A Used Maserati Quattroporte is the Best Way to Look Rich for $20,000

this is a 2005 Maserati Quattroporte and it is a truly terrible car performance is mediocre its design isn't aging well its unreliable and it's so full of questionable details that it makes you wonder if any of the people who designed this car had any previous experience with wheeled transportation and yet 20 grand that's right it's 20 grand well not quite the average asking price for a Quattroporte from this era on auto trader is actually twenty three thousand four hundred which is a little more than twenty grand but there are many of these listed for sale for 20 grand or less either way it's a far cry from this car's original asking price which was one hundred and six thousand dollars before option and that makes this the easiest way to look rich for cheap you see if you drive around in a 2005 quadra-port eh no one will know that you spent the same as a new Dodge Dart with hubcaps everybody will think that you spent one hundred and six thousand dollars but you will know because you will become intimately acquainted with all of the problems that I described today I'm going to give you a tour of all those problems and show and tell you about all of them and then I'm going to take this thing out on the road to find it at least it drive like a Maserati should and then I'm going to give it a dug score and by the way I borrowed this Quattroporte right here in beautiful Minneapolis using Toro which is the service that lets you rent other people's interesting cars instead of normal boring airport rental cars click the link in the description below to sign up for Toro also in the description below you can find a link to autotrader.com slash oversteer where I've compiled more of my thoughts about the quadra-port they enter and the list of cars currently for sale on auto trader that will make you look rich for a lot less than they cost new anyway on to the ins and outs of a used Quattroporte I'll start with something that no other cars should ever replicate car designers listen up when you put it in reverse in this car it beeps at you constantly it never stops just to let you know that you're in Reverse and open beep on the outside like one of those trucks that goes beep it just beeps at you thank you yes I'm in Reverse I know that another annoyance related transmission driving along in automatic mode in this car do you pull the paddles because you want to start manually shifting well that does nothing pulling the paddles has no effect instead to activate the pedals you should have to press a little button on the center control stack that says in / a shift and only then can you shift with the paddles I've never seen that in any other car thankfully but I'm not done with the steering wheel just yet in fact I'm not even close now the steering wheel has eight buttons on it and like in every other car they do various things go with your phone change the stereo volume but the strange thing about the steering wheel is that on the back it has more buttons that's not that uncommon a lot of car companies put buttons in the back to control the radio whatever but in this car the strange thing is the button on the right side and the button on the left side both do the same thing they both change the radio preset you can adjust it up or down on the right side and up or down on the left side why put two buttons on opposite sides of the steering wheel that do exactly the same thing did they just have extra buttons and they weren't sure what to do winner but I'm still not done with the steering wheel yet now one of the buttons on the steering wheel says info I have pressed this button at every menu at every setting it does nothing however this car on its steering wheel with all those buttons none of them control the cruise control in fact the cruise control is placed very awkwardly where you least expect it behind the shift paddle behind the wiper stalk behind the ignition switch on the dashboard under the gauge cluster it makes no sense so they put an info button on the steering wheel that doesn't do anything but they couldn't put the cruise control buttons there who came up with that and yes that means every time you want to adjust the cruise control you can't just do it on the steering wheel like every other car you have to reach all the way around under the gauge cluster - some buttons you can't see which is infuriating but it becomes even more infuriating when you start to look around at some of the other buttons on this car for example the rear sunshade which you will never use has two buttons one to raise it one to lower it most other cars just have one button and if you count the buttons ring back where the rear sunshade also has buttons to raise and lower there are four buttons to control the rear sunshade they could stick those in this car but they couldn't figure out how to get the cruise control within sight of the driver slide back to the steering wheel oh there is so much to cover with the steering wheel now I love in this car the shift paddles stay mounted when you turn the steering wheel they don't move with the wheel that way you always know where the paddles are at anytime what I don't love is the fact that they design the turn signal and wiper stocks to be behind the shift paddles and not to stick out past them so when you go to put on your turn signal every single time you bump your finger on the paddle because you have to kind of reach around the paddle to put on the turn signal next we move along to the collector port ApS they resist off the the most ridiculous bizarrely engineered thing in this entire car and that would be the center controls we will start with my favorite button the sound control the one that says TV you push it and a little icon comes up that says TV not available I'm not clear in here TV was never available the TV wasn't offered in the US market and yet Maserati kept the TV button and just popped that little thing up to tell you about something you couldn't have next we get to the radio presets and with those you have to wonder if Maserati was just trying to make people laugh they certainly have made meet now when you look at the center control stack there are no radio preset buttons instead the radio presets are only accessible if you go into the infotainment system but here's the problem you're driving around with the navigation system telling you where to go you want to change the radio station ha ha ha press radio that gets you over to the radio thing and then you have to adjust the control over to the preset area then you scroll between the presets and choose the one you want then get back to the navigation screen you press navigation so if you want to change the radio while you're driving along with the navigation system on you have to press 1 2 3 and then adjust and then press navigation again just to change the radio station and let's hope you want that station because otherwise you got to go through the same process again I can't imagine who came up with that seriously I want their name is that the most ridiculous thing in the infotainment system of course not how about this if you're on a screen that has two different columns of stuff that you can scroll through on the left column you turn the little scroll wheel to the left in order to go down on the right column you turn the very same little scroll wheel to the right to go down ensuring that you must take your eyes off the road to figure out exactly which column you're looking at that is brilliant Italian design sense them in the middle here let's talk about the cup holder there's only one lovely and it's about the shallowest cup holder I've ever seen if the cup just flops around it comes up to about here on a bottle of water that obviously is a problem when you're in a turn you just fly out and since I'm questioning the quality of some of the things that Maserati chose to install in this car how about the fact that the entire climate control vents and clock in the middle of the dashboard just shake when you touch them I admit that that could be unique to this car but I bet it isn't another thing that shakes in the middle here is this really strange little tiny transmission lever that they put in cars for a few years in the 2000s it's really stupid and it just kind of shakes randomly unless you want to put it gear another fun feature of the Quattroporte when you turn it on the check engine light is the very last light in the gauge cluster to go away sometimes it doesn't go away for up to 30 seconds giving you a nice little paying of anxiety every time you start your clutch report a-all right now I'm outside the car but that doesn't mean I'm done pointing out its flaws looks like a general flaw this car had the interior is blue in fact the interior and virtually all of these really early Quattroporte days is blue that means blue seats blue door panels blue dashboard I hope you really like blue also this car doesn't have a sunroof for a hundred and six grand and it doesn't have heated seats I'm paying that kind of money those are things that I want especially if I'm driving a cool Maserati admittedly it does have three little vents on the side that looks sort of like those ones that you can buy at autozone to make your car look cooler so is that going for it other problems I have with this car include the passenger side airbag cover and those cars there's just a nice beautiful dashboard in this car there's a nice dashboard and then this giant air bag cover thing that leaves no question as to where the airbag is going to pop out from assuming that it works another unusual thing about this car is that the door handles have two distinct ways that you can open the door once you look at them closely one does it electronically you pull it in the door pops right open the other doesn't mechanically presumably that's because maserati knew the electronic one would break and then there in the cars reliability problems as you can imagine this thing being expensive Italian car is pretty expensive to maintain but the real problems come with the transmissions reliability that's cool guru select transmission has a clutch that needs to be replaced frequently some people on me Maserati life forums say every 15,000 miles which is a year of driving for a lot of people what is that clutch replacement cost four thousand dollars at a dealer there's also a well known problem with a pump inside the transmission there are more reliable parts available now but replacing the original pump cost over three thousand dollars Maserati life now I admit I've been very mean to this car and there are a couple of cool things about it for example in back the rear seats recline with the push of a button which is something you don't often see in sport sedans also the brake pedal has the Maserati logo on it so it has terrible ergonomics and a horrible infotainment system a bunch of the interior jiggles there's no sunroof so heated seats that is these ugly little vents on the side the car looks generally outdated the interior is blue but every time you push the brake Maserati logo yeah that's so bad now so that's what you have to put up with if you bought a Quattroporte for 20 grand to make yourself look rich it ain't pretty now it's time to get this thing out on the road and find out if at least the driving experience lives up to the Maserati name rhyme in the Quattroporte ah lovely it probably isn't that bad right the primary issue with this car and it is a massive one is the transmission this is the worst transmission I've ever used in any automobile in history I think it's the worst transmission ever conceptualized I think you making a transmission in your basement would probably come up with a better way to put power from the engine to the wheels than this one and from maybe a more reliable one too and there are many issues of the transmission but the biggest issue with the transmission is how lurchy it is between gears so when you're driving along as I am now I'm going to go I'm gonna accelerate here alright up shift you it's almost like you're driving with a learner driver who's trying to learn how to drive stick shift and their gender key and they're slow to put it in gear on the red ball when they when they put the clutch in before they get it in the next gear it is almost aggressively bad just just truly terrible clunky awful slow not smooth every bad adjective you can think of I would apply to this transmission in fact when I come to a stoplight I'm just reading what will happen next because I know that I will then have to accelerate through all the gears the in fairness to Maserati I think a lot of the reason that we think this transmission is so bad and everybody thinks this transmission is that is because we spent 12 years of this car was produced we know what has come out since then and we know how much better it has gotten this transmission wasn't great at the time and it was kind of considered to be bad but with the advent of dual clutch today's world you look at it you're like I can't believe how bad this is but 12 years ago it wasn't that horrible now the transmission is really the main thing you notice when you're driving this car it is just that bad it is it to me it almost makes the car undriveable also in fairness to Maserati they realized early on how bad the transmission line and in later Quattroporte days they added a zs traditional automatic transmission which eliminates a lot of the problems that I mentioned before the stupid little gear lever the replacement of the f1 pump in the clutch the dirtiness that I'm talking about right now with that transmission this car becomes sort of a quirky little organ aa mcdhh --is a stirrer but a cheap one and that one with a decent transmission and then it becomes a more appealing prospect you're actually looking for one of these I strongly suggest getting a true automatic Quattroporte instead of one of these with duo select which which is just a fancy way of saying very horrible now when the stock warm the Quattroporte is not a particularly enticing sound which is interesting because we know Maserati now with the Gran Turismo is being a very loud exciting car to drive that's not true really of this one however there were exhaust aftermarket exhaust this car that could really open it up and they were quite impressive the one major selling point I'll give this car is that the handling is excellent truly it I mean that it's really really excellent even 12 years later even with all these problems even though it's kind of a stupid car it is very sharp it drives very sharp at corner sharply the steering is very connected and precise at the time this part came out BMW was obsessed with just forcing big power into the m5 Maserati went with less powers currently have 400 the m5 had 500 but instead they wanted to make the car sort of more live more possible and they succeeded in that it does a really really good job going around corners it's fun to drive but then you do the transmission shed well the brakes are strongly feel I mean this one is a performance car in every sense this was a good performance car except it didn't sound that great and the transmission just ruined the experience it didn't dole the experience it didn't make the experience less interesting less exciting it's ruined the experience of driving a Maserati Quattroporte and it doesn't matter what you do to make it better a lot of the owners at Maserati Quattroporte owners who watch this video said well take your foot off the gas when you're when you're shifting and it'll do better it does make it a little smoother it's also annoying why do I have to do that isn't the whole point you know I don't want to drive a stick-shift I don't want to be moving my feet in my hands well I'm pulling the pedal and picking my foot up look why don't I just have a stick shift it would be better and when I put in auto mode that's when it's really bad Auto mode shifts very slowly I would rather drive a stick shift car with my wife who doesn't know how to drive a stick shift then drive this car in auto mode yep got to go in reverse name is deep at me eh I know I'm in Reverse I'm going backwards and it says are and I don't want to be too bad to this car the seats are reasonably comfortable use visibilities go to mean it was a good condiment and it was trying to bring this cool little Formula One style technology to the road it's just that with hindsight we now know that that was a horrible idea and you know I'd rather eat a ream of paper and so that's the 2005 Maserati Quattroporte a true disappointment in every way one of these single worst transmissions ever installed in a modern car strange quarks terrible ergonomics and tremendously high repair bills in potential risk if you see one of these on the street make sure to stare at it maybe take a picture you'll make the owners day and he need that because he just spent eight grand replaces f1 pump in his clutches check engine light is on and I can't figure out how to change its radio preset and now it's time for the Doug score and some angry emails from Quattroporte owners I'll start with the weekend category styling is fine not great not bad but just fine however it's really starting to show its age I mean this no longer looks like the expensive car once did it's a four out of ten acceleration that horrid transmission dulls this car's v8 performance so much it only does zero to sixty and 5.2 seconds giving it just a five out of ten handling is excellent especially for its age it easily scores a six out of ten just one point behind the new Ferrari GT c4 loo so cool factor I have to admit I don't find this car cool and if you've watched this video you probably don't find it cool either but I took this car through a Windies drive-through when I was in Minneapolis and the workers flipped out you got a Maserati the entire restaurant came over to look at it it's no Ferrari it's no 918 spyder but regardless of what you and I might think it's cooler than average and it gets us six out of ten finally importance measures the cars significance this cars more significant than a run-of-the-mill Honda Accord or Ford Explorer but in my opinion not by much it gets a 5 out of 10 bringing its total weekend score to 26 out of 50 above only my old Range Rover and the horrible Cadillac ELR how much do I want to drive this car on the weekend less than the Mercedes r 63 AMG which is a minivan maybe it'll fare better in the daily categories starting with features the infotainment system is horribly designed there's no heated seats or sunroof it isn't off to a good start and it gets a 4 out of 10 luxury it measures comfort and smoothness this car sort of smooth I guess but a transmission just killed any semblance of serenity inside the cabinet gets only a 5 out of 10 quality measures reliability in materials reliability is notoriously awful and materials aren't really much better it gets a measly 3 out of 10 to lowest score yet in this category from practicality it has 15 point 9 cubic feet of cargo space giving it a 4 out of 10 and finally value any other car would get a 1 for being so poorly built so poorly designed so poorly executed but folks it's still a Maserati for 20 grand are you with me all you want but ask someone who isn't into cars if they want a Maserati for $20,000 and they'll ask where to sign it gets a four out of ten bringing its total daily score to twenty out of 50 worse than every other car I've ever scored except for the Ferrari f40 that seems about right in the end the total dug score is 46 making it the second worst car I've scored yes Maserati Quattroporte owners thank God for the Cadillac ELR [Music]

Channel: Doug DeMuro

Views: 3,011,081

Rating: 4.4048214 out of 5

Keywords: maserati, maserati quattroporte, quattroporte, used maserati, used quattroporte, maserati sedan, cheap maserati, cheap exotic car, cheap luxury car, doug demuro, demuro

Id: 3QAHK1Uy9ao

Length: 18min 19sec (1099 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 15 2017

Reddit Comments

[u/jonnyanonobot]

A used Maserati Quattroporte is the best way to become poor for $20,000

[u/WestonP]

"How do you say 'get out and push' in Italian? Maserati." - Jeremy Clarkson

[u/gigamiga]

Doug needs to do more bad car reviews. Every good car is alike but every bad car is bad in its own way.

[u/tobiascuypers]

Wow Doug absolutely murdered this car. I guess the only question that remains is this or a Ghibli?

[u/upandb]

Doug this is one of your best videos yet. Loved it. This car is just ridiculous.

[u/tru3gam3r]

hey /u/Doug-DeMuro when you said "worst transmission ever" i couldnt help but think of my friends 2009 Smart ForTwo

now i havent driven a QP but i assure you the ForTwo with the "auto" trans is a major contender for that title. it has a bunch of other quirks, im sure you could do a short episode on one sometime, but I just know youll love that disgusting transmission it comes with hahaha

[u/FarhanAxiq]

How to get poor in 5 minutes

[u/Suprchikin]

There's a reason why they're only $20k.

[u/cyrus900]

Doug, honestly, how tired are you of all those "check out my column" and "bumper to bumper warranty" jokes in the YouTube comments. Btw cool videos, keep up the good work