Normally, when we feature a Maserati Quattroporte, it’s solidly in basketcase mode and a car you wouldn’t touch with a ten-foot pole. This one bucks the trend, as it’s a low-mileage example that’s been preserved by its two oners from new and received all the necessary maintenance to keep it running sweetly. Although located in Minnesota, it was a southern California car up until just recently. Find it here on eBay with a $22,500 Buy-It-Now.
While I’ll agree it was never the most elegant design, I’ve always liked the Quattroporte for what it is: a big, heavy road sedan designed for eating up the highway miles. One of the biggest improvements to be made visually is to convert the park benches to the slim European-market bumpers, a chance I’d absolutely make if the bumpers could be sourced. The seller notes the Quattroporte still rides on its original tires in an effort to validate the low mileage claims.
Another key area for substantiating condition is the interior, as these leather- and wood-laden cockpits can break down in dramatic fashion if left to rot. The seller says the interior still smells new, likening it to “…a fine Italian shoemaker’s store.” The original Maserati floormats remain protected beneath the Coco mats and there’s no obvious de-lamination happening to the wood veneers. The previous owner was the caretaker through 2016, and owned a vineyard in Malibu.
The list of maintenance improvements is extensive, and quite different from most of the listings we see for Quattroportes that were “running when parked.” New fuel pumps, rebuilt carbs, hoses/thermostat/coolant, plugs/wires/cap/rotor, stainless steel exhaust, fuel regulator – how nice it is to see someone actually care for one of these massive Maseratis. While the price is high, this is one of those cars where you should always buy the best you can afford.
Got a chance to drive one of these a few times, both in the city and on the highway. The thing I remember the most is the cool sounding exhaust system.
We had a couple of these in the neighborhood when I was a teen. I always thought they looked like a more daily driveable choice than the similarly slab sided Lagonda.
The comment about the interior is true, the quality of the leather while very soft and flexible does not wear well over time. If maintained they are great fun and very useful cars for both town and country. Just make certain you can feed this beast as it can be a fuel swilling pig with little or no effort.
The milage I have seen from some owners is only in the mid single digits. WOW. I think that the price asked is about right and might be a little low. For what it is worth
Looks like the interior is made of bread dough.
But cushy bread doe.
I bought the NEW CAR SMELL air freshener at Wal-mart a couple years ago and put one in my 1965 car. A gal sat in the car to look at it and said” it smells like a new car yet”, So they must work a little and yes she was blonde. This does look like a well taken care of car. I like the color to.
I like its stable-mate. The 500 Abarth. And is that a Mercedes next to it?
my boss had one of these in black and it was sweet he let me drive it once and i think it was the only year when everything worked well if maintained. great car id buy it if i had the money
How hard are parts to source???
Maseratis and De Tomasos tend to use a lot of parts from other cars, like kit cars. The trick is finding out which other cars.
Luckily we now have something to help with the information matching required.
We have the internet.
I remember seeing the stretch-limo version of this (in red) in the Arnie movie “The Running Man”, and thinking what a futuristic looking car it was. That was the 80’s of course! Still wouldn’t touch it with my ten foot pole!
This is one to lay down. Nice car, nice colour, starting not to look ugly.
A lot of car for the money and a brand which is coming in from the cold.
On the Euro bumpers, not too hard to find one of these being broken in Europe. Who else is going to need the bumpers?
I believe this is a car that was for sale in the Los Angeles area for quite awhile. They were asking $14,000. Looks like a flip to me. More power to them though. My opinion is that these cars often sell at around $10,000 at this mileage. Nearly all of the ones for sale are under 50,000 miles. Lots to go wrong when an exotic just sits. Just my opinion, but I think this car is way over priced.
I remember a newspaper article a few years ago when one of these in Colorado showed up in the Cash for Clunkers trade-in. That car looked fantastic, at least in that one photo, but the car HAD to be destroyed as a requirement of the program.
I refurbished a 62 Vette, when I put a new dash in it, it smelled like a new car from then on.
This being a QP3, it should have the Chrysler A727 trans. The engines, or should I say lack of proper maintenance, would be the Achilles heel for these hence it wasn’t too hard to find aQP3 in a good cosmetic condition suffering from mechanical failures for $5k or less. I played around with a thought of buying one and stuffing a Mopar under the hood but life kept getting in the way. Maybe it’s a good thing that I didn’t get involved as I’m not even sure how that engine swap would play out…
something quite surprising for me in Europe (sorry for probably poor English…), the speedometer up to 140 km/h or 80 miles… Here, it was 300km/h !!!… With 4.9 engine and around 325hp, I think it’s possible more than 80 miles !!!…
It had to do with another US government stroke of wisdom by limiting the speedometer display to 85 mph, which lasted from 1979 to 1981. This included car, trucks and motorcycles. Another bureaucratic “brilliant idea” to slow down drivers and improve gas economy by emphasizing double nickel on the speedometer display.
hi ! sorry for my late answer, was away in indonesia for a while… thank’s a lot for that info, I didn’t know about that strange “brilliant” idea !!! ..; quite ridiculous in my opinion… I’ll like to drive at around 130 to see what happens to the speedo !!…