Help! Anyone have any knowledge of this Granturismo?

Hi Guys

Noticed this on AutoTrader last night and have agreed a price subject to inspection and due diligence etc.
Given your collective encyclopedic knowledge of all things Maserati, I thought it wise to run this past you, in case anyone
has come across this car or has any helpful thoughts. The agreed figure is less than the advertised price.

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201701191461219?

Would intend to use this as a second / weekend car and all things being equal, possibly keep it long term.

Sincere thanks for any and all comments.

Mike

I think the view would be 'what detail do they have around the accident and repair?'

C

Yep MOT history checks out fine but I'd want to know how it was classified as a Cat D, if they can't tell you what it was or there is no other way of finding out what damage it was subject to then walk away. There are other non cat cars there worth spending a bit more on. Think about resale time, why would they want to buy a CAT D car when there is another non CAT car down the road for a couple of K more?

If you intend to keep the car for 10 years and there is a significant reduction in price (like it is £22k) then it may be worth consideration imo but I'd still check the car on cold start for variator rattle and make sure the discs and pads plus tyres are fresh.

Car is in great condition for it's age............Mint Condition..........Make up your mind!!!
Red car and red interior, you'll need anger management training after an hour in it!!
Seriously, it looks very nice in flat red but Mr C is right. There's small accidents and there's small accidents. The damage could of been up to £13,000 worth

The market for a GT in red with red and is CAT D registered is tiny. Unless your heart is set on the double red option, there will be better cars available for not much more. To resell this in due course will be very hard and any dealer would bid you next to nothing for it.

Hi Guys

Sincere thanks for all your comments. Hugely appreciated.
I'll comment in return, in order.

~ Exact verifiable details of the accident damage was going to be part of my due diligence.
So far all I know is that it was panels only. Specifically the front bumper and front off-side panel.

~ The price agreed subject to due diligence and a comprehensive RAC inspection and engine oil analysis was £26,500. Based on your comments, sounds like this is still too high.
The owner sounds unlikely to drop further.

~ Yep, red and red is a bit too much........red. Not the worst colour combination I've seen though. Always had a thing for red sports cars and was going to reserve my verdict on
this combination until I saw it.

~ I'd be bringing the car back to Northern Ireland for a few years initially, so I accepted that resale wouldn't be practicable, especially given location.
My opinion was. If the damage was minimal as claimed and the repair was professionally done; the RAC inspection threw up nothing scary and the other bits of due diligence
panned out, then at £26,500 it wasn't a bad deal. With the caveat that, resale probably wouldn't be an option at anything near Cap Clean for example.

~ My 'buy' budget was around £25k and I was about have a mechanic mate in Manchester pull the trigger on an British car Auctions V8 Vantage at around that price, when I saw
this ad. I have leg and back injuries from uniform service which make heavy clutches difficult often, hence the attraction of the auto box.

Taking everything you've said guys guys and given I'm in no rush, it sounds like I ought to pass on this car? I respect your experience and opinions, which is why I asked for your help. If you think that I ought to be able to put my hands on a better car this year, not too far north of £25,000, I'll take that option.

Any other thoughts, are most welcome.

Thanks again.
Mike

I think if you're that tied to £25k you might have to go for a CAT car. For me it'd be dependant on details of the damage. I'd want rather more than 'as far as I know' if that makes sense?

C

RAC and AA inspections are rather limited from my experience...not much more than a MOT.

You would get a far better service from one of our well know indi's for similar mkney.

There is a forum member on here selling Mike, might want more than £25k but well worth a PM. Can't beat buying a forum car done it myself.

Makes total sense. And I was intending to dig deep on that subject. (damage) Moot point now.

I'm not tied to £25k. I've some big budget items to do this year, like build a house.
So a budget of £25-£30k I have sitting around and can live with, just for this purpose.

Conversation was had about that car and I didn't feel I ought to insult the man by asking him to
compromise on what already appeared to be a very good price
I did nearly buy from another forum member last autumn, but wasn't quick enough and missed out.

Part of the reason for joining the forum was to tap into your collective experience etc and possibly buy
from another member if the right car came up. Still very open to that.

Bearing in mind your budget and if you like the car maybe ask the vendor to make an Autolign inspection part of the deal. If it fails he pays, if it passes you pay and have a car removed from the register that will then be 'Condition Inspected'.

https://www.autolign.co.uk

Didn't know you can get a reclassification on a cat car .wow ! Worth a punt than , go in for 25k depending this inspection he won't shift that to soon there's plenty out there .

I'm sure it was for sale just over a year ago. I'll do some digging. I like it fwiw.

I wouldn't and I've owned a Cat D Maserati. As lots of posters have mentioned, you can get a non cat car of similar age around the 28k mark so that car needs to be 25-30% less than that. Contigo mentioned 22k, that's about right.

I'm told there are lots of Aston's kicking about on BCA, particularly early AMV8 and DB9. There's also a bunch of Bentley Continentals (which tempt me quite badly, must be getting old). Looks there are too many for demand meaning that resale could be tough.

maverick said:

Didn't know you can get a reclassification on a cat car .wow ! Worth a punt than , go in for 25k depending this inspection he won't shift that to soon there's plenty out there .

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It will still have the stigma/savings. Buy cheap sell cheap, no issue. Cat C always had to be inspected anyway, so just a play on words advertising their business I would say.

outrun said:

I wouldn't and I've owned a Cat D Maserati. As lots of posters have mentioned, you can get a non cat car of similar age around the 28k mark so that car needs to be 25-30% less than that. Contigo mentioned 22k, that's about right.

I'm told there are lots of Aston's kicking about on BCA, particularly early AMV8 and DB9. There's also a bunch of Bentley Continentals (which tempt me quite badly, must be getting old). Looks there are too many for demand meaning that resale could be tough.

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I love the Bentley but I can't imagine the costs involved in running a 10 year old continental , somebody told me there's no head gasket available for the W12 engine so if it goes it's £14,000 for a new short engine plus fitting.

26.5k is too much for a cat D though at 9k for a bonnet it could easily be on the register with panel damage , if I was going to keep it until it's a 100k £10,000 car and liked the colour combo I'd put a 23k offer in with a time limit and walk away.

Sometimes the first offer is the best offer but some sellers don't see that, I don't imagine they're queueing round the block for a red/red cat D Maserati

The problem with the RAC and AA is they do "cars". They don't specialise and so they don't really have a clue. I've heard of other less-common cars where the person doing the inspection is asking the seller about stuff or the prospective owner.

They are fine on a Ford Focus but specialist cars need specialist inspections - ideally from a reputable independent.

Wack61 said:

I love the Bentley but I can't imagine the costs involved in running a 10 year old continental , somebody told me there's no head gasket available for the W12 engine so if it goes it's £14,000 for a new short engine plus fitting.

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That's interesting. I had considered a mid-noughties Bentley at one point with exactly that engine.

I know they are expensive to run but that is bonkers!

I did too. Surely a gasket can be fashioned?

C

I was under the impression that your Bentley Continental had a VW derived engine from the Phaton and Toureg range?

I do know they can be serviced by them.

Found this post on pistonheads , seems it's correct , head gasket kit not available from the factory

Precisely.

Here's an example, a blown head gasket. Nothing TOO crazy in the grand scheme of things. How much would the pair of head gaskets cost on an E92 M3? Not much more than a couple of grand, surely?

On a GT? Well, they're not available from the factory full stop, and I think a new fully dressed longblock comes in near the £20,000 mark.

There's also a few interesting posts from Bentley owners

This is on a 2004 continental

My car has the old favourite tyre pressure monitoring system failure(ECU in boot = £500), heated rear screen failure(fix for £2600), air cconditioning failure, (hopefuly just gas), has a "service now" warning on start up, despite having been serviced by Bentley a 1000 miles ago, has just developed a power steering fluid leak. Im told by an independant Bentley specialist, that the engine has to come out to fix this leak, and may cost £2000!!! It also had at six years old, a partial wiring loom spliced into the dashboard for nearly £3000....SERIOUSLY!!