Palmball
New Member
- Messages
- 268
I've been deliberating the decision for a few weeks on whether I was going to renew the warranty on my GT-S in September or whether I was going to cut dry and buy something else. One of the main factors in this thought process is the mileage that I'm doing (much more than what I was doing 6 months ago) - I'm putting on more than 1500 miles a month on the car which is not only very expensive in fuel but will ultimately kill the residuals.
Everytime I look or hear the car, any thoughts of changing it disappeared and I was preparing myself for the £2.5k cost for a one year warranty (I'd never consider keeping a car of this value without some kind of manufacturer-backed support). The problem is, having had a stream of German cars, I couldn't keep ignoring the fact that they are technically much better developed and engineered and for someone who is as fussy as I am, this matters more than maybe I appreciated.
What I can't deny is that owning the GT-S has been preferable to my 911 Turbo but it has never achieved the all round ability of my C63 AMG. Whilst the GT-S looks better (than any other car on the road IMO), arguably sounds better and it has a better image, in every other respect the AMG was the more satisfying car to own once you're in it and driving it (other than for posing of course!)
So my dilemma has been whether to return to the AMG fold or to stay with the Maserati and yesterday I made that decision and it's curtains for the GT-S as I bought a new car.
But I didn't buy another AMG and it's at this stage that Adam, I really do think you should look away or cover your eyes.
On considering what if any car I should replace my GT-S with, I obviously had the AMG in my favourite pile but there was a reason that I sold my pretty much perfect AMG last year and it's a reason that is the result of a fundamental engineering flaw in the car and which was present on both C63's I owed. This is something that has allegedly been fixed on the new facelift model but these, spec'd with what I'd want on them, come it at over £65k...and there are none of the exceptional subsidised offers that I got last time I bought an AMG. So, I wasn't going to buy a pre-facelift C63 as I'd had two before and got rid of them for a good reason (despite them being my favourite cars to date) and I wasn't prepared to pay the price for a facelift model.
I momentarily considered a 2011 GT-R and would probably have gone down that route had they been £10k cheaper....we all know they'll be there in 6 months so one of these will likely be my chariot of choice in the new year once they've got their first year depreciation out the way (lets face it, whatever I've bought will be lucky to last 6 months!)
So thinking back to the only car I've sold in the last 4 years for no apparent reason (i.e. there was nothing wrong with it and I just fancied a change), I was again drawn to.....and Adam, PLEASE CLOSE YOUR EYES NOW....an M3. Oh dear.
As I had a day off yesterday after getting back from holiday, I popped to my local BMW dealer and took a DCT one out for test drive. When it started up, it sounded like bag of nails. It looks like a pimped 3-series (funny that
). And inside it was very nicely made but a bit boring in design. But, settling into the great driving position, feeling the quality of all the controls and driving off with the immensely smooth and rapid DCT gearbox, my mind was made up before I'd left the car park of the dealer.
Maybe they've improved them since I owned my first one back in 2008 but I think the single biggest difference for me is the gearbox - my first one was manual which was notchy and the worst part of the car. The DCT is incredible and I can't believe I've got this far and not yet owned a car with a dual clutch transmission. It rids the car of it's main weakness which was the manual 'box and actually ends up being the most fantastic part of it's dynamic repertoire.
It instantly felt like a car with years more development over the GT-S and even with though my car has the MC Stradale suspension, my other half said that from the passenger seat the M3 felt so much flatter and more stable in corners and, I quote 'it makes that G-Force thing'.
So here I am giving up the looks and sounds of the Maserati and the power, sound and everyday usability of the AMG for the handling and gearbox in an M3. I feel like I should hang my head in shame but heres the twist - even after driving the M3 yesterday, I knew the C63 would be a better everyday car...that car has so much more instant power on tap, a much nicer cabin, better looks (subjective and my opinion of course) and much, much better refinement (the M3 was actually quite noisy in the wind/road noise and much worse than any car I've had since my last one).
What did surprise me though is just how much better the M3 does handle and how much better it's gearbox is....this I always knew but the course of time had diluted my memory of its superiority in the handling stakes somewhat. In the end though, it wasn't just about buying the better handling car as if I could have had a C63 for similar money, I would have done. But my ultimate goal is to get a new M5 within the next year so buying a new £65k+ car now was out of the question if I wanted this to happen.
The deal on the M3 closed it for me though...I'd decided after driving it that I'd settle for an M3 which would take me up to either owning that M5 or at least until a 2011 GT-R is more reasonable price. This would mean buying an M3 for less than £50k...and I wanted as newer model as I could get. In the end, I liked the colour combo of the one I drive as it was a bit different to the whites, blacks and greys....it's metallic red with bamboo (beige) interior so they did a deal on it. How about this....the car is 3 months old and spec'd to a list of £63k (it is fully loaded all the important options and has the 5 years service pack). It's done 2k miles. They had it up for £54,850 and I offered £49k. They accepted. I then negotiated on the finance by getting a quote from my usual finance supplier (Oracle finance...APR's normally around the 7% mark so very competitive) and which BMW swiftly beat by a cool £3k....they actually gave me a £3k deposit contribution on top of the £49k price. So, £63k list price just three months ago and now mine for £46k.
Yes, it'll still drop more money but it's at a price good enough for me to rack up the miles without too much worry, it's got free servicing and if I don't like it after a few months, I won't have blown a fortune.
I didn't trade in my GT-S as I thought I'd have a go at selling it privately. It's going up on Pistonheads in the next couple of hours and despite the stereo upgrades, suspension and wheels, it will be the cheapest GT-S MC Shift for sale (and yes, the vibrations are fixed). I'll give it a month and see if it sells otherwise I'll offer it back to a trader.
So, whilst it's been short lived I do actually enjoy the banter on here and hope I'm still welcome despite having one of those pesky (but annoyingly competent) German cars!
Everytime I look or hear the car, any thoughts of changing it disappeared and I was preparing myself for the £2.5k cost for a one year warranty (I'd never consider keeping a car of this value without some kind of manufacturer-backed support). The problem is, having had a stream of German cars, I couldn't keep ignoring the fact that they are technically much better developed and engineered and for someone who is as fussy as I am, this matters more than maybe I appreciated.
What I can't deny is that owning the GT-S has been preferable to my 911 Turbo but it has never achieved the all round ability of my C63 AMG. Whilst the GT-S looks better (than any other car on the road IMO), arguably sounds better and it has a better image, in every other respect the AMG was the more satisfying car to own once you're in it and driving it (other than for posing of course!)
So my dilemma has been whether to return to the AMG fold or to stay with the Maserati and yesterday I made that decision and it's curtains for the GT-S as I bought a new car.
But I didn't buy another AMG and it's at this stage that Adam, I really do think you should look away or cover your eyes.
On considering what if any car I should replace my GT-S with, I obviously had the AMG in my favourite pile but there was a reason that I sold my pretty much perfect AMG last year and it's a reason that is the result of a fundamental engineering flaw in the car and which was present on both C63's I owed. This is something that has allegedly been fixed on the new facelift model but these, spec'd with what I'd want on them, come it at over £65k...and there are none of the exceptional subsidised offers that I got last time I bought an AMG. So, I wasn't going to buy a pre-facelift C63 as I'd had two before and got rid of them for a good reason (despite them being my favourite cars to date) and I wasn't prepared to pay the price for a facelift model.
I momentarily considered a 2011 GT-R and would probably have gone down that route had they been £10k cheaper....we all know they'll be there in 6 months so one of these will likely be my chariot of choice in the new year once they've got their first year depreciation out the way (lets face it, whatever I've bought will be lucky to last 6 months!)
So thinking back to the only car I've sold in the last 4 years for no apparent reason (i.e. there was nothing wrong with it and I just fancied a change), I was again drawn to.....and Adam, PLEASE CLOSE YOUR EYES NOW....an M3. Oh dear.
As I had a day off yesterday after getting back from holiday, I popped to my local BMW dealer and took a DCT one out for test drive. When it started up, it sounded like bag of nails. It looks like a pimped 3-series (funny that
). And inside it was very nicely made but a bit boring in design. But, settling into the great driving position, feeling the quality of all the controls and driving off with the immensely smooth and rapid DCT gearbox, my mind was made up before I'd left the car park of the dealer.Maybe they've improved them since I owned my first one back in 2008 but I think the single biggest difference for me is the gearbox - my first one was manual which was notchy and the worst part of the car. The DCT is incredible and I can't believe I've got this far and not yet owned a car with a dual clutch transmission. It rids the car of it's main weakness which was the manual 'box and actually ends up being the most fantastic part of it's dynamic repertoire.
It instantly felt like a car with years more development over the GT-S and even with though my car has the MC Stradale suspension, my other half said that from the passenger seat the M3 felt so much flatter and more stable in corners and, I quote 'it makes that G-Force thing'.
So here I am giving up the looks and sounds of the Maserati and the power, sound and everyday usability of the AMG for the handling and gearbox in an M3. I feel like I should hang my head in shame but heres the twist - even after driving the M3 yesterday, I knew the C63 would be a better everyday car...that car has so much more instant power on tap, a much nicer cabin, better looks (subjective and my opinion of course) and much, much better refinement (the M3 was actually quite noisy in the wind/road noise and much worse than any car I've had since my last one).
What did surprise me though is just how much better the M3 does handle and how much better it's gearbox is....this I always knew but the course of time had diluted my memory of its superiority in the handling stakes somewhat. In the end though, it wasn't just about buying the better handling car as if I could have had a C63 for similar money, I would have done. But my ultimate goal is to get a new M5 within the next year so buying a new £65k+ car now was out of the question if I wanted this to happen.
The deal on the M3 closed it for me though...I'd decided after driving it that I'd settle for an M3 which would take me up to either owning that M5 or at least until a 2011 GT-R is more reasonable price. This would mean buying an M3 for less than £50k...and I wanted as newer model as I could get. In the end, I liked the colour combo of the one I drive as it was a bit different to the whites, blacks and greys....it's metallic red with bamboo (beige) interior so they did a deal on it. How about this....the car is 3 months old and spec'd to a list of £63k (it is fully loaded all the important options and has the 5 years service pack). It's done 2k miles. They had it up for £54,850 and I offered £49k. They accepted. I then negotiated on the finance by getting a quote from my usual finance supplier (Oracle finance...APR's normally around the 7% mark so very competitive) and which BMW swiftly beat by a cool £3k....they actually gave me a £3k deposit contribution on top of the £49k price. So, £63k list price just three months ago and now mine for £46k.
Yes, it'll still drop more money but it's at a price good enough for me to rack up the miles without too much worry, it's got free servicing and if I don't like it after a few months, I won't have blown a fortune.
I didn't trade in my GT-S as I thought I'd have a go at selling it privately. It's going up on Pistonheads in the next couple of hours and despite the stereo upgrades, suspension and wheels, it will be the cheapest GT-S MC Shift for sale (and yes, the vibrations are fixed
). I'll give it a month and see if it sells otherwise I'll offer it back to a trader.So, whilst it's been short lived I do actually enjoy the banter on here and hope I'm still welcome despite having one of those pesky (but annoyingly competent) German cars!
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