Ghibli Diesel Test Drive - Booked. If the finance works out, will order!

[GeoffCapes]

Having only found out on Monday that there is now a Maserati Dealer in Kent, (Motorline Maserati in Maidstone), I've just just had a long chat with one of the guys there who was very helpful indeed. Probably helped by the fact that I knew the exact spec I wanted, and have booked a test drive for 16th July.

Turns out the finance is less than I expected. I say finance, it'll be a lease as it's all going through my company as my company car.
Because they don't use Maserati finance, I could potentially order the car on 16th, and pick it up just before Christmas and not have to pay a penny until then.

This is good and bad. Good for the obvious reasons. Bad because my girlfriend is expecting an engagement ring before I get a Maser!

Rather excited I have to say!

 

[bigbob]

That's a long order lead time.

 

[GeoffCapes]

5 Months at the mo. Better than the Porsche Macan I was looking at. 2 years!!!!!!

 

[bigbob]

A friend was told 18 months tops on the Macan but possibly 12.

At least the Ghibli will be the new MY.

 

[Rwc13]

Yes, and they seem to be continuously improving the cars based on my experience. I wonder if some of the criticisms in the early reviews would feature if those reviews were done again objectively on current cars or future cars.

 

[bigbob]

The Italians seem to be shooting themselves in the foot (or is it biting themselves in the shoulder?) with this. The Germans seem to get the cars to a better quality level before they start building.

 

[Rwc13]

Possibly true, but at least it only seems to be taking weeks or months now to make the improvements, rather than years as in the past. Long serving dealers say they have seen a significant change in this respect with Ghibli and Quattroporte

 

[BennyD]

The Italians seem to be shooting themselves in the foot (or is it biting themselves in the shoulder?) with this. The Germans seem to get the cars to a better quality level before they start building.

Absolutely. However, they are almost perfect German cars, not slightly flawed Italian cars. I know which I prefer.

 

[GeoffCapes]

Absolutely. However, they are almost perfect German cars, not slightly flawed Italian cars. I know which I prefer.

My thoughts exactly!

 

[GeoffCapes]

Hi all. So I had the Ghibli diesel out on a test drive today. Initial thoughts.

It looks gorgeous. So much better in the flesh.

Sounds a bit odd when you're outside the car with the engine running. Left ear hears the synthesised 'burble' right ear you hear the usual diesel sound.

When inside, it all looks smartly put together with a nice finish. The sat nav looks a bit, dare I say it, "cheap". But works well and easily enough.

The driving position IMHO isn't perfect and the steering wheel obscures the speedo, even though you get a digital read out in the centre. My biggest bug bear though is the fact that the seat moves backward and forward electronically but to recline its manual. Wtf? It's a 54 grand car for goods sake! Another motor in the seat won't break the bank. Bit poor when you consider it's standard in the 'opposition'.
There's not a massive amount of room in the drivers seat. Weird considering the size of the thing.

The drive itself is pretty good, with 275bhp it's always gonna be swift. Bit of turbo lag but nothing to worry about, and the synthesised roar is quite addictive. Bit crashy over pot holes but I guess that has a lot to do with the 19" alloys it was on, I guess the 20's and 21's would be a lot worse.

All in all a thoroughly nice car. Am I gonna buy it? Not sure. I do 20k a year, and need a car that's gonna bit spot on all round.
I'm test driving an E 350 AMG CDi next week. We'll see how it compares.
To be honest, I thought I'd like it more than I did. Perhaps I'm being too sensible?

 

[Contigo]

You won't find electric seats on alot of top end Mercs. Everyone I've been in has electric tilt and height but a lever for front and back which is even worse than recline imo!!!!

 

[GeoffCapes]

You won't find electric seats on alot of top end Mercs. Everyone I've been in has electric tilt and height but a lever for front and back which is even worse than recline imo!!!!

They've changed that. The new C class has, the E class has, the ML I drove today has. Just thought it odd.

 

[Contigo]

Finally! Thank the Lord

 

[Rwc13]

I'm assuming this must have been a pretty base car? My Ghibli has fully electric seats including recline, and electric steering column. Guess this comes with one of the "packs". But I'm shocked if the base car doesn't come with manual steering column adjustment?

 

[GeoffCapes]

I'm assuming this must have been a pretty base car? My Ghibli has fully electric seats including recline, and electric steering column. Guess this comes with one of the "packs". But I'm shocked if the base car doesn't come with manual steering column adjustment?

It did have manual steering column adjustment. And manual recline. How base a car do you get for 54k. You'd expect a few creature comforts for that kind of money.