[Eugene]

Hi guys,

I'm in a little dilemna here. Currently considering between getting a 4200 or a C4S and would like to hear your opinions regarding their handling and drivability. I test drove the 4200 and it does take a while to get use to the gear shift. With regards to the C4S, drove it and found the road handling to be superb. Took the corners effortlessly unlike the 4200. I guess these are 2 pretty different cars with their own characters.

Taking into consideration these factors including maintenance cost and reliability, I wonder which of these two cars would you recommend?

Also, I heard that the earlier batches of the 4200 were pretty problematic. Is this still so?

Cheers in advance

Eugene

 

[MVP]

Well you came to a Maserati board, I'd get the Maserati 4200 anyday. As far as maintenance goes, I daily drove a 2002 Spyder with no problems and am now daily driving a 2006 Coupe GT with no problems. They are very reliable cars and if you search you can find this to be true.

The early models are no less reliable than the later models, don't listen to anybody about these cars unless they've actually owned one. I've heard so many rumors on them from non-owners.

 

[Eugene]

Thanks for you comments. I guess Masers are indeed like wine that has to be slowly appreciated. As it is, rumors will always be rumors. That's why it's really helpful to hear it from people like yourselves who own masers. But I guess that the downside is the wear and tear of the clutch, which i believe is normal for any performance car.

 

[Vincent]

I used to have a C4S cab... she was great.

The Maser is more involving...

Take both!

 

[Fred]

Last year I was shopping both Porsche and Maserati, to figure out what to get.
In either case I wanted a manual 6 speed transmission.
The net net, is that the Porsche is a car that you buy with your head, and a Maserati a car that you buy with your heart.

The Porsche seems to be a "smoother" car, shifts easier, and around me, there are tons of dealers.

The Maserati is a " ^%#& MASERATI! "

 

[Steve]

I owned a C4, and can say that it is a more sensible car to own. Less quirky, a little less scary, more predictable, more refined.....the more logical choice. So, when I sold it, I was very curious about the Maserati and decided to buy a 2002 Coupe to see what I thought. My 6 months of ownership confirmed my suspicions......that this was a very raw but incredibly fun car. I would drive the 911 home, park it in my garage, and that would be it. With the Maserati, I would sneak out after the kids were in bed to drive it just one more time that day....idiosyncracies and all.

Once I sold the coupe, the decision was an upgrade to a Grandsport or 911 C4S. I can only say that this was one of the easiest decisions I have ever made. As I write, it is 8:26 AM EST, and I am counting the hours to lunch so I can get in my Maserati and drive to the farthest possible restaurant.

One day, I may get sick of some of the quirkiness, and a dealership 100 miles away, but I suspect that time is a long way off.

If your budget permits, buy a Grandsport. 2005's have come down a good bit and offer compelling value.
Good luck.

 

[Eugene]

Fred is so right.... A maser is a car that's bought with your heart... You can't exactly rationalize the decision to get one, but what's overwhelming is the burning desire and irresistable urge to own it.

Being a full blooded male, I would like to get both the 4200 and the C4S... haha.. But where I come from (singapore), car prices here are flipping expensive. I've already made a decision earlier today and booked a standard spec black F1 4200. This is setting me back abt USD260K. How much does one cost over in US?

One thing I was told by the dealer was that the interior of the maser gets "sticky" so very the often. Cleaning it will only last for about 3 months before the stickiness returns. I guess this is due to the hot and humid climate that I live in.. Do any of your masers have this issue too?

The stock rims look kinda ordinary and am thinking of changing it. Any recommendations from the ground?

Thanks in advance

 

[MVP]

Being a full blooded male, I would like to get both the 4200 and the C4S... haha.. But where I come from (singapore), car prices here are flipping expensive. I've already made a decision earlier today and booked a standard spec black F1 4200. This is setting me back abt USD260K. How much does one cost over in US?

$260kUSD!1?!?!? Are you KIDDING me?

I bought a 2006 black Coupe for $70kUSD

 

[treuter]

I would really look into buying one over here and shipping it via container to you. I have a company that takes care of all the logistics. I have shipped many cars overseas and everyone seems to save a TON of money. We have shipped everything from BMW, Maserati, Hummer, ETC. Hard to find stuff over there is huge $$$$$$. Let me know if you have any questions.

Everyone please post their own info too!

 

[Fred]

I am pretty sure that Import Duties and Tariffs are what is screwing up the price in Singapore.

You need to find a way to get around that if you want to reduce your costs.

 

[MVP]

Taryn's the man when it comes to buying a Maserati very good pricing and takes care of things quick. I don't know what the laws are in Singapore on importing cars but unless you have to pay $160k in taxes he'll save you a ton of money!

 

[treuter]

Exactly, the tariffs and DUTY fees I know is screwing up the price. If you can give me the info on what those fees are, I can let you know if it will save you money. There is a big business of importing these cars to Middle East countries and Asian countries. I am not an expert on the process but I know alot of brokers that do it, so there has to be some margin in it.

T

 

[Fred]

Crazy Singapore Taxes

I found this on an Expat web site

Overall cost of the car

Registration fee + Cost Price + Road Tax + COE + additional registration fee (140% of OMV) and customs duty (31% of OMV).

For more info, look here.
http://www.expatsingapore.com/once/cost.shtml

 

[Vincent]

Singapore and HK are the two bad places to get exotic luxury cars...

my MCV cost me 1.4mil which is roughly USD180k... not quite the 260k mark Eugene is paying in Singapore - but still a farking hit.

 

[Eugene]

Yup.. It's damn shitty where Vincent and I come from. Somehow, it's the Asian mentality that manages to sustain such exorbitant prices. The price of USD170K only got me a BMW 630. For a price of USD205k, I can only get a BMW740. That is not just it... Imagine a Lexus LS. It costs like USD212K. The GS version which is only utilising the 3 litre engine costs like USD106K. It's such a bloody rip off. As Fred found out in his previous post. The tax and tarrifs here are ridiculously high. What's more the profit margins included in by the distributors only serves to make car prices even higher.

For Porsches and Ferraris, a C4S costs about USD290K over here. A F430, a whopping USD485K. For the 599, the price goes up to USD645K. And the irony of it is that despite the high price of the 599, sales of it is doing much better than the 430. Could be a novelty thingy as it was just launched. Whatsmore, the 599 was booked even without being physically seen. Waiting time for a ferrari is approximately 2 years over here. Imagine the poor bugger waiting for like 2 years before being able to see his ride... It's pure agony...

I'm always opened to the idea of importing in my own car. Are you guys able to give me any figures for calculation purposes? Somehow, the Maserati market over in Singapore is relatively small. We only have about 79 Masers registered on our roads. For the Maser MCV, we got allocated 2 units, No. 1 and No. 8. It's pretty tough selling a Maser over here as for the price that we have to pay, many will be swayed towards buying a porsche.

Not only that, we have high running costs for driving a car here too. The annual road tax we have to pay increases according to the engine capacity of our car:

Engine Capacity (Cap) Road Tax Formula (per annum)
Cap > 3,000 cc USD$1,970 + 2.0 x (Cap - 3,000)

This is just taking for example cars with engine ccs of above 3000. Imagine driving a 6 litre monster...