Dating back to 1963, the Maserati Quattroporte was a full-size luxury sedan built in Italy. The fifth generation was produced from 2003 to 2012, and the last of the last were built in 2023. In the U.S., they were expensive, sold through a small network of dealers, and they were known to be troublesome. The seller has a pair of the cars from 2005 and 2006, both offered as donors because neither runs. Located in Lamar, Missouri, this duo is offered here on Facebook Marketplace for the cheap wheels price of $1,500 OBO – and that gets you both of them.
The name of the car in Italian stands for “four doors”, so that’s what you got with each of these Italian stallions. Depending on the model year during the fifth gen, you got either a 4.2 or 4.7-liter V8 sourced from Ferrari, usually paired with a 6-speed automated manual transmission. Perhaps the car’s best feature was its styling, compliments of Pininfarina. The vehicles were smooth and stylish, but sources tend to point out some flaws, which include lofty maintenance expenses and higher-than-average depreciation. Some mechanical gremlins have also been noted online, like with the transmission and electrical issues.
The pair the seller offers comes from 2005 (the black one) and 2006 (the silver one). Neither runs, though the bodies, paint jobs, and especially the interiors look okay. If you’re good at working on these machines, perhaps this is a cheap way to get two for the price of one. But the seller doesn’t indicate what’s wrong with either of them, so you probably should expect the worst.
The interiors are finished in leather, which you would expect for a high-end Italian machine. One of the cars has a clear title, while the buyer only gets a bill of sale for the other. You’ll have to haul them away, so bring $1,500 (OBO) and a flatbed to make these Maseratis yours. Our thanks to Barn Finder Terry for this twofer tip.
This is called dirt cheap, it even says obo.
Odds are, it’s the DuoSelect automated manual transmission that has them at near scrap value.
I believe you can do a manual swap on these which would be fantastic. Just does not make financial sense.
I do wonder about that manual swap, considering a non-automated manual was never available for these (or its GranTurismo/GranCabrio siblings) in the first place, so you’d need to figure out how to rig up a clutch pedal and gear lever. Maybe a swap to the later cars’ conventional automatic (a ZF 6-speed unit) might be more feasible?
I’ve read the main problem with the DuoSelect automated manual was that they didn’t anticipate American drivers’ tendency to let automatics “creep” while riding the brakes gently to moderate speed in parking lots and traffic jams, so that behavior led to premature wear of the clutch packs, which were an expensive job to have replaced. The trick to extending clutch life is to avoid riding the brakes as much as possible, and instead let the car creep unimpeded at slow speeds, bring it to a prompt and full stop, repeat as needed.
@SubGothius: That’s pretty much what I also heard about Ford’s PowerShift dry clutch DCT. An even dumber oversight than Maserati’s since Ford could’ve looked at that experience and realized it was wrong for their cars aimed at the core of the mass market.
That’s not correct. A fully manual gearbox certainly was available in the coupe/cabrio (at least 2003-2007, but probably later). That’s presumably the source of the swap that people have read about.
If I had the time and the space- always dreamed of that Ferrari/Maserati engine dropped in an Alfa GTV.
You can probably make a nice coffee table or two with the engine blocks!
If I was close by and had access to a hauler I’d buy them, pull those leather seats (front and back) as mancave furniture and sell the rest for scrap.
A cheap entry into the house of pain.
Honestly if these things were closer I would take them on. Mostly because I have zero experience with them it they would make a nice learning tool to see if I can get them or at least the titled one back on the road.
Bout all they are worth…(parts)
we had a new ghibli in 2015, major POS. while cheap, these cars are not worth owning.
Congratulations! Now one can buy TWO nightmares, all at once.
Now marked “Pending”.
Cheap enough to not have too much remorse, if only I didn’t have a driveway full of projects ….sigh
leave them where they sit. you be glad you did.
wow
Facebook Marketplace indicates that these are SOLD