maserati 1997 ghibli gt 2.8 review

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Picture courtesy of The Thinking Man's Crumpet.

Average Ratings

Performance	8/10
Practicality	6/10
Reliability	8/10
Value for Money	8/10
Reviewer Rating	7.5/10
Overall Rating	8.8/10

50% Recommended1 out of 2 Reviews

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By Galactus on 9th Oct 2003

Galactus's Ratings

Value for money	7/10
Overall value	7/10
Galactus's recommendation

Good Points

Fiery, snarling beast of a thing. Very exotic, leather-lined, wood-trimmed old-school sports car with serious attitude, and decent luggage space.

Bad Points

Very expensive to run, on/off power delivery & massive torque means weekly near-death experiences on damp or cold roads - not a good choice for the UK. Maserati dealers & mechanics can afford solid gold spanners on the back of the servicing costs.

General Comments

I loved this Maserati 1997 Ghibli GT 2.8. To be more precise, I fell in love with it and to this day, a part of me misses it - but it's the part of me that loves power slides and neck breaking acceleration, slamming on the breaks and narrowly avoiding ploughing off into the hedge i.e. the stupid part.

This car was the last incarnation of the 2+2 Biturbo shaped Maserati Ghibli. Under Fiat's control from 1994, this car had a fantastic and bulletproof 2.8 twin turbo V6 producing 280Bhp and 230 Lb/ft of torque. Maserati's are all about torque and effortless acceleration, and this is no exception.

Inside, everything is covered in connolly hide, alcantara, suede etc. Wood and leather in a very old-school Italian way. Very comfortable sports seats, and easily a car you could drive for a 2 week holiday with lots of luggage space and pretty good reliability.

By "pretty good reliability" I mean, it never broke down, or had any major problems. But the rear brake lights would blow a bulb every three months or for no reason. And the horn stopped working twice, and needed replacing. And once I pressed the fog-light button and the whole thing popped into the dashboard, and I had to lever off the wood trim to retrieve it and turn the fog lights off again. And the driver's seat came loose once, too. That's it - for such a great car, with so much style, these were irritating flaws, but no reason to get rid of it.

No, I got rid of it because it tried to kill me. The turbos only really delivered above 2500 - 3000 revs. Below that, the car drove like any sensible 2.8 V6, not that fast, docile, easy. Hit 3000 revs, a few seconds later, and the rear wheels are spinning (at 60mph) and you are suddenly pushing 110 mph in seconds, then you slam on the breaks (excellent ABS) and tame it, hang on round a corner, which it would slice into like a race car, let it cool down a bit and then do the whole thing again. Fun, but hairy.

Then one day it hit a big puddle on the motorway, at about 70 mph and slid accross 2 lanes. This scared me. No warning. Then, on frosty roads outside Oxford, at about 40, I could feel it sliding a little bit every turn. People in Fords and Mazdas were overtaking me, but the Maser just wouldn't have it. In the wet, damp, frosty or cold - basically from October through to May, it had to be driven very gently, which defeats the purpose of a car that can do 0-60 in 5.5 seconds.

Finally, the service costs. Every year, the car needs hoses changing (£420 ish) a service (£650) plus in my case a new horn (£200) and front shock absorber (£170) plus a few extras and it came in at about £1500. It also needs cambelts done every 3 years / 36k which is about £2000. The insurance was higher than the new Porsche 911 I got afterwards, too. Fuel economy was excellent, though.

In Summary, it's a passionate, fiery car - like a BMW M3 on cocaine. Faster, more exclusive, and addictive power - but a frenetic, and sometimes scary experience. Combine the unpredictability with the costs, and to be honest, it's a car I'm glad I owned, but I knew it couldn't last forever. Get one for summer weekends, and a the odd trip down to the South of France, if you can afford such a luxury. If you need to drive it a lot all year, better get a BMW M3 and live with the shouts of "to##er" as you drive down the road.

Total Respect: +3