quote:

ORIGINAL: kujotk

all sounds good for me, i'm looking at trading the 3200 for a Quatroportte sport, the 3200 seems to always have a new fault every time i turn the car on, i still think it looks amazing with its boomerang lights, but its pretty impracticle and quite uncomfortable for long drives, somehow the steering wheel is too far from the drivers seat and the peddals are too close.

How much are 2005 quatro sports going for in the UK?
Here in Australia they start from $115k or about 55 000 pounds

quote:

ORIGINAL: deos

Based on my personal experience I'd say Maserati Quattroporte built quality is not as good as Mercedes'. I have never had any problems with my Mercedes C-class 2003 for years, while I had quite a few minor ones with my Maserati already. . And servicing and fixing a Maserati is very expensive comparing to most cars.

I bought my 2005 QP with 50,000 miles on the clock just 3 months ago, did 4000 miles since I bought it (mostly on a european trip) and so far I have spent:

- Full service (all oils, liquids and filters change + checks): 1600 GBP
- New tyres: 600 GBP (that was a real bargain, normally they are 250-300 GBP each)
- Wheel refurb: 340 GBP
- Stone chips and body scratch repairs: 250 GBP
- Air conditioner fix: 450 GBP (labour) + 170 GBP (part, used, got it from Poland, new one over 500 GBP)
- F1 oil leak: 800 GBP (labour) + 120 GBP (parts), still need to re-check. And new transmission = 7,200 GBP.
- Camshaft bolts replaced: 115 GBP
- Passenger door not opening from inside, fix = 180 GBP

Still in the queue (pending):
- rust on the bottom (estimate over 1100 GBP)
- clutch change (2200 GBP)
- brake pads change (no estimate yet)
- wipers change (estimate 60 GBP)
- possibly new battery (I don't drive every day and it is getting weaker every time I start the car). Thats a good few hundred pounds.
- leather interior fix, easily 200 GBP
- door courtesy light & passenger window shade, probably another 50 GBP.

I don't have the money for those now, so they will have to wait a few months or until they will get much worse, but all needs to be done before the summer, when I want to take it for a euro trip again.

The car "died" on me once in Germany, suddenly all the dash lights went on screaming "electrical failure", but after calling a local Maserati dealer and "rebooting" the battery while on the phone with the specialist everything was fixed. Apparently a common problem with these cars and nothing to worry about.

And then I need to add the petrol costs (circa another 1000 GBP during 4000 miles in 3 months), tax (over 400 GBP per year), MOT (50 GBP), insurance (1400 GBP in my case per year) and parking (900 GBP per year), fines and speeding tickets (you can't avoid those in a Maserati :)... I am not a high earner and I have to say that those costs related to my Quattroporte are over 50% of the total money I spend per month (including mortgage, shopping, baby, holidays etc), compared to like 20% in case of my Mercedes, but still, for some strange reason I wouldn't change it for any other model.

So, your car probably wouldn't fail you and you wouldn't have any really "urgent" issues with it, but unless you are in the 10% of nation's top earners, you probably can't "really" afford to own one.

To KUJOTK: a 2005 Maserati Quattroporte would cost you today in the UK anything between 21,000 and 28,000 GBP (AU$ 38K - AU$ 50K). Mine was 23,000 GBP.