Gents,
After a wonderful 14 months of owning a 2006 QP, I have had to say enough is enough. Many thanks to all who have posted advice - much appreciated. I will keep watching from a distance.
Whilst I have ensured the car is in perfect condition, done the PPI and budgeted for a significant maintenance hit, I just couldn't go on with the daily worry of what expense would come next. In fact the car never let me down, the problem is here in Switzerland there are very few indy's so it stealership all the way. This was poisoning my love affair with the car.
I did 20k miles in bella (taking her to 86k miles) and have many, many fabulous memories. However, with young kids, spending GBP2-3k every time there is an issue means not going on holiday or other things.....so its a no brainer. My love affair with the brand is definitely not over and I hope that I can get a warrantied Ghibli in 18-24 months time. Just for the record here is a list of repair work (excluding services and winter/summer tyres) which amounts to over GBP 10k in 14months:
- Replaced variators
- Replaced engine mounts
- Replaced alternator
- Replaced and lube drop links and roll bar
- 2 coolant leaks - replaced radiator and heater valves
- Window sensor
Since I only do a round trip to work of about 20miles (and on decent days I ride to work on my road bike), I decided to go with a low mileage Alfa MiTo 1.4TB Quattro foglio/Cloverleaf (170bhp)....ok not a QP, but still Italian.
So that makes the car tally: Mito, Maserati QP, 159 3.2Q4, 159 2.4JTDm, GT 1.9JTDm, Alfa 166 2.0 Facelift, 156 2.4 20V, 156 2.0TS, Volvo S40, VW Passat 1.8T, Audi A4 1.6, Mondeo 1.6LX, Astra 1.4 LS, Metro 1.3
All the best,
Tim (Swissqp aka 166lover on alfaowner)
After a wonderful 14 months of owning a 2006 QP, I have had to say enough is enough. Many thanks to all who have posted advice - much appreciated. I will keep watching from a distance.
Whilst I have ensured the car is in perfect condition, done the PPI and budgeted for a significant maintenance hit, I just couldn't go on with the daily worry of what expense would come next. In fact the car never let me down, the problem is here in Switzerland there are very few indy's so it stealership all the way. This was poisoning my love affair with the car.
I did 20k miles in bella (taking her to 86k miles) and have many, many fabulous memories. However, with young kids, spending GBP2-3k every time there is an issue means not going on holiday or other things.....so its a no brainer. My love affair with the brand is definitely not over and I hope that I can get a warrantied Ghibli in 18-24 months time. Just for the record here is a list of repair work (excluding services and winter/summer tyres) which amounts to over GBP 10k in 14months:
- Replaced variators
- Replaced engine mounts
- Replaced alternator
- Replaced and lube drop links and roll bar
- 2 coolant leaks - replaced radiator and heater valves
- Window sensor
Since I only do a round trip to work of about 20miles (and on decent days I ride to work on my road bike), I decided to go with a low mileage Alfa MiTo 1.4TB Quattro foglio/Cloverleaf (170bhp)....ok not a QP, but still Italian.
So that makes the car tally: Mito, Maserati QP, 159 3.2Q4, 159 2.4JTDm, GT 1.9JTDm, Alfa 166 2.0 Facelift, 156 2.4 20V, 156 2.0TS, Volvo S40, VW Passat 1.8T, Audi A4 1.6, Mondeo 1.6LX, Astra 1.4 LS, Metro 1.3
All the best,
Tim (Swissqp aka 166lover on alfaowner)