Used Ghibli - Piston Heads Guide

[safrane]

Not an owner, so not able to comment on the accuracy.

Maserati Ghibli | PH Used Buying Guide

German execs too ordinary? Time to try a Maserati...

www.pistonheads.com

 

[Andyk]

Had a good read of that. It’s a good looking car and good value under 20k. It seems a decent second hand buy but then you look at how
Icy they cost to run. How can Maserati justify the servicing cost of the diesel. To compete with BMW etc they missed the mark there….Nearly £1000 for a major service …. No wonder the German buyers weren’t tempted out of their cars. Add the bit about and mechanical issues on early cars that cost a fortune to fix and you can understand how it didn’t fully hit the marque. Maserati needed this car to be reliable and not cost a fortune to run and they should be ashamed making a modern car that had the sort of issues talked about. I wouldn’t expect these issues with my 2013 C class let along a newer Ghibli. I really do struggle why Maserati as still dogged by so many reliability issues. I so hope the new range and MC 20 bucks the trends as they will never be able to move away from these images of reliability silly running costs and while some can forgive them as they make good looking and cars with character it’s just not acceptable these days. I would really think about diesel Ghibli for my commute but that with those stupid running costs.

 

[CatmanV2]

Thanks for sharing. If the Jaaaaaag goes through its MOT in November, I'll be looking closely after the winter. If it doesn't I may be looking closely earlier

But many other factors in play like parents surviving.....

C

 

[Phil H]

It's almost as if the author has gone out of his way to find as many 'reported' faults as possible regardless of their frequency, so I'm not convinced by the accuracy of the review. It also says that "Engine blowups requiring a full motor replacement were quoted in the US at $39,000 installed" so what's that supposed to tell us? Are there no records of 'blowups' in the UK?

In the comments below the review a poster says that:
The Maserati dealer in Nottingham is also a Ferrari dealer. I remember the Ferrari chap laughing when I asked about Maserati reliability and saying "There aren't many brands we can take the **** out of, but we take the **** out of Maserati".
I'm sure that Graypaul would be ever so chuffed to know their techs tell customers that - if they do.

It would be interesting to know the source of the reviewer's reliability data and whether or not they canvassed the opinions of owners, and equally, the veracity of the associated comments is debatable to say the least.

As a long term owner my main concerns about Maserati are the very limited UK dealer network and spares availability, although we do at least have some excellent indies on tap. WRT to the cars - whilst a QP VI (of the Ghibli generation) does not feel as special as a QP V that doesn't mean it's a bad car, it just means that FCA (Stellantis) went for quantity instead of quality and lost the luxury appeal of earlier models.

 

[Simon1963]

Being on a few Maserati Facebook groups it seems that the Americans have issues. It’s the old adage that people often only post if they have a problem. Apart from some early oil pump problems I haven’t really seen a trend to say that the Ghibli is less reliable than any other cars out there. Build quality isn’t up there with the Germans but I think all round for the money on the used market they are a decent motor. If they do go wrong they are expensive to fix but that’s modern cars for you these days.

 

[Andyk]

Phil, how has your QP been reliability wise. I would be good to hear quality has improved. I would imagine the reviewer wanted to show warts and all and agree the engine piece was a bit much as clearly they couldn’t find a UK examples. My main concern taking away the issues mentioned is actual servicing/running costs for a Ghibli. This car was suppose to put Maserati into executive and company car buying main stream but what they didn’t do is add the servicing and running costs to match. A Chrysler Diesel engine that needs nearly £1000 for a major service is taking the pee. Like you also the dealer network is not great and that is a Maserati failing as I would imagine they put lots of demands on dealers. I believe that is was Dick Lovett left the network.

 

[Phil H]

We've had the VI for over 3 years Andy; it's a 2015 (petrol) car with c47k on the clock, supplied to the first owner by DL, and we subsequently bought it from them when he chopped it for another new one. DL later surrendered the franchise, possibly because of FCA demands for stock holding.

The only problems have been a dead battery (it was the original one though) and a Lambda Sensor that failed recently. I'm not saying that Maseratis are flawless, nor is any brand, but I do think there's a lot of bar room experts who pontificate about the cars with no personal experience of them, and I question the authority of a UK review that quotes American repair costs. Service costs are never going to be in Fiat territory, and Maserati does like extracting the urine when pricing spares, but it is a premium brand so.....

As regards the target market, imho FCA goofed when they decided to compete with Mercedes/BMW/et al. I know they wanted the cash that volumes could deliver and there was (once again) a question of brand survival, but they should have made the effort to deliver a more complete package if that's the way they wanted to go.

Maseratis can still be tremendous vfm - if a bit of thought is put into their purchase.

 

[bigbob]

Not an owner, so not able to comment on the accuracy.

Maserati Ghibli | PH Used Buying Guide

German execs too ordinary? Time to try a Maserati...

www.pistonheads.com

Thanks for posting, I’ve driven quite a few as loan cars when I still used Graypaul to service my car. I always liked them, they were nothing special but they were different and not driving a German saloon would be enough for me to have had one if I wanted a saloon.

The only two bits I found strange in the article were the fact that 90%+ of the V6 era cars sold were diesel and whilst the petrol engined cars were great - I loved driving the S - they are a small sub set of what is out there. Also they fail to notice that the diesel is on one year intervals and the petrol on two years so quoting an indie’s annual petrol service cost is irrelevant.

Anyway servicing costs are the Maserati PIA which they need to fix. When Graypaul wanted a huge percentage of my car’s value to service it it was time to go elsewhere but so many people must be put off buying them when they call the dealer for a service price ahead of a purchase.

 

[GeoffCapes]

Based on the number of cars they have sold, vs the number of posters on PH who have said "they're unreliable" etc etc etc I would hazard that most haven't owned one, and have their info 3rd hand at best (my mate had one with no end of trouble, will actually be someone on a PH thread that had an issue).

As balance, my mate only buys BMW's. He's had no end of problems with the numerous BM's he's had (over 20 now) , but just says "it's under warranty, they can sort it out".
I guess if Maserati have a comprehensive warranty and sort the issues quickly people would forget about the issues in the same way.

 

[Phil H]

Based on the number of cars they have sold, vs the number of posters on PH who have said "they're unreliable" etc etc etc I would hazard that most haven't owned one, and have their info 3rd hand at best (my mate had one with no end of trouble, will actually be someone on a PH thread that had an issue).

As balance, my mate only buys BMW's. He's had no end of problems with the numerous BM's he's had (over 20 now) , but just says "it's under warranty, they can sort it out".
I guess if Maserati have a comprehensive warranty and sort the issues quickly people would forget about the issues in the same way.

I once had someone tell me "You have to be mad or rich to buy Maseratis as they have to be dealer serviced every three months", and he was serious!

 

[Simon1963]

Based on the number of cars they have sold, vs the number of posters on PH who have said "they're unreliable" etc etc etc I would hazard that most haven't owned one, and have their info 3rd hand at best (my mate had one with no end of trouble, will actually be someone on a PH thread that had an issue).

As balance, my mate only buys BMW's. He's had no end of problems with the numerous BM's he's had (over 20 now) , but just says "it's under warranty, they can sort it out".
I guess if Maserati have a comprehensive warranty and sort the issues quickly people would forget about the issues in the same way.

The Americans love posting their Ghibli with more clip on bits than an action man. There’s a guy on the Ghibliforum.com who’s turned his into a rally car replica complete with stickers and numbers. Also they love a $100 tuning box and then go out and thrash the ar5e off it all day.
How true it is I don’t know, but I’ve seen a lot of posts/YouTube vids of the 3.0 twin turbo beemer engines spinning bearings at 70,000 miles.

 

[philw696]

I follow a BMW M specialist and the M5 V10 has endless expensive engine problems.
The straight 6 M power motors I had were bullet proof a 3.0 and the 3.2 can't speak for the V8.
In my opinion a good independent can work on anything so you will certainly save on labour costs.

 

[CatmanV2]

Also they love a $100 tuning box

Depressing, innit?
C

 

[philw696]

It won't do anything.

 

[CatmanV2]

It won't do anything.

It really does not stop them buying them

C