today Nice price or no dice Maserati has a V8 engine developed by Ferrari. It also has a version of this company’s F1 gearbox that some say spoils the car’s behavior. Let’s see if the price is good enough for a little rowdy behavior to be worth it.
Yesterday we wondered if an automatic transmission could ruin an otherwise solid sports car like a Porsche 911 1999 Porsche 911 Carrera came into question with a rebuilt engine and a few other updates that make it otherwise very appealing. All in all, the seller asked for $ 20,000 for the car, and even with the automatic, a full 58 percent of you said “uh, I’d guess”, which gave the two-pedal Porsche a nice price win.
Today, let’s stay with the question of whether a transmission could spoil a car. Our current candidate is that 2007 Maserati Quattroporte Sport GT, and … well, just check it out. For a four-door sedan, that’s a damn sexy car. According to the ad, this has only 27,000 miles and according to the pictures the bodywork shows no obvious problems, nor is there a curb rash on the GT-specific seven-spoke alloys that just piled this pathetic amount.
The interior looks just as good. In the cabin, you’ll be pampered by black-dyed leather that covers most of the interior surfaces and is all accented with sporty red stitching. With the Sport GT, instead of the standard zebrano wood, you also get aluminum pedals, an Alcantara headliner and sporty carbon trim.
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One thing you’ll notice here, too, is a dainty little T-bar on the console next to the Rockford brake handle. That, my friends, is the controller that you use to control the DuoSelect electro-hydraulic transmission.
The DuoSelect is Maserati’s version of the Ferrari F1 transmission, a single-clutch manual transmission with hydraulic actuation via electronic controls that offers either fully automatic or manual shifting. The finger-snap gears of the redline-loving transmission turned out to be well suited for sports rockets like the Ferrari 355 in which the F1 debuted. In a sleek and stately sedan that might be expected to spend time in traffic or just not whiplash every time it shifts up, it turned out to be less popular.
The early DuoShift transmissions in the Quattroporte were so bad that Maserati made an accelerated attempt to find an alternative. Talks with Volkswagen to use this company’s DSG transmission failed and eventually Maserati decided to offer an improved DuoSelect as in this car or a traditional six-speed automatic from ZF. For most Quattroporte owners, the ZF box fits better. It also benefits from a traditional gear lever and this switch allows for another cup holder in the center console.
Another topic of the DuoSelect is maintenance. Depending on how aggressively a driver is using flappads, the transmission can go through clutches at an alarming rate. As you might expect, the cost of the full DuoSelect service is daunting. Other regular maintenance items are just as expensive, and there are a number of brand-specific issues such as sticky buttons on the dashboard and tire pressure sensor failures that can show up.
The ad doesn’t mention any issues with this car at all, and instead focuses on the pluses. These include apparently heated and blunt seats, automatic sun protection in the rear and three-zone automatic air conditioning. Other perks of owning include a clean track and a set of new Lionhart tires.
If new, this Maserati would have paid its owner about $ 112,000 back to leave the parking lot. Now that the new one is worn out (and every warranty is long gone) it is an Italian car of a certain age which can be a tricky business. The seller seems to recognize this and has set an asking price of $ 18,750. Let’s decide how exactly that is, given what we now know about the car.
What do you say, is this Maserati worth the $ 18,750 when it’s seated? Or does DuoSelect mean that you would shop elsewhere?
You decide!
Chicago, Illinois, Craigslist, or go here when the display disappears.
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