brand once fingers have been burned through lack of serviceable parts to keep models on the road.
Saying that , once the manufacturing rights have been released , Turkish/eastern European parts manufacturers are masters at reproducing small batch numbers for niche markets ............so hopefully someone will take up that banner soon to keep us all on the road that little bit longer
 
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