Now could be the time…

R

rhubarbe

Junior Member
Messages
57
I wanted a 3200. I'm about as technical as a melon.. I found what looked like a lovely low mileage manual and spent weeks researching its history with the grudging help of Meridien and SportsItalia hiding behind the GDPR. It was only when I spoke on the phone to the previous long-term owner that I found it had had a replacement engine in 2019 (so much for the full service history on the wrong engine) and been left in a damp shed for 13 months by a reputable dealer which caused the leather in the door cards to sag like a boxer's cauliflower ears. So I walked, got a bus, a train and an Über, all the way to Urby's door and bought his superb, and wonderfully undetailed GS, an altogether more sensible option. Thanks Urby. Lovin' it!

So, my advice FWIW is to buy from a forum member or from Dicky, get a 3200 if you're brave enough, but otherwise get as good a GS as you can find.

Welcome and best of luck in your search..
 
Oneball

Oneball

Member
Messages
11,133
rhubarbe said:
I wanted a 3200. I'm about as technical as a melon.. I found what looked like a lovely low mileage manual and spent weeks researching its history with the grudging help of Meridien and SportsItalia hiding behind the GDPR. It was only when I spoke on the phone to the previous long-term owner that I found it had had a replacement engine in 2019 (so much for the full service history on the wrong engine) and been left in a damp shed for 13 months by a reputable dealer which caused the leather in the door cards to sag like a boxer's cauliflower ears. So I walked, got a bus, a train and an Über, all the way to Urby's door and bought his superb, and wonderfully undetailed GS, an altogether more sensible option. Thanks Urby. Lovin' it!

So, my advice FWIW is to buy from a forum member or from Dicky, get a 3200 if you're brave enough, but otherwise get as good a GS as you can find.

Welcome and best of luck in your search..
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Can you share which 3200 that was?
 
R

rhubarbe

Junior Member
Messages
57
It's not actually Irish car. Most of its life it was looked after by Meridien. They diagnosed end float, customer didn't like price. Went elsewhere, got exchange engine from 3200GTA (my Maser man says makes no odds GT or GTA source). Mechanic fitting engine told owner it had more than the 30000 claimed miles on the exchange engine. I walked away at this point. I was told it was in excellent condition in 2019 after engine swap and new clutch. Was serviced in 2021 in NI by a Porsche specialist who took out engine to solve turbo chirp. They too replaced the clutch, about 1000 miles after the last change. I ran away at this point.

There's no documented history with the car, but with the engine swap it wouldn't be relevant anyway.

It did and does look a nice car.
 
williamsmix

williamsmix

Member
Messages
585
rhubarbe said:
It's not actually Irish car. Most of its life it was looked after by Meridien. They diagnosed end float, customer didn't like price. Went elsewhere, got exchange engine from 3200GTA (my Maser man says makes no odds GT or GTA source). Mechanic fitting engine told owner it had more than the 30000 claimed miles on the exchange engine. I walked away at this point. I was told it was in excellent condition in 2019 after engine swap and new clutch. Was serviced in 2021 in NI by a Porsche specialist who took out engine to solve turbo chirp. They too replaced the clutch, about 1000 miles after the last change. I ran away at this point.

There's no documented history with the car, but with the engine swap it wouldn't be relevant anyway.

It did and does look a nice car.
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Yes, it's very important to do your due diligence when buying a 3200. There's a standard list of problems that are likely to occur on these cars, so in addition to the usual things check to ensure that these kind of things have been taken care of: end float is a big issue for manual cars (not so significant for autos), radiators are NLA and have to be recored, throttle bodies and pedal potentiometers wear out and get stuck (and can give you quite a scare!), knock sensors are way down in the V with the starter motor so they're both big jobs and it's as well to replace the coolant pipes with silicon if you have to go in there, the front sub-frame is particularly vulnerable to rot and the chassis captive nuts (behind the upper wishbones) can need some welding which means dropping the lot out to do a proper job, when you come to do a cam belt change the condition of the water pump, pulleys and tensioners need to be looked at carefully and replaced as required to help protect the cam belt for the next three years ... Hence the £750 you may hear for a cam belt change can very easily double. The non availability of parts isn't a particularly massive issue as there are some great people around - like Stuart at Trident Spares - who will help you out.

Don't be afraid of the 3200, just go into it with eyes wide open ... It's a fabulous car!
 
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