Posts: 15
Since: 8/11/2009
Region: Australia
Status: offline
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Hello from down under!
Recently signed up (yes, after lurking for quite a while) and thought I had better get around to introducing myself and sharing some experiences of life with a Maserati.
As you can see from my signature, I have a beautiful black 2007 GS with nero/bordeaux full leather interior which I bought locally here in Perth, Western Australia.
Just now coming up to the end of warranty with 45,000km on the clock - mostly trouble-free - couple of electrical niggles of no consequence (passenger seat electrics) and the only dramatic event was the a/c compressor cr@pping itself on the freeway - a quiet !pop!, followed by an unnerving cloud of thick black smoke from under the hood together with that acrid stink of burning insulation. I previously had a few problems with the ventilation fan quitting (no joke in our 40+ deg C February heat) and thought maybe the circuit had burnt out (still the first thing that comes to mind with Italian cars!) but when I stopped and checked all seemed ok - no flaming engine bay, no smoking wiring harness, not even a fuse gone - the worst thing was the embarrassment of being at the side of the road in possession of a Maserati with hood up - and yes, the passing Holden/Ford/Japcrap hoons had great fun at my expense!
Can't think of anything else of importance - as many have discovered, the Becker audio head is a bit cranky and tends to switch itself off for a while, especially when playing mp3's on disc or SD card - and every now and again the ecu throws a couple of spurious codes (P0491 and P0492 - secondary air and emission control system). We don't know for sure why this is occurring yet (judging by some forum posts these codes seem quite common) but my tech has taken it (and the Becker issue) up with the factory as a warranty item although the time difference with Modena tends to make these dialogues a bit tedious. However I did discover that the reason these codes don't go away after a few subsequent starts is because they are related to the emission control system and are therefore 'stickies'. We have updated the engine management software to no avail (Modena keep news of software updates pretty quiet for some reason - it was news to my tech and my car is an 07 build) but the most likely culprit is some fault in the air pump even though this seems to work fine and does what it is supposed to do 
What else? Well lots of stone chips on the front bumper and engine hood - these are pretty much unavoidable here due to dirt blown/carried on to the bitumen and big (dirty) 2-trailer semis (in the metro area) and road trains (even dirtier) with 3 or 4 trailers (outside the metro area). I guess I will get it fixed sometime down the track but no hurry - it will only get chipped again and rust isn't really a problem here. Looks worse than it is due to the black paint but it is non-metallic (nero pastello) so hopefully there will be fewer problems matching.
I just love this car! Silky smooth, refined, rare and luxurious but with a wild beast lurking under those beautiful curves! The perfect combination. And, yes, the F1 gearbox is brilliant, but admittedly the automated clutch can be a bit temperamental around town! Let's face it, Italian cars are from venus and those kraut and pommie cars are definitely from Mars (does that mean Aussie cars are from Uranus?) 
So, all in all, a pretty positive report, I guess. Just about due for a new clutch - current (original) one is close to the end of its useful life. Up until now servicing has been relatively cheap - she gets driven regularly (3-4 days a week), a service every 10,000km, rarely sees rain (goes without saying here!) and goes 30+ laps of the track every 3 months 
Cheers!
phra
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Phra
Maserati Gransport 2007
Nero/Bordeaux
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