[Agent Maser]

As you may have seen I am in the market for a Maser Coupe CC or Coupe GT. Of course I look EVERYDAY on ebay and such sites drooling over the engine bay, which I find to be the most impressive trait of the car. I have noticed very few have higher mileage, 40K +, most are around 10-20K. The higer mileage Masers are quite a bit more affordable of course but what am I getting myself into when going with 40K+? Is it worth the price point difference for the mileage? If maintenance is proper and up to date, then I feel why not? I have read a few threads, mostly from the daily drivers, to get an idea of how the higher mileage cars behave and so far I have seen positive and negative reviews. This will be my second car, 2 trips out of the garage a week maybe, averaging about 5000 miles a year. I am vigilantly looking for a Coupe GT to circumvent the clutch/F1 pump issues. I wish x-mas was hear already so I can buy myself a present! Thanks in advance! Cheers.

Joe

 

[Niteroi]

If maintenance was done properly a 40-50k car will be just fine. I would be more worried about the garage queens.

 

[GrndLkNatv]

A Modern Maserati...

should go 200 to 300k miles before it starts to competely fall apart. 40 or 50k is nothing, if it has been taken care of, buy it.

 

[Ron Avery]

Go for the Coupe GT if you can. I got my 2003 Coupe GT about three years ago
With 14,000 miles and 8. Months to go on the warranty. I now have 26,000
On the car and the original clutch. I love the car; the trans is nice but not great. Once it is warmed up, it shifts well.

I have added 19" GS wheels.
FD. Springs.
No rear mufflers.
FD. DBW.
GS seats.

Ron

 

[Agent Maser]

That is what I was figuring, but then I took into consideration that the clutch goes out after 12500 miles!! So i began to think if they can't (or wont) build a clutch that lasts more than a year I can't imagine the car with a few miles on it. What is the deal with the clutch anyway? Why such a short life span? I haven't seen an answer for that yet, just the repetition that it goes out at about 13k or so depending on how you drive. I can't wait for this to become a reality. I haven't even sat in the car or heard one, aside from youtubes tubi exhasut video, and I can't stop thinking about it. I have already been thinking of taking it to the track ( Sebring) if it's possible, I don't know. For once I will be wishing my vacation abroad will zip by. As I said this is a present to myself, AFTER the vacation. Thanks in advance. Cheers!

Joe

PS: At least my girlfriend is just as excited about me getting the car as I am. She practically tore me to pieces after I showed her pics and sound clips!!

 

[Niteroi]

PS: At least my girlfriend is just as excited about me getting the car as I am. She practically tore me to pieces after I showed her pics and sound clips!!

That's the difference between a girlfriend and a wife...

 

[Eurodino]

Go for the Coupe GT if you can. I got my 2003 Coupe GT about three years ago
With 14,000 miles and 8. Months to go on the warranty. I now have 26,000
On the car and the original clutch. I love the car; the trans is nice but not great. Once it is warmed up, it shifts well.

I have added 19" GS wheels.
FD. Springs.
No rear mufflers.
FD. DBW.
GS seats.

Ron

+1 Ron....

I have an '02 Coupe GT. Now with 22,000 miles. Love the car. No mods, and of course - the original clutch.

 

[Maserati Blue]

I have noticed very few have higher mileage, 40K +, most are around 10-20K. The higer mileage Masers are quite a bit more affordable of course but what am I getting myself into when going with 40K+?

Half of those 10-20k mileage cars have done at least double that number but the owners have reversed the miles. Its the most frequent trick sellers do that gets the price higher by even $10k or more.

Private owners don't know or are afraid to ask someone to reverse the miles, but most cars sold by dealers have their miles reversed and its easy to back them with words of assurance for the car.

The local dealer here told me to bring my GS to him once i got it, to lower the miles, so that i started off with low miles...

So yeah, i wouldn't trust a single one of those "low miles" cars unless they can prove it was a leasing car. At least here in Europe those are easy to find because buying them second hand means you also have to pay taxes (which company cars don't pay).

 

[[email protected]]

rolling back the miles????

Wow, now you've got me worried that the '04 i purchased with 20K, although in mint shape, may have had its miles rolled back. (i thought people stopped doing that back in the late 90's due to improved CPU's)

Anyway to tell for sure or have my shop look into it?

 

[Maserati Blue]

Well, realistically its hard for a normal car to do anything less than 10-20k miles per year, for normal people anyway.

Sure, if you have 3-4 cars and you split the miles around, then its possible to keep low mileage, but that is definitely not common or at least not as common as those low mileage cars sold.

There are some 'tricks' that you can do, for example, if the car is sold by a dealer, find the real previous owner and ask him how many miles he had done (we've caught two cars that had their miles reversed with that trick). Another trick is to find pictures of the car from a previous sale that shows the dashboard up close (seen that happen with a car used for test drives by magazines, then sold as a used car, apparently one magazine had a closeup picture with 9,000 miles while the car was later sold by the dealer as 4,000 miles).

Some people say that its possible to know by looking at the numbers, if the bottom of the numbers don't all align properly then they have been reversed.

 

[Maserati Blue]

One dealer (sells Japanese cars) told me what they do to make the car look new, he had a list of things that they change when they also reverse the miles. For example, they change the carpets, gear shift leather, wheel if nessesary, and a few others.

 

[TravisJ]

Half of those 10-20k mileage cars have done at least double that number but the owners have reversed the miles. Its the most frequent trick sellers do that gets the price higher by even $10k or more.

First, this is a crazy statement and relies more on speculation that anything. I honestly think you are just trying to justify the purchase of a high mile example.

Second, by the same logic that has you believe 20,000 mile cars really are 40,000 mile cars, we would have to assume the 40,000 mile cars are really 80,000 mile cars.

I don't believe any of it. I take great care of my Maserati and spare no expense when it comes to maintenance. I also only drove it 2,000 miles this year. Lots, if not most, of the Masers in North America are used as sunny day weekend cars. They just don't get the high mileage that our daily drivers get.

 

[Spyderluv]

mileage rollbacks?

I doubt it here in the States. It's possible .. Many if not most Maser owners have multiple vehicles. Maybe it occurs in other countries, but I don't haven't heard of it being a problem in the U.S.

 

[Maserati Blue]

First, this is a crazy statement and relies more on speculation that anything. I honestly think you are just trying to justify the purchase of a high mile example.

true, i'm just speculating, but based on my personal experience (especially with Germany and Italy) the occurrence of reversed mileage is frequent.

No i'm not trying to justify buying any sort of car, i don't live in the US and don't have any sort of interest to get something out of this, i'm just warning people that this does happen.

Second, by the same logic that has you believe 20,000 mile cars really are 40,000 mile cars, we would have to assume the 40,000 mile cars are really 80,000 mile cars.

no thats not true and i didn't say anything like that, i've only seen low mileage cars that had it reversed, usually thats where you get the most value out of it.

I don't believe any of it. I take great care of my Maserati and spare no expense when it comes to maintenance. I also only drove it 2,000 miles this year. Lots, if not most, of the Masers in North America are used as sunny day weekend cars. They just don't get the high mileage that our daily drivers get.

maybe you are one in a million people, your car is definitely wasted and the depreciation value of the car is hurting you because at the end of the day once you sell it it will be X number of years old, no matter how much you drove it.

what a waste really...

 

[chris7469]

Try to buy a coupe from a nut like one of us...

I bought my 04 CC in 05 with 1,500 or so miles.... I really went over the car with a comb and researched the dealer before hand. Everything turned out clean.

Then, I had my local FM dealer run the vin and check everything out as well. Again, nothing was fishy.

My car is a passion of mind, I enjoy everything about it. I only drive 6,000 miles a year. Never been in the rain or a car wash. I have other cars.

I also have a small binder with every receipt and every service record. Someday someone may buy it from me with many many more well cared for miles, and they can be assured that everything is on the up and up.. And the only reason I am selling is to get something else... Most likely a GTS...

FYI - I still have the original clutch and the dealer just replaced the TO bearing and said I have a good 60% of life left. Perhaps you will get a new clutch every 20 - 25K miles.

My point being, search around and look for your Maserati. Of course there is a selling range or value point for a particular Maserati. However, don't always look for the cheapest or what may appear to be the best deal. Well maintained high mileage cars should NOT be avoided. They make sense, especially if the car was owned by someone on this board.

Also, RESEARCH your dealer...

Any big repair can run up a few grand... If it means paying a little more to get a car from a nut that has babied it, then so be it. High miles or not.

Good luck with your car! CM

 

[Agent Maser]

Thanks for the insight Chris. Maybe you will want to be selling your Coupe and getting that long awaited GT-S... I definatly do not mind paying the premium for a garage queen who doesnt get even slightest bit of dust on it, I'd rather have it that way. I will end up spending the extra coin fixing the "best deal" I just got anyway. Cheers!

Joe

 

[ericraines]

Hey Joe,

I was in the same position as you when I took the plunge on my Maserati. The advice I got from Ferrari guys was that if you bought a car with a reasonable number of miles on it, you could ensure that 1) the car had been driven, the lubricants had done their job, etc. and 2) any major issues with the car had been "found" by the previous owner.

I bought a six-speed Coupe with 20k+ miles on it and haven't regretted it for a second.

And, now that I am selling the car (http://www.maseratilife.com/forums/showthread.php?p=44975#post44975) I am going to take less of a depreciation hit than if I had bought an 05 with much fewer miles.

Good luck,
Eric

 

[ERS113]

Eric,
That is one beautiful car. I would buy it if I didn't already have one. It has to sell soon. Good luck. When I bought my Maser it came with a carfax history report that included service history, mileage,etc. So if it has another 20K miles someone had to do it in 3 weeks.

 

[ericraines]

ERS113: Thanks much.

 

[TravisJ]

maybe you are one in a million people, your car is definitely wasted and the depreciation value of the car is hurting you because at the end of the day once you sell it it will be X number of years old, no matter how much you drove it.

what a waste really...

I wouldn't say I am one in a million. There are LOTS of us in North America who just use our cars as sunny weekend only rides.

The depreciation value, while horrible, doesn't really bother me. I didn't buy the car as an investment and I'm not planning on selling.

It really isn't a waste. I would rather have a Maserati and only drive it a few thousand miles per year than have no Maserati at all.