[Vincent]

Has anyone actually made a comparison of the two?

I know they are different beasts but how will the drive of a 360 compares with a GS on a long term basis?

I have test driven a few but have never owned one...

 

[maserati of minneapolis]

Hopefully Taptd will see this. He has posted about his 360 and GS ownership experiences on the Ferrarichat boards. From what I remember, he actually likes driving the GS more, and I would agree overall.

I think the GS is a far better daily driver, and is much more forgiving of less than perfect roads. Real-world power is pretty close, but the GS does oversteer more. The 360 certainly has more curb appeal, but I've also seen near-miss and little accidents caused by gawkers.

The warranty is better, and maintenance is overall much less $ on the GS. I think cost of ownership overall is quite a bit lower for the GS, but I'm not sure how the actual numbers work out.

- Mark

 

[QPIE003]

I have driven both cars. The 360 for about 2 weeks and the GS for about 1 week on extended "test drives". The GS is absolutely and without a doubt the better "daily driver". The 360 just isn't a "daily driver" at all. It is a great, purpose built machine. I have talked to several race car drivers, with various competency for both marques and the tenor seems to be that the GS is a "sleeper". It's performance is quite close, in some cases even exceeds, the performance of the 360 on the track. For real world use I would have a hard time comparing those two vehicles, as the GS is very userfriendly (trunk, back seats, ....) and the 360 is a weekend and track "toy"

Personally, I am looking adding a 430 as a weekend toy. I like my QP as a daily driver and a 430 certainly would be fun for the weekend. I just need to convince my wife, who is very happy with her XLR, and I can not convince her that we need a third vehicle

 

[Vincent]

I see... thanks guys.

What I am contemplating is trading in the C4S cab for a 360 - I am not sure whether it's the best idea. I know the comparison should be between the Porsche and the Ferrari and not the Maser...

I guess you guys are absolutely correct... the GS is definitely a better everyday car than the 360. Plus I have the little Mitsubishi to do the runabouts.

Maybe I should just order a 430... but then that will be a bit of a wait and a fair amount of money...

 

[maserati of minneapolis]

The 430 is a monster, and hard to compare to the 360. Discussed more thoroughly in previous threads; the engine is an evolution of the Maser's 4.2, and should be much less maintenance intensive as the 360 is. (in particular timing chains vs. belts) The exhaust note of the 430 is downright mean, and you'll never forget you're driving a Ferrari.

The Maser is actually a better comparison to your Porsche than the 360, except the Maser has usable backseats (if you need them). Unless we are talking about convertibles.

Nice 360 Modenas can be had for $125-130k, which is really only about 10-20k more than a new Maser GS, but without the warranty. We have a like-new '04 Rosso Corsa 360 Spider with only 2k miles, and great options, priced about $220k (yes, more than it was new), and the 430's go up quite a bit from there.

- Mark

 

[squid]

Where are you guys getting 430s? I've had one on order for two years and I don't think I'm ever going to get it. I'm 400th on the *wait list*, meaning 400 people have to cancel for me to get a shot. And I placed my order basically the day the car hit the press.

 

[MikeA]

Getting a 430 at MSRP is almost impossible. The dealers are selling them to their loyal past Ferrari customers, and they aren't getting as many as they expected. Ferrari is sending a lot more to developing markets like Eastern Europe and China.
To get one you need to pay $20-30K over MSRP for a coupe and $30-50K over MSRP for a spyder. This is for a very low mileage car, maybe even new, that is being flipped by that 'loyal' customer, or being sold by the dealer when a customer for some insane reason declines delivery. The dealer sells the declined car at 'market' as a justification for the markup on their end.
Kind of sucks.
Reminds me of the old "we can't give you credit because you haven't established credit" line.
Anyway, anyone who wants to sell me a new 430 spyder at MSRP, I'm ready to buy and replace my Maser as my daily driver.
Mike

 

[Swiss-Maserati]

Here in switzerland, you have choice for 22 second hand F430's (coupé + spider), for a very correct price... cool, isnt it?

http://www.autoscout.ch/AS24Web/List.aspx?wl=1&lng=fra&from=Home&make=27&modellike=F430&cur=CHF&zipcountry=CH&total=22&sort=price

 

[squid]

Getting a 430 at MSRP is almost impossible.

The ones I see are selling for minimum 250k, many are asking 335k and even higher.

I'm confused as to how I could become a "loyal customer" if they won't sell me a car...but whatever.

 

[maserati of minneapolis]

I wonder just how hard it would be to buy some of those international cars and bring to this side of the pond. With something like the 430, if you could get 4-5 of them, it seems like it would be worth it..

 

[Iwan]

well, we have some companies here in Europe/Switzerland which are
specialised to import US cars, you can get pretty decent deals and
save a lot of money if you ship a, let's say Ford Mustang GT from
the US to Europe since list price for the 'big block' GT is about USD 50/k
here (guess it is around USD 30/k on your side of the ocean).

same must go the other way around, but not sure what things you
have to change in order to pass the state technical control or whatever
you call it......

also not sure about import duties.....but it's true, as Swiss-Maserati
is pointing out, a lot of F430ies on our second hand market....
'cheapest' one i found is about USD 180/k with 6/k miles...so new in
fact...

cheers iwan

 

[Iwan]

as for the F430 Spyder, cheapest one over here is USD 205/k

cheers
iwan

 

[maserati of minneapolis]

I think by the time we got them here and ready to sell, we'd have another $20k into them, and then they are euro vin cars, and not worth quite as much. I think some people did that with the 360s and ended up stuck with 4 or 5 euro 360s on their hands.

 

[Vincent]

I think some guys in ferrarichat said the same thing...

You guys are lucky in the US... a 430 coupe in HK is listing for 2.73mil which equates to USD 341k. This doent even take into account of any options.

a 2000 360 here is quoting around 1.3-1.5mil (162k-187k)...

 

[Dolle Dolf]

Personally, I am looking adding a 430 as a weekend toy. ... I just need to convince my wife, ... that we need a third vehicle

How many pairs of shoes do you "need" honey? How many frilly unused things? Trinkets, make up items, cups, bowls, glasses, how many sets of cutlery, vases, flower baskets, etc etc.

What works is have one or two cars break. Then you find out that you need at least two cars per driving member of the household. Then something else for ferrying big items. And one for durinng the week, one for the weekend, one for the snow, and one for when the sun is out. Really, mine is convinced now

 

[DeaneG]

The ones I see are selling for minimum 250k, many are asking 335k and even higher. I'm confused as to how I could become a "loyal customer" if they won't sell me a car...but whatever.

You're need to at least buy one lightly used F430 for $300K from the dealer.... then you may be a "customer", hopefully enough so as to get on the waiting list for the F480.