Dealer’s Diary
A friend of mine rocked up at my place at the weekend in a stunning Maserati Grand Turismo S he’d just bought. This car looked and sounded terrific, and he’d got a stunning deal on the car: a Ferrari for Fiat money (well, sort of ).
He’d paid a third of its retail price of £70,000. Stick a dateless reg on it and it’d be indistinguishable from a new one, which would now cost about £100,000.
He’d bought wisely, as the timing belts on the Ferrari-derived 4.7 V8 had just been replaced, as had the single clutch plate on the robotised manual gearbox. The service book had a reassuring number of stamps and, crucially, it came with a good warranty.
However, being a Maserati and being a bit of a supercar – and being rarely used, as such cars are – it didn’t take long for the first fault to develop. Within days, it had started to misfire under load, but no warning lights were showing. The hunt was on to find a garage with the diagnostic kit and experience to interrogate the electrics.
Once such an establishment was found, the misfire was identified and confirmed as being the spark plugs. No warranty claim would be forthcoming as these are serviceable items. NGK plugs would have to be imported into the country. So, £400 later – half parts, half labour – the V8 surged seamlessly again.
The following week, it broke down and needed recovering. The engine was sluggish to turn over and the battery warning light was on at high revs. A new battery was fitted, but this couldn’t turn the engine over, even when fully charged after a couple of days. Off to another specialist. Things looked bad when it was confirmed that the engine simply wouldn’t turn over no matter how much leverage on a power bar or volts was put through it. The cause was confirmed as a seized alternator only after the auxiliary belts had been cut off. The alternator sits under the beautiful, curvaceous alloy inlet manifolds in the middle of the Vee. The £1200+ for supplying and fitting a new alternator was covered by the warranty, but my mate had to pay for the gaskets, battery and auxiliary belts.
To visit me, he’d had to buy two new bespoke Pirellis at £600 and the road tax was more than £500. Fuel economy peaked on the steady cruise north at 22mpg (from 18mpg) on mandatory Super Unleaded. He’d also extended the warranty at no small premium, and the time to replace the huge brake pads and cross-drilled discs was looming.
As I’ve often said in this column regarding used cars, if you couldn’t afford it new, then you definitely cannot afford it used. Luckily, my mate can and is enjoying the experience enormously without guilt or worry. A bargain GT it may have been, but its still needs supercar maintenance.
‘Things looked bad when it was confirmed that the engine simply wouldn’t turn over, no matter what’