How much on average should one budget on maintaining their Maserati

Hi All,

Second thread from me. Excited at the prospect of Maserati ownership, but I want to make sure I'm not deluding myself as to how costly it might be as I've never owned an exotic car before.

From my brief research it sounds like an annual budget of around £1500 to maintain the car is a good average. Would that be fair, barring any major problems arising ?

I'm fully aware that these cars are expensive to maintain, and I'm also aware of the importance of buying one that has been well looked after without skimping on maintenance costs.

Thanks all !

Buy a really good one, it's far cheaper in the long term, and likely always worth more

I think you’ll be fortunate to stay under £1500 year. It only takes one thing that needs attention, and lets face it, parts are fairly expensive, and you’re looking at a £2000-3000 bill. My GT is considered in pretty decent condition and has had a lot of work done to it. Despite that, my recent service was £2500.
Think I’d double your annual figure to £3000 to be comfortable.

Bebs said:

I think you’ll be fortunate to stay under £1500 year. It only takes one thing that needs attention, and lets face it, parts are fairly expensive, and you’re looking at a £2000-3000 bill. My GT is considered in pretty decent condition and has had a lot of work done to it. Despite that, my recent service was £2500.
Think I’d double your annual figure to £3000 to be comfortable.

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Wow !.... Okay. Maybe I need to wake up an smell the coffee. Thanks for the reality check.

Bebs said:

I think you’ll be fortunate to stay under £1500 year. It only takes one thing that needs attention, and lets face it, parts are fairly expensive, and you’re looking at a £2000-3000 bill. My GT is considered in pretty decent condition and has had a lot of work done to it. Despite that, my recent service was £2500.
Think I’d double your annual figure to £3000 to be comfortable.

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And would you say a QP needs to be serviced annually or only once every two years ? I've seen some examples for sale that would suggest servicing was only carried out once every two years.
My annual mileage is only around 5k, so wondering if that is a factor. I'm aware it's never a good idea to drive a car on very old oil, so would probably do an oil service annually in any case.

It is very dependent what is your starting point and what are you after.

A late ghibli may be something relatively easy to live with and may well match your service budget. On the other end a 10-20yr old maserati with a ferrari sourced V8 ferrari will need more TLC but will also be more special.

A cheaper car to buy may be so for a reason and unless you are able to do mechanical work yourself it could prove to be uneconomical.

Are you looking for a car to passing mot and generally be available or something robust and dependable to take you for a long journey.

nuvolablue said:

And would you say a QP needs to be serviced annually or only once every two years ? I've seen some examples for sale that would suggest servicing was only carried out once every two years.
My annual mileage is only around 5k, so wondering if that is a factor. I'm aware it's never a good idea to drive a car on very old oil, so would probably do an oil service annually in any case.

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Every 2 years would be fine with 5K a year. It’s the unexpected you’ll need to budget for.. and there are usually always some with a 10-15 year old Maserati.
The gearbox potentiometer just went on mine, £600 part and gearbox lowered to replace, 4 hours labour, so that’s a £1000. 2 new front tyres, £500. Etc.
As other have said, buy the best you can can, that way you have a reasonable chance of keeping the bills down. A PPI by a specialist is essential. It is very easy to drop £5+K on a car that turns out to have a few issues.

It also depends on the age car you’re considering.
Servicing is one thing - relatively cheap.
It’s the rebuilding / restoration that’s the big cost.
All the usual old car issues, rotten subframes, worn suspension, rust brake pipes, leaky heater cores, F1 system issues, variators worn, ac condensers leaking etc etc. plus the obvious worn out clutch if applicable. All the parts with Maserati tax.

As above buy a good one but still expect the odd big bill

If you look after yourself it can be done for sensible money which in my position with a 20yr old motor is the right choice.
Also having seen some of the incredibly poor yet very expensive workmanship by a specialist (my project 4200) it proves this point.

The cost will be what you are prepared to spend PA.

If its a QP then you are talking about 2 year service intervals, but that is just the start/minimum. It will come with other cost IF you want it to be worth something come resale.

Bebs is close to the money on c£3k per annum, you may have years when it is less, but then any 'saving' will be spent the next.

Take a look at Eurospares to see the cost of simple parts. A broken headlight may cost over a grand for example.

There are many 'cheap' maserati for sale, usually from some poor sap who thought he could run one on the same budget as a Mondeo.

When I bought my GT a year ago it had a PPI resulting in £2k of work by the seller. Since then it has been reliable, however, there are always bills coming up.

Agree... my 'new to me' GT last year, despite only c24k on the clocks needed £3k of work... the one I had PPI before that with just 16k miles needed close to £8k to bring it up to a standard befitting it's milage.

safrane said:

Agree... my 'new to me' GT last year, despite only c24k on the clocks needed £3k of work... the one I had PPI before that with just 16k miles needed close to £8k to bring it up to a standard befitting it's milage.

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Going off piste slightly, but what work was needed at the quoted £8k?

Pretty sure on average I've spent around £1500 £2000 PA *max* And that would include things like tyres and pads. There's a *huge* difference between what one might call 'functional' maintenance and, perhaps, 'preservative' maintenance

C

I just did a spreadsheet of my costs so far with my current 2013GT Sport.
I've owned it 4 years and 3 months and do 5-6k miles a year.

Service costs (carried out by a respected indy) = £3107 This includes Two bi-annual services, brake pads, two tyres, Underseal, windscreen wipers

Repair costs= £1833 This is parts only, as I do all the repairs myself. Includes two wheel bearings, two parking sensors, brake pipe repair, rear brake caliper, door striker, headlight support bracket, chassis plates, new battery, Secondary air system non-return valve.

So Total of £4940. Divide that by 4 years = £1235 per year. But bear in mind that if you don't do the diagnostic/repair work yourself, I imagine that can easily double.
So I would say estimate at least £2k per year.

There has also been £4808 spent voluntarily on mods, again parts only as I do the work myself - Wheels, Android Auto installation, spacers, x-pipe, caliper colour change, some carbon bits, braided brake lines, Launch x431 (for fault diagnosis and clutch setup etc..)

I'm about to layout again, as its service time once more, and although I could do it myself, I feel for re-sale you need to keep up the stamps in the book. Also good to have an expert eye look over it every couple of years.

Some really helpful advice here, thanks all for contributing. The estimates given here are pricey, but not jaw-dropping. I feel I'm at the point where I need to scratch the Maserati ownership itch. Fortunately I'm now of an age and position to be able to afford it (just about), and I don't want to get too much older .....Otherwise I'll be more suited to a Jag than a Maser !

Glad I've found this forum. Sounds like a lot more research will be worthwhile before pulling the trigger on a QP.

With a GT or a QP, the 2 year service interval works well. I do an annual oil change and tend to do some of the "preservative" things in the intervening year, between services. Its going to range between 2 and 3k. Some years good, some years bad, in cost terms. Every year good in terms of smiles per gallon.

Then you get a wheel bearing fail out the blue and that’s £1200 Inc vat out the window. Work on £3k pa but you may well end up spending a lot less if you buy a good one.

conaero said:

Work on £3k pa but you may well end up spending a lot less if you buy a good one.

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Or more if you don’t.

3k has always been the figure even when I had my 3200. Back then a medium service at a main dealer I was quoted £1600 so would not take much to get it up to 3k. Things do seem a bit better these days though with the independents and two year service intervals on the newer cars. I saw newer but wasn’t that bought in on QP’s and GT’s if that era ?

welcome, i had same concern about costs and even if I could afford one but i took the dive and never regretted it. I had two massive bills in 11yrs ownership but what an experience, the smile factor with the meet ups are great fun and the forum trips are fantastic.

As others have suggested put money aside for the big bills.
for me it was about £2-3k per year which include service, insurance, tax and tracker. you‘ll have other 2-3 year costs like tyres and the big services which can add another £2-3k.

main thing is to buget for big bills and if the figures work out, you’ll have a fantastic experience.

get the Mas checked and put on a good warranty for a yr or so.

best of luck…..

EnzoMC said:

get the Mas checked and put on a good warranty for a yr or so.

best of luck…..

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Thanks EnzoMC..... What's considered a good warranty?

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