Honestly 2500 a year for maintenance is not that bad. I think if you can come up with $30K cash to pay for a car you can probably afford to take care of it. The Quattroporte is such a sharp looking car. I thought about one before I got into my 996T but I wanted a bit more speed.
The NSX is a great car as well, quite reliable and always guaranteed to turn heads. Although in that price range you're probably looking at a '91-'94? They are a bit dated but a classic car no matter what.

 

. Problem for me buying USA is that the styling just does not do it for me. The square Caddy style is fugly but the engine seems to be awesomely (sic!) good. As far as the other contenders go, the proportions ( small greenhouse - side windows) are not my taste at all. It's too much retro for me in the looks department but again, no doubt the mfg'rs have come a long way. Last comment, I still do not understand Ford's decision to stick with a rigid rear axle no matter how they are trying to convince us that is does the job. That is not the point. So did an 8-track but that got replaced.

 

Guys the bug is really biting again on these beautiful spring days, part of me just wants to bite the bullet and buy one!

Would love a yellow 6 spd. drop top.....

 

...bump for these being even more affordable to buy now. It seems though that the repairs could easily topple the cost of ownership quickly. Damned if you can't have this Ferrari-engined beast for under $20k though.

Has anyone who bought one of these for little money have any reviews on them?

 

The cheapest car is not always the cheapest car- after a year even more so.
Buy the best car you can afford and you will do fine. Do you home work on the car. Usually these cheap cars have a checkered past and lack of documentation for the required service. Salvage title etc. Salvaged title car might have been fixed correctly but the Salvaged titled car is still worth less.
Find out the history on the car and do PPI. Money well spent. I had the fever myself and bought without a PPI. I knew the history on the car and the owner was 8o years old. I have had my 4 years now and have 25k on her and she has been very reliable and no surprises with Mat. or reliability. Rock solid and in fact now my favorite car of all time. Thought about trading and instead drover 1500 miles from Seattle to Scottsdale in just over 18 hours.
But that another story. This car will be around until she wears out and I will hunt down another low mileage one and swamp my stuff over. Exhaust, wheels, etc. Best buy for an exotic going in my opinion and much more rare than a Ferrari. At Shows I am often out numbered 10 to 1.

 

Guys

We maintain these cars and while yes they are getting cheaper the parts and labor are still priced at what the car costs new.. So keep that in mind... If you are buying a 100k car for 25k- expect to pay maintenance and parts costs of a 100k not a 25k honda or domestic car.


Best piece of advise I can give you and I tell this to all my clients.

Before you buy get a PPI.... Low mileage cars are not always better than properly maintained higher mileage cars.. Find some you can trust with the car. It doesnt have to be a dealer by any means.

Its like going to "your" Dr regularly he knows you... You want someone who knows you...

Other than that these cars are getting easier to own and can certainly make great daily drivers with the proper care.

Just my .02

 

Looking at an 04 Spyder as a weekend driver. $2-3k yearly maintenance doesn't scare me. Does anyone know if one of the transmissions is more reliable than the other?

 

I had an '03 Spyder and adored that car. Over three years and 10k miles I spent less than a grand on maintenance. My clutch had over 15k and was rock solid. The key to clutch life is to never never use auto mode and minimize reverse, both modes kill clutches instantly.

I've owned Porsches, BMWs and an Alfa. The exhaust on the Spyder engine puts them all to shame. If you get a gransport or mod the basic Spyder/coupe with a sport mode bypass then you will actually hear an F1 burble on shifts - now that is sexy!

The interiors are 100% leather and do take regular care just like a Turbo Cayenne.

There is also a performance specialist for these cars, Forumla Dynamics that has done a lot of work on these cars including a transmission upgrade chip to improve life.

 

Good advice even at that though it's still a shot in the dark and not one I would take with at least 20k in the bank after buying the car. You blow a trans or something major you are easily going to be left with a 10-15k+ bill easy, sensors are costly.

If you get lucky and nothing goes wrong that's great it won't cost you more than a regular luxury sedan but if sometime breaks you'll feel the pain immensely. Considering the price range they are in, if you do end up breaking something major (5k-10k+) and having to replace it, you won't be recouping any of that when you sell the car and will take a pretty decent hit selling it in the 20s if you're lucky.

 

I have QP too. Lovely to drive and sounds great. Thats about what I spent on the car too.

Right down to the rear trunk actuator/mechanism. Mine died about 6 months ago and the boot couldn't open.

 

How about the 08-09 Gran Turismo's? How is the reliability on those compared to the older cars?

 

I have a 2004 Maserati Coupe GT.. This model has a clutch pedal and a hand shifter not the paddle shift.

Oil filters are $30.14 and worth it. I once cut one open and compared it to filter I cut open off my friends truck. Purflux makes them for Maser/Ferrari and it's an aerospace grade element inside.
Parts and prices here..
http://www.ricambiamerica.com/parts_...A&V=model&I=53

The clutch was done at 50k miles or so... It's pretty much built the same as the ones in the lambo's. Dual disk with a ventilated center plate.. I'd say 50-60k miles is clutch life for the GT (true manual) and 20k for a cambiocorsa (Early variant of Ferrari F1). With the GT you can do it yourself. With the Cambio even if you can replace the clutch you still need to take it to the dealer or an independant with the $15,000 programmer tool to let the car know it has a new clutch.

As far as reliability the only failures were a mass airflow sensor. This is a Bosch hot film MAF and can go out just like the identical and only calibrated differently parts on many VW's, Audis and Porsche cars. It still drove in limp mode when the MAF went out.

I found a cross reference for the sensor element and just replaced the element not the whole MAF body. Under $100 in parts and 5 minutes of work.

Over a year after that the Alternator failed. It was a $600 alternator.

Just last Friday a shift cable let go in the shifter mechanism leaving it stuck in neutral. Since I can't get the ($400) shift lever mechanism out without removing the torque tube I'm doing the clutch again while I'm in there.

I bought it years ago used with only 15k miles on it for $28k. Now it has just over 90k miles on it and has only left me stuck somewhere twice. Once for the alt and once for the shifter.

I have had the Formula dynamics big brakes, FD upgraded sway bars, a catback and some other tweaks on it for years. It's been really fun and for the most part reliable. If I can't get ~$20k for it this summer it's staying in my collection until I use it as a trade in down payment for my first supercar.

 

+1 Ah, the voice of reason. This goes for any high end foreign car. Too bad OP isn't likely to take you advice. Anything learned well is learned the hard way.

 

Yes the voice of reason....All these cars take $$$.
I have a porsche turbo, likely way more reliable than the Maserati. Even still, and I had a reliable one, figure 3-4k a year over 6 years. No? there will be one problem that will hit you hard, before you sell it....It hasn't happened to me yet, but I'm expecting it, just a matter of time. No way you can get any where near mainstream car reliability. Don't be deceived. Make sure you can afford the odd $4k bill here and there. If you can't move on.
If you want to play, you have to pay..no way around it.

 

Let me say, I've seen the difference that the FD drive by wire upgrade makes and it will significantly extend clutch life on these vehicles.

The excessive slip that you get, even in Sport mode is non-existant. In fact, the engagement is such that you may even get more life from a FD upgraded cambio than you would in a regular 6 speed (assuming the same clutch thickness between models).

As a side benefit, I'm 200% certain that the stock cambios are torque limited in 1st and 2nd gears and FD DBW upgrade eliminates those limiters.

My reason for saying this is that the car it was installed on never engaged the traction control at the elevation we're at (3500ft) from a standstill. But now it'll light up like a Christmas tree whenever you stand on it in 1st. Night and day difference and worth every red cent.