GranTurismo 1yr in - experience of a Newb!

schell70

Member
Messages
313
Thought this may help out any ‘newbs’ looking to buy a GT – it’s my experience of the 1st year of ownership with an indication of costs. Sorry it’s ended up being a bit of a novel…..

I’d been looking on and off for 1yr and then the financial stars aligned so I started to get serious! Looking to spend up to £25k there was a fair bit of choice but not really in the colour combo’s I wanted (black with black interior) – anyhow that soon went out the window.

I looked at a few but some things just weren’t right, either I didn’t get a good feeling because of details, or the seller/dealer was an ****!

Anyhow, something had been bugging me – the cheapest GT on sale at the time – it looked a little rough with an unpainted headlight washer cover and kerbed alloys but there was something honest about it and the dealer was a specialist in classic & sports although pure ‘Sales’.

Should you ever buy the cheapest car for sale! But buy the cheapest house in a good street – that works right? Oh, and it had been for sale for over 6 months, must be up for deal! Or there was something majorly wrong with it.

Well I called him up and after some chat and the honesty of it not being pristine, we did a deal on the phone including a PEx on my M135i subject to me viewing.

On viewing, it wasn’t actually too bad – it was clear that it had been used as a daily driver for most of its life and only recently become a garage queen. This I took as a good omen and with 83k on the clock and a full history it looked ok.

No sign of having its variator caps modified but I was already assuming I would need to do this at this price point.

Did I mention it was a 2008 in Grigio Alfieri with a RED, yes RED interior – so much for black/black

Well the deal was done with an extra £500 off because it only had one key – which gave a final price of £18,500 and with my BMW I only had to cough up £6000, not a bad entry to Maserati ownership.

Having bought it and then experienced the dreaded start up clatter after it had been left standing for a week or more (only a second or so) I then got it inspected by Matt – surely that’s the wrong way round right? Anyhow it could have been much worse – caught the front subframe just in time and a few niggles to sort out, plus I decided to have the end cap mod done as a precaution for the minor clatter.

So here is the damage for Year1:

Purchase Price £18,500 (Sept 2019)

Variator Cap Mod, 4 x wheel refurb, subframe & chassis corrosion protection, replace rear pads/droplinks/power steering hose, remove and refurb front & rear ARB’s, geometry plus associated extras. Oil & Filter, Brake Fluid & Coolant change.

£3,000 ish – Man maths already active!

So that I call my purchase total - £21,500

Now for the odds & sods:

Rear parking sensor £12 (Skoda part)

Custom made X-Pipe £200 fitted

Paint for parking sensor & headlight washer cover £24 (DIY)

Cabin filter £18 (DIY)

New Black centre caps for wheels from HR Owen £40 (DIY)

Pair of 2nd hand backboxes as one had a rattle £250 from Ebay

Sale of original centre box +£110

Insurance £520

Road Tax £575

Total running costs £1,529

Also, this is a partial daily driver so I can claim 2000 miles @ 45ppm for business use which makes it even better value.

Total mileage 4000 for the year (Le Mans Classic cancellation & Covid didn’t help that)

All in its pretty good – if you ignore insurance & road tax it’s peanuts!

True, I’m reasonably handy with a socket set and have fixed a few niggles myself (headlight washer not working, boot lid switch, superglued the mirror switch knob)

Soon it will need spark plugs @ £80 and an air filter @ £65 (will do myself) then next Service with Matt & crew not due till Feb 22

Now with the X-Pipe, it pops and bangs on the overrun and generally sounds great

So, yes - its affordable and great fun too – if you’re still thinking then DO IT!!

Note: I take no responsibility for one costing you a fortune – maybe I’m just lucky so far
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74690
 

hashluck

Member
Messages
1,515
Excellent write up and well played for budgeting for the inevitable work and getting it properly sorted.
 

Sam McGoo

Member
Messages
1,745
Well done! And good info for newbies.
At that entry point, it makes much sense to get handy with the spanners to make the maths work, as all the little niggles would add up otherwise.
And you've done right getting sportsitalia to do the big ticket and major service stuff to keep a good history.

Keep us updated as the mileage grows, I love hearing about the higher mileage cars and it hopefully gives people more confidence that these cars can do it.
In general buyers are really hung up on mileage when looking to buy these, but I'm sure it's due to the older massers reputation and that the QP5 and Granturismo was the turning point. (fingers crossed).
 

elan

Member
Messages
158
I am also just in to 1 year of ownership and loving it too.

That colour combination is nicer than black on black!
 

Gazcw

Member
Messages
7,696
Thought this may help out any ‘newbs’ looking to buy a GT – it’s my experience of the 1st year of ownership with an indication of costs. Sorry it’s ended up being a bit of a novel…..

I’d been looking on and off for 1yr and then the financial stars aligned so I started to get serious! Looking to spend up to £25k there was a fair bit of choice but not really in the colour combo’s I wanted (black with black interior) – anyhow that soon went out the window.

I looked at a few but some things just weren’t right, either I didn’t get a good feeling because of details, or the seller/dealer was an ****!

Anyhow, something had been bugging me – the cheapest GT on sale at the time – it looked a little rough with an unpainted headlight washer cover and kerbed alloys but there was something honest about it and the dealer was a specialist in classic & sports although pure ‘Sales’.

Should you ever buy the cheapest car for sale! But buy the cheapest house in a good street – that works right? Oh, and it had been for sale for over 6 months, must be up for deal! Or there was something majorly wrong with it.

Well I called him up and after some chat and the honesty of it not being pristine, we did a deal on the phone including a PEx on my M135i subject to me viewing.

On viewing, it wasn’t actually too bad – it was clear that it had been used as a daily driver for most of its life and only recently become a garage queen. This I took as a good omen and with 83k on the clock and a full history it looked ok.

No sign of having its variator caps modified but I was already assuming I would need to do this at this price point.

Did I mention it was a 2008 in Grigio Alfieri with a RED, yes RED interior – so much for black/black

Well the deal was done with an extra £500 off because it only had one key – which gave a final price of £18,500 and with my BMW I only had to cough up £6000, not a bad entry to Maserati ownership.

Having bought it and then experienced the dreaded start up clatter after it had been left standing for a week or more (only a second or so) I then got it inspected by Matt – surely that’s the wrong way round right? Anyhow it could have been much worse – caught the front subframe just in time and a few niggles to sort out, plus I decided to have the end cap mod done as a precaution for the minor clatter.

So here is the damage for Year1:

Purchase Price £18,500 (Sept 2019)

Variator Cap Mod, 4 x wheel refurb, subframe & chassis corrosion protection, replace rear pads/droplinks/power steering hose, remove and refurb front & rear ARB’s, geometry plus associated extras. Oil & Filter, Brake Fluid & Coolant change.

£3,000 ish – Man maths already active!

So that I call my purchase total - £21,500

Now for the odds & sods:

Rear parking sensor £12 (Skoda part)

Custom made X-Pipe £200 fitted

Paint for parking sensor & headlight washer cover £24 (DIY)

Cabin filter £18 (DIY)

New Black centre caps for wheels from HR Owen £40 (DIY)

Pair of 2nd hand backboxes as one had a rattle £250 from Ebay

Sale of original centre box +£110

Insurance £520

Road Tax £575

Total running costs £1,529

Also, this is a partial daily driver so I can claim 2000 miles @ 45ppm for business use which makes it even better value.

Total mileage 4000 for the year (Le Mans Classic cancellation & Covid didn’t help that)

All in its pretty good – if you ignore insurance & road tax it’s peanuts!

True, I’m reasonably handy with a socket set and have fixed a few niggles myself (headlight washer not working, boot lid switch, superglued the mirror switch knob)

Soon it will need spark plugs @ £80 and an air filter @ £65 (will do myself) then next Service with Matt & crew not due till Feb 22

Now with the X-Pipe, it pops and bangs on the overrun and generally sounds great

So, yes - its affordable and great fun too – if you’re still thinking then DO IT!!

Note: I take no responsibility for one costing you a fortune – maybe I’m just lucky so far
View attachment 74691

View attachment 74690
Finding a red lid for your black and red coffee cup is going too far!
 

Wattie

Member
Messages
8,640
Thought this may help out any ‘newbs’ looking to buy a GT – it’s my experience of the 1st year of ownership with an indication of costs. Sorry it’s ended up being a bit of a novel…..

I’d been looking on and off for 1yr and then the financial stars aligned so I started to get serious! Looking to spend up to £25k there was a fair bit of choice but not really in the colour combo’s I wanted (black with black interior) – anyhow that soon went out the window.

I looked at a few but some things just weren’t right, either I didn’t get a good feeling because of details, or the seller/dealer was an ****!

Anyhow, something had been bugging me – the cheapest GT on sale at the time – it looked a little rough with an unpainted headlight washer cover and kerbed alloys but there was something honest about it and the dealer was a specialist in classic & sports although pure ‘Sales’.

Should you ever buy the cheapest car for sale! But buy the cheapest house in a good street – that works right? Oh, and it had been for sale for over 6 months, must be up for deal! Or there was something majorly wrong with it.

Well I called him up and after some chat and the honesty of it not being pristine, we did a deal on the phone including a PEx on my M135i subject to me viewing.

On viewing, it wasn’t actually too bad – it was clear that it had been used as a daily driver for most of its life and only recently become a garage queen. This I took as a good omen and with 83k on the clock and a full history it looked ok.

No sign of having its variator caps modified but I was already assuming I would need to do this at this price point.

Did I mention it was a 2008 in Grigio Alfieri with a RED, yes RED interior – so much for black/black

Well the deal was done with an extra £500 off because it only had one key – which gave a final price of £18,500 and with my BMW I only had to cough up £6000, not a bad entry to Maserati ownership.

Having bought it and then experienced the dreaded start up clatter after it had been left standing for a week or more (only a second or so) I then got it inspected by Matt – surely that’s the wrong way round right? Anyhow it could have been much worse – caught the front subframe just in time and a few niggles to sort out, plus I decided to have the end cap mod done as a precaution for the minor clatter.

So here is the damage for Year1:

Purchase Price £18,500 (Sept 2019)

Variator Cap Mod, 4 x wheel refurb, subframe & chassis corrosion protection, replace rear pads/droplinks/power steering hose, remove and refurb front & rear ARB’s, geometry plus associated extras. Oil & Filter, Brake Fluid & Coolant change.

£3,000 ish – Man maths already active!

So that I call my purchase total - £21,500

Now for the odds & sods:

Rear parking sensor £12 (Skoda part)

Custom made X-Pipe £200 fitted

Paint for parking sensor & headlight washer cover £24 (DIY)

Cabin filter £18 (DIY)

New Black centre caps for wheels from HR Owen £40 (DIY)

Pair of 2nd hand backboxes as one had a rattle £250 from Ebay

Sale of original centre box +£110

Insurance £520

Road Tax £575

Total running costs £1,529

Also, this is a partial daily driver so I can claim 2000 miles @ 45ppm for business use which makes it even better value.

Total mileage 4000 for the year (Le Mans Classic cancellation & Covid didn’t help that)

All in its pretty good – if you ignore insurance & road tax it’s peanuts!

True, I’m reasonably handy with a socket set and have fixed a few niggles myself (headlight washer not working, boot lid switch, superglued the mirror switch knob)

Soon it will need spark plugs @ £80 and an air filter @ £65 (will do myself) then next Service with Matt & crew not due till Feb 22

Now with the X-Pipe, it pops and bangs on the overrun and generally sounds great

So, yes - its affordable and great fun too – if you’re still thinking then DO IT!!

Note: I take no responsibility for one costing you a fortune – maybe I’m just lucky so far
View attachment 74691

View attachment 74690
Excellent review, one fact that you may not fully appreciate is that rosso corallo interiored cars (dog knob red to the uneducated) are much faster than all other Maserati’s.
You are in a special club.
 

Dman666

Member
Messages
1,156
Great write up...i am also getting into my first year with my 2008 Granturismo and loving it
 

ChrissGT

Member
Messages
341
I had about the same, i bought a larini x pipe so thats a bit more money. I had my AC compressor on the brink of failing so i did a diy replacement. Which wasnt too bad.

Year 2 my cats failed and one of the mufflers. So had to put in 200 cell cats (what else), buy upgraded mufflers and get my spark plugs done. Did the major service myself so saved a few pennies there.

It should be good for another 2 years of low maintenance running. But i think my alternator might be due for a replacement, which is a lot of work to be done. But if it's one thing every year im no too concerned.

Mine has 100.000+ miles, so some of these things could be expected.
 

rs48635

Member
Messages
3,181
I had about the same, i bought a larini x pipe so thats a bit more money. I had my AC compressor on the brink of failing so i did a diy replacement. Which wasnt too bad.

Year 2 my cats failed and one of the mufflers. So had to put in 200 cell cats (what else), buy upgraded mufflers and get my spark plugs done. Did the major service myself so saved a few pennies there.

It should be good for another 2 years of low maintenance running. But i think my alternator might be due for a replacement, which is a lot of work to be done. But if it's one thing every year im no too concerned.

Mine has 100.000+ miles, so some of these things could be expected.
My QP just passed 100k miles and my alternator was DIY fix last year. It is a bit awkward