Maserati Spyder
 

I am in the market for a somewhat newer car and selling my P-car :(. I have considered the Lotus Elise, the new Corvette, a newer M3 or a 996. I went to go look at an Elise over the weekend, but kidding aside, it's SMALL! My knees literally almost touched the steering wheel and I had to do some acrobatic moves to try to get out of it. As for the Vette, I test drove the Z06. Nice car, but it's lacking something... I guess the exotic nature, and so many are mass produced now. The M3 looks like a lot of other BMW's and the 996 just looks too dull and there are so many in my area. I also looked into the Ferrari 348ts, but I've read it has a few issues.

One car I have been looking at is the Maserati Spyder (the '02 and '03 model years). My neighbor has one and I got to test drive it a few months ago, and it was simply "awesome". The Cambiocorssa edition (with the leather and paddle shifter) and the exhaust note really bought me over. I've seen some in the market for around $40K, and I just had a few questions. How is the reliability? Does anyone have links to Maserati forums? Anything I should know about them?

Just found a lot of info on wwww.ferrarichat.com
Apparentley they are pretty good cars and are daily driveable :D

Heard that they are not very reliable (2 door). My dad has been looking at the four door. The thing looks nice, but you need your own private oil well to keep it filled. 12 CMPG are not all that great. Why are you selling your car?

Dave

I'm selling my car because of the CA smog issue and I really don't want to dump a CA engine in it. Plus, parents are pushing me to get something somewhat new and reliable.

Interesting comment, Dave. The guys on Ferrari chat seem to either love it (very few minor issues) or hate it (major issues) and that ratio seems to be about 5:1
The four door model looks nice, but $100K :eek:! Good luck with his search though. :)

Forgot about your problems...

My dad does like the cars looks both inside and out, likes the feel, but can't get over the CMPG. He was also going to look at the four door Benley that just came out, but when I told him that is gets 10.7 CMPG, he really decided not to go there.

The Ferrari guys like the Maserati because it has a Ferrari engine with paddle shifting. Both my dad and I have heard the the two door models have issues. While the four door is out of your range, it is too new to know what problems will pop up.

I think you'd be unhappy with a 'Vette as well. Nice car, but tires are expensive and it is american. A BMW will be far mor reliable and will keep up.

Dave

Re: Maserati Spyder
 

A guy in another forum had one, his wifes car really. He took it to a DE (Driver's Education) day at the track. One set of brake pads cost him a small fortune to replace. He sold the car shortly after that, liked it - just could not afford it on D.E. days. Something about not wanting to leave the wife without brakes or something silly.

I find this statement odd. If you can spend $40k+ on a car, your parents do not need to be concerned with what you drive. Drive whatever you can afford to purchase, insure, and maintain. That is unless you live at home and only make under $40k a year. ;)

We looked at getting one last year but like Kach22i said the maintenance costs were just too high. I don't recall exactly but consumables like clutch, filters, brake pads, etc were all really expensive, even from a Porsche perspective. And if anything were to go wrong that required dealer service outside of the warranty, yikes...

ferrarichat is the best forum I found to get info on the maserati.

It is an awesome car though. My wife and I rented one a few years back and the review is here:
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=160666&highlight=masera ti

Capt. I believe that 86 911 is something like 17 years old. I'll bet its his parents who are buying.

Yeah, Hugh's right. I am still trying to sell my Porsche to pay for part of the car but my dad insists on keeping it as a "project car". As for the Maser,I've decided against it... nice car, but I need something more reliable. I am looking into an '02-'05 BMW M3 cabriolet, and been doing a lot of research on it. Apparantly a lot of the owners like them and have yet to come across a "lemon" review of one.

How about a Civic? Thats what I would reasonably ask my parents to buy me if I needed them to buy me a car. A used one, with 150K on it.

Matt - my neighbor across the street has a Spyder, and regularly takes it to the track. He's some mucky-muck, in well with the Maseratti racing team in Italy, and regularly goes back there to play with their cars on the Maseratti test track. I don't talk to him much, but I hear him start up his car and drive off, and it's never sounded unhealthy for all the supposed abuse he puts the car through.

As well, $40K is a nice price for these cars. I thought they'd be more like $60K.

My kids fell in love with a Ferrari F355 they saw at the last PCA DE. I old them I'd buy them a used Ferrari IF they landed a full scholarship. Hey, I figure the Ferrari would be cheaper than tuition. ;)

Baring that, I’d buy them a '92 Buick. Preferably in two colors (not two-tone). Nothing like a bit of motivation....

maserati chat
maserati life

I don't think you can find a Coupe/Spyder for less than $55k

wish I had your problems, kid..

M3 or S4 would be my picks

Thanks for the info and the encoragement. I'm going to steer away from Maserati just because of the maintenace. I've read many good things about the M3, so I'm going to stick with it for now.
Here are two that I'm considering. I'm going to try to take the blue one for a test drive over the weekend:
http://www.cars.com/go/search/detail.jsp?tracktype=usedcc&searchType=21&paId=132 356689&pageNumber=0&numResultsPerPage=50&largeNumR esultsPerPage=0&sortorder=descending&sortfield=PRI CE+descending&certifiedOnly=false&recnum=9&leadExi sts=true&criteria=K-%7CE-%7CM-_5_%7CD-_47_%7CN-N%7CR-10%7CI-1%7CP-PRICE+descending%7CQ-descending%7CZ-94556&aff=sandiego
http://www.cars.com/go/search/detail.jsp?tracktype=usedcc&searchType=21&paId=193 207728&pageNumber=0&numResultsPerPage=50&largeNumR esultsPerPage=0&sortorder=ascending&sortfield=DISP LAY_BODYSTYLE+ascending%2CPRICE+descending&certifi edOnly=false&recnum=1&leadExists=true&criteria=K-%7CE-%7CM-_5_%7CD-_47_%7CN-N%7CR-10%7CI-1%7CP-DISPLAY_BODYSTYLE+ascending%2CPRICE+descending%7CQ-ascending%7CZ-94556&aff=sandiego