Fake Stradales

mischaRS

Member
Messages
154
Is there no way that 'Presige' Dealers can be outed for co-ercing Joe Public into buying ' Fake' Stradales ??
4C Prestige have a MC Sportline calling it a Strad -and having the brass neck to admit it in an email--- and there is now a privateer on Autotrader flogging the same horse. At 92K !!!
Plus 'someone' has doctored Wikipedia giving the end build date as later...
Too much of a coincidence ???
What can be done to protect the authenticity of our Stradale Marque ???
 

Scaf

Member
Messages
6,512
I exchanged an email or two with 4c prestige, playing a little dumb

Quote
Thank you for your email. Yes, I can confirm it is the MC Stradale. Some of the differences you may see is that this is the facelift car with the more traditional gear selector as opposed to the automated manual style shift of earlier cars that didn’t have the gearstick. Aside from the big improvement in infotainment and screen the gearbox was the other big step.

they then chased me with this email

“My colleague said you didn’t want the facelift car with the change of gearbox.I just wondered if there was a particular reason? Maserati stopped the earlier box due to its fragility (eats clutches), low speed judder (overheats in traffic) and weight. Some of the motoring press praised the original MC Shift as they said it had a sweeter change on pace but they tended to ignore the foibles of it.

I’m a former GranTurismo owner and have solid knowledge of anything out of Maranello including other cars (Ferrari’s) with the old MC box (which like the engines are Ferrari sourced).”

Perhaps Strad owners should take comfort that the cars are so desirable that people try to pass off cars that are rather lovely in their own right, as Strads.
 

Felonious Crud

Administrator
Staff member
Messages
21,013
Surely the Trades Descriptions Act would provide recourse in the event some poor sod bought the 'wrong' car. Still, despicable. String 'em up!
 

mischaRS

Member
Messages
154
4C Prestige advert could surely be construed as 'Fraudulent advertising', as the MC Sportline depreciates furiously, and the MC Stradale does not... There is a very significant difference in future values...
 

Oneball

Member
Messages
11,075
If you’re that worried about it why not tell them? Maserati’s naming strategy was worse than Porsche, they may have just made a mistake.
 

Chrisb2015

Member
Messages
538
I exchanged an email or two with 4c prestige, playing a little dumb

Quote


they then chased me with this email

“My colleague said you didn’t want the facelift car with the change of gearbox.I just wondered if there was a particular reason? Maserati stopped the earlier box due to its fragility (eats clutches), low speed judder (overheats in traffic) and weight. Some of the motoring press praised the original MC Shift as they said it had a sweeter change on pace but they tended to ignore the foibles of it.

I’m a former GranTurismo owner and have solid knowledge of anything out of Maranello including other cars (Ferrari’s) with the old MC box (which like the engines are Ferrari sourced).”

Perhaps Strad owners should take comfort that the cars are so desirable that people try to pass off cars that are rather lovely in their own right, as Strads.
The guys at 4C are a decent bunch and not going out of their way to deceive anyone. I met Chris the Director in a previous life before he packed in his former job to do something he loves. I also know he has owned a GT personally taking it on a number of European road trips so does has some experience of them. Like you say, a lovely car in its own right.
 

Tallman

Member
Messages
1,833
So the problem is actually the DVLA (or Maserati itself) - I am told that when you use AutoTrader it picks up the car info from DVLA after you put in your registration, so dealers/sellers have no choice/option. It seems that the MC model is listed with DVLA as a MC Stradale MC Shift. I presume the DVLA gets their info from Maserati when they register a model.
 

sionie1

Member
Messages
1,310
It's common amongst dealers. When I purchased my GC Centennial it was described using a pre-populated template, so had the Stradale name as well as the gearbox listed. Even the salesman talked about it as a Stradle ( he was newish), it was only when he sent me a video of it being prepped that he noticed the 'gear stick' and did some digging that he was able to qualify everything. As I'd never seen the car and had completed a trade in I had a few nervous days trying to get to the bottom if it all. Dicky set me right on the same day as the dealer came back to me, and this is a Maserati main dealer we are talking about.