Ghibli diesel on a shoestring budget

Fredfox

New Member
Messages
11
I need a new car and for my £30k budget I was looking at a BMW for my daily driver with an annual 25K mileage. Until I stumbled across a 2014-2015 Ghibli diesel or two in my budget and after a test drive I was immediately smitten. However, despite a main dealer salesman telling me services where £400 and £700 recurring, I spoke to the service department and it is more like £800/£1000, brakes are also very expensive. Looks like independents are a little lower but still a rather daunting prospect for me for a diesel saloon. I wondered if I could call upon the experience of you guys for some advice please? Is a warranty a must on a used example? Anyone experienced a third party warranty worth more than the paper it is written on? Can these be serviced on a budget? I'm thinking I can't afford to run one but I like them so much I was hoping there might just be way. I live in Essex if that makes any difference to possible service locations.
 

P R

Member
Messages
1,382
The services are around 800 to 1k. The brakes are indeed expensive and the difficulty is finding the right size etc.. (theres no way they are bespoke). Warranties are in the region of 3k for 2 years and i found main dealer and third party were similarly priced (so i didnt bother)
Mine just passed 60k and its been great. Reliability wise too, the only real thing is a jamming sat nav which im still waiting for them to replace.
In short theyre reliable but part prices are expensive
 

MrMickS

Member
Messages
3,951
I've got a petrol S rather than the diesel and my services so far have been £400 and £900 or so. I expect the next one to be on the expensive side. Brakes were a bit more expensive that I was expecting, but I got fronts and rear pads done at the same time as the tracking so that made it a single big bill. I blame my use of the brakes for that ;) You do need to be prepared for everything to cost a little more than you'd expect though and budget accordingly.

I'm just over £36k miles and reliability hasn't been an issue. I've just come back from a three week, 3125 mile, trip to Italy and the car was faultless. I've got to the point where I just expect things to work.
 

Fredfox

New Member
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11
Thanks very much for the reply MrMickS. Good to hear another user has experienced a reliable car.
 

GeoffCapes

Member
Messages
14,000
I've an E Class Merc 350 AMG, and the last service I had was £700 so it's not a million miles away from Maserati.

If you want the badge, you have to expect a little higher than the norm in servicing.
There are some great Indies near Essex to get the work done though, such as Giallo or AV Engineer (both in Kent) and I would recommend them both.
 

Fredfox

New Member
Messages
11
Thanks to everyone who responded. Reliabilty appears to be better than I thought but running costs are as expected. I decided to take a punt. One I had my eye on dropped in price and I bought it. Looking forward to picking it up on Saturday.
 

outrun

Member
Messages
5,017
Thanks to everyone who responded. Reliabilty appears to be better than I thought but running costs are as expected. I decided to take a punt. One I had my eye on dropped in price and I bought it. Looking forward to picking it up on Saturday.

Great news, welcome to the adventure. They're very good and certainly have something special over the other choices.
 

iainw

Member
Messages
3,386
Thanks to everyone who responded. Reliabilty appears to be better than I thought but running costs are as expected. I decided to take a punt. One I had my eye on dropped in price and I bought it. Looking forward to picking it up on Saturday.

Fantastic. You won't regret it. Let us know how you get on- and post photos!
 

keith

Member
Messages
624
I have had my Ghibli Diesel for a little over two years and its been more or less completely reliable. The sound from the exhaust in Sport mode is great, and the 600nm torque makes for impressive performance.
Finally considering its just an E class or 5 Series rival the positive comments from passers by is surprising. When you tell people you have a Maserati they think of a car costing £100k plus!!
 

Wack61

Member
Messages
8,764
Maserati on a shoestring... what could possibly go wrong?

I bought mine on a shoestring and apart from a couple of minor issues it's been fine , still starts and goes , I do realise it's a whole different world when 30k is considered a shoestring budget though :D

The difference with mine is if something really expensive went bang and it wasn't economical to fix it I might lose 5k , same as buying a new fiesta after a year
 

MrMickS

Member
Messages
3,951
Well done! As people have said, we need pictures :)

That said I didn't post any of mine at the time, though there have been quite a few since.
 

Fredfox

New Member
Messages
11
It's good to hear from you all.
Well, picked it up yesterday and love it. A couple of pics as promised


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