Thought it was about time to make a post as I’ve had my car for around 5 months now. The experience has been terrific and I’ve really fallen for its many charms. The car in question is an ’05 Coupe GT manual in Blu Nettuno with beige interior, a colour combination that I love.
As I live in Southern Germany I looked EU wide for the right car. I’d had my sights set on finding a facelift manual so I knew that it might take some time, but not the 6+ years it eventually took! Given that we were still deep in Covid restrictions back in May, there were quite a few challenges involved with completing the purchase from the owner and collecting the car. It ended up being a bit of an adventure.
The car has been relatively pampered over its life, although there are the usual small issues with a 16 y.o. used car. The PPI revealed one of the rear Skyhook dampers had a weep, a couple of fairly sizeable stone chips on the front bumper, one lightly kerbed rim and 7 year old Michelin Pilot Sport 3 tyres -> definitely time for those to be replaced. Unfortunately it is also afflicted with sticky buttons and I’m genuinely surprised at the deterioration of some of the appearance of the affected trim pieces and buttons given the car’s relatively low mileage. But this will have to be a winter job once the car is in hibernation.
During the purchase I was also lucky enough to get in touch with the service manager at the Maserati dealer where this car was serviced nearly all of its life, and he was very generous with his time answering emails and phone calls when he had nothing to gain from it personally. This definitely helped to give me additional confidence about the purchase. Also a quick shout out to Richard Grace who kindly gave me a few words of wisdom before I pulled the trigger.
So there it is, I’m definitely smitten and can’t wait for a chance to do some proper European road trips in it next year. I’ll save my questions and comments for the next post in the Technical section as although the car has been completely reliable so far, there have been a few instances of strange behaviour!
Cheers - Ross
As I live in Southern Germany I looked EU wide for the right car. I’d had my sights set on finding a facelift manual so I knew that it might take some time, but not the 6+ years it eventually took! Given that we were still deep in Covid restrictions back in May, there were quite a few challenges involved with completing the purchase from the owner and collecting the car. It ended up being a bit of an adventure.
The car has been relatively pampered over its life, although there are the usual small issues with a 16 y.o. used car. The PPI revealed one of the rear Skyhook dampers had a weep, a couple of fairly sizeable stone chips on the front bumper, one lightly kerbed rim and 7 year old Michelin Pilot Sport 3 tyres -> definitely time for those to be replaced. Unfortunately it is also afflicted with sticky buttons and I’m genuinely surprised at the deterioration of some of the appearance of the affected trim pieces and buttons given the car’s relatively low mileage. But this will have to be a winter job once the car is in hibernation.
During the purchase I was also lucky enough to get in touch with the service manager at the Maserati dealer where this car was serviced nearly all of its life, and he was very generous with his time answering emails and phone calls when he had nothing to gain from it personally. This definitely helped to give me additional confidence about the purchase. Also a quick shout out to Richard Grace who kindly gave me a few words of wisdom before I pulled the trigger.
So there it is, I’m definitely smitten and can’t wait for a chance to do some proper European road trips in it next year. I’ll save my questions and comments for the next post in the Technical section as although the car has been completely reliable so far, there have been a few instances of strange behaviour!
Cheers - Ross
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