Thoughts on these cars?

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cheshiremaserati

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Neither car is 100% on the ad. for different reasons. But in my view the 2nd higher mileage cambiocorsa car looks to be a better buy than the self-serviced manual car. if you intend to investigate further, an independent PPI would be highly recommended.
 
Vampyrebat

Vampyrebat

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cheshiremaserati said:
Neither car is 100% on the ad. for different reasons. But in my view the 2nd higher mileage cambiocorsa car looks to be a better buy than the self-serviced manual car. if you intend to investigate further, an independent PPI would be highly recommended.
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Have to say sorry for yesterday............When i got to my big bro he had some pressing items that he needed to discuss with me so we had to go for a bit of a walk!!..............I would rather have talked cars!!
 
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B_Tank88

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cheshiremaserati said:
Neither car is 100% on the ad. for different reasons. But in my view the 2nd higher mileage cambiocorsa car looks to be a better buy than the self-serviced manual car. if you intend to investigate further, an independent PPI would be highly recommended.
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Thank you for your opinion, can I ask you to elaborate when you state 'different reasons?'.

When I was looking for my current car, an E46 M3, there was such a plethora of information on the car that gave me confidence and I had big list of things to look out for when viewing them. I wasn't looking for a perfect car either with my budget, I was looking for a car that I can maintain myself given my resources and competence. This list, was a lot larger than the list I currently have for the 4200, despite the research I have done! Hence me requesting you to elaborate.

With my M3, there are many common issues it's susceptible of. At least one which can ruin the engine. I'm yet to read up on any 'catastrophic' issues on the 4200, but I'm not sure if that means the car design is bulletproof..
 
conaero

conaero

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The only catastrophic failures are usually from poor maintenance and treatment but here they are:

1: ceramic cats disintegrate, the sand works it’s way back up into the engine and wears the engine.

This is by smacking the cats through miss-use.

2: Oil nut to reservoir shears and let’s go, dumping the oil/blowing the engine.

Simple maintenance watch item.

3: Combined oil/water pump shared shaft failure/shears

Seal between water and oil side fails and the shaft rusts then shears. Not much you can do about this but it’s not been seen in a long time so probably only affected early models probably.

Did I miss any?

I have seen rods let go and punch through the block on the Ferrari variant but not on the Maserati. It has a different crank.
 
2b1ask1

2b1ask1

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I think you got the biggies ok there Matt, others are probably more frequent but less ‘terminal’ like clutches, wishbones, sub frames and overdue brake disks. Most of these are common and may point towards poor maintenance and certainly to penny pinching which is not good on cars of this calibre. I will say however that self servicing is not commensurate with bad servicing! I service all my own vehicles and reckon I do at least as good if not far better than MD’s are generally doing.
 
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FIFTY

FIFTY

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+ heater matrix

About 12 hours labour to remove the interior (it's mounted behind the dash) and maybe £60 for the part

A few people have done it themselves on here.

Check for damp in the passenger footwell, smell of coolant, windscreen that constsntly mists up and gets greasy from the coolant evaporating.

I have seen that manual car talked about on here before. Not sure if the owner is a member on here but he's done a few youtube videos of him driving it up some alpine passes... Seems Like a well loved car.

I do a lot of my own maintenance but for servicing I give it to my specialist so the stamp can go in the book so each to their own on this i guess.
 
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B_Tank88

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I'm aware of the heater matrix, and tbh this one terrifies me I've already commented on the heater matrix thread! I do a lot of my own maintenance too, and depending on the car and how much it's service history may be worth, I also do my own servicing and my next 'weekend' car will be the same. I'm confident with basic engine work too I did a full coolant system/belts refresh including water pump, thermo etc on my M3 myself which I would happily do again, but this heater matrix and seeing the car in the DIY thread at it's half way point I find quite scary. I'm not the best with trim items..

The other things mentioned don't worry me as I can do the labour myself. The more I research the more I feel the 4200 is less maintenance than my E46 M3 is potentially capable of. Mine is the SMG which is a very similar set up to Cambiocorsa and I'm familiar with the setup. But the pump on the M3 is over 2k from the dealer. If we do it the cheap way, a replacement motor for the pump is still £500. Considerably more than the Alfa Selespeed pump! I guess I just find it surprising that a Maserati may be within reach for me, especially as I recently realized what they are priced at.

I guess coming back to those adverts I posted.. I'm more and more tempted to list my M3 up for sale early..

I can't help thinking those adverts look pretty decent, so I'm wondering what you more experienced Massers would think. I think I would go for the PPI route this time though.
 
FIFTY

FIFTY

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Yes I agree an E46 M3 can potentially have more "common problems" than the 4200 - however due to the large cult following around BMW M cars the Maserati's continue to be the butt of public house anecdotes.

I had an E46 330I before the 4200 which I did a huge amount of work on and it seemed endless.

Try reading through my project thread, it's no where near done yet I have the past 6 months rigorous of activity to post on it but it will give you an idea. Hopefully the two cars you are looking at are in better condition than mine when I bought it. Although now it is probably one of the most mechanically straight 4200's out there to the point that my specialist asked me to give the mechanical restoration a break and consider saving my pennies for a re-spray lol. Just proves that it can be turned around with some patience and determination.

https://www.sportsmaserati.com/inde...00-project-the-story-so-far-and-beyond.28073/

If you don't fancy doing the matrix yourself which is fair because I did not, I got mine done for just over £1k with some other bits like repairing a wiring loom and removing a third party tracker... which is not that bad for quite a big job.

Changing the clutch on the other hand is expensive, expect £3-4k depending on if anything else needs fixed while the gearbox is out - mine needed new brake lines, stub axle oil seal, anti roll bar bushes (removed the old ARB's for a new FD kit instead so add another £1k for that), gearbox oil filter... Plus the clutch pipe put up a fight. At least both of these cars claim to have a new clutch so you dont need to worry about that.
 
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MaserCoupe

MaserCoupe

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564
B_Tank88 said:
I'm aware of the heater matrix, and tbh this one terrifies me I've already commented on the heater matrix thread! I do a lot of my own maintenance too, and depending on the car and how much it's service history may be worth, I also do my own servicing and my next 'weekend' car will be the same. I'm confident with basic engine work too I did a full coolant system/belts refresh including water pump, thermo etc on my M3 myself which I would happily do again, but this heater matrix and seeing the car in the DIY thread at it's half way point I find quite scary. I'm not the best with trim items..

The other things mentioned don't worry me as I can do the labour myself. The more I research the more I feel the 4200 is less maintenance than my E46 M3 is potentially capable of. Mine is the SMG which is a very similar set up to Cambiocorsa and I'm familiar with the setup. But the pump on the M3 is over 2k from the dealer. If we do it the cheap way, a replacement motor for the pump is still £500. Considerably more than the Alfa Selespeed pump! I guess I just find it surprising that a Maserati may be within reach for me, especially as I recently realized what they are priced at.

I guess coming back to those adverts I posted.. I'm more and more tempted to list my M3 up for sale early..

I can't help thinking those adverts look pretty decent, so I'm wondering what you more experienced Massers would think. I think I would go for the PPI route this time though.
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BTank88 if you can do the above, you can definitely do the heater matrix for sure...you’ll love the 4200, it is so much more than the sum of its parts. Don’t let the matrix worry you, the main thing is that it can be done and with basic tools! A three legged puller and you are away. So from what you’ve demonstrated in your capabilities above its a job that you can definitely do.:D
 
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B_Tank88

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granturismo said:
your second car linked is CAT D - already discussed on here - https://www.sportsmaserati.co.uk/index.php?threads/recent-maserati-sales.28607/#post-691851
feels overpriced for a CAT D car...
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There's the catch! It isn't mentioned anywhere in the advert! Thanks for posting that thread, I went through it, I have no idea what an Autolign certificate is or that removing write-off record is even possible. As much as I'd like to consider it I will definitely be re-selling mine after some time so I can't deal with the hassle of a written off car so that one would be no good.

The other one is still OK I guess apart from the lack of annual service history.
 
Andyk

Andyk

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61,154
I like the first car. Looks lovely in the blue. Yes doesn't have full history but at this age lots don't. That wouldn't put me off these days as long as it had been looked after over it's later years and can prove that. Plus having it checked over by a specialty will help.
 
C

cheshiremaserati

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1,121
Vampyrebat said:
Have to say sorry for yesterday............When i got to my big bro he had some pressing items that he needed to discuss with me so we had to go for a bit of a walk!!..............I would rather have talked cars!!
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No problem. We can talk cars at a future event. I will be at Gawsworth Classic Car Show on Monday 6th May. And I hope to make it to the Gold Cup Challenge at Oulton Park in August.
 
rockits

rockits

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9,172
As mentioned above both have their issues and not perfect but few will be of this age and price.

The first car seems a little under serviced to me but looks a decent example.

The 2nd as mentioned is a CAT D that had rear end damage. The Autolign check is generally a 200 quid inspection with basic report. It removes it from the HPI branded register alledgedly as Autolign work direct with HPI. All it does is make the notes revised to Condition Inspected rather than Condition alert. However all other HPI registers such as Experian etc. will have it listed as CAT D.

Always concerns me when a CAT car isn't disclosed upfront as you always wonder what else is being hidden. I would just be upfront and honest. No problem buying a CAT car is the damage is known, it has been properly repaired and is the right price.

The first one looks nicer but not sure if that is down to alloys or pics.
 
Ewan

Ewan

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6,811
I’d not rush to see either of these cars. The first car is missing about 10 services, and the private work mentioned may or may not have been done (and certainly it’s not been SD3 diagnostic tested). And the second is a CAT car, which may or may not have been repaired correctly, and even if it has, will be hard to sell.

If you are not intending to buy until later this summer, wait for a better example. They are not that rare, and are not easy to sell, so other/better examples will come up at sensible money.
 
T

TimR

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2,731
Andyk said:
I like the first car. Looks lovely in the blue. Yes doesn't have full history but at this age lots don't. That wouldn't put me off these days as long as it had been looked after over it's later years and can prove that. Plus having it checked over by a specialty will help.
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Id agree with this...even before I learned the second car his a CAT *
Manual's are significantly easier to get your head around on a technical footing. They go wrong less often, from what Ive seen, and it follows they are cheaper to fix. If you want a manual, there are fewer to chose from. If you dont know the difference, go drive a few.

Id not be overly concerned about a self maintained car. Cars with full MD service history get shown up for having been neglected at the dealers too...! Get an inspection by a specialist when you find "the car"...best £300 you'll spend. The first depends on the inspection to a large degree IMO.....
 
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B_Tank88

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Thank you all for the input, has been very informative and given my more confidence about getting into a 4200.

I will still enjoy my M3 for this summer as I've spent 4k (maintenance/respray) in the last year (and a lot more DIY time/effort) to get it into real presentable condition, but when it goes on sale possibly end of this year, I can certainly see me viewing 4200s after that and I'll be keeping a close eye on the market, and this forum until then!

My budget will be around 15k, certainly the bottom end of the market, but that doesn't phase me and I'm not too worried about colour/spec/gearbox, but I am certainly fussy on the maintenance and condition.
 
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