The Maserati Coupe Is a Sub-$20,000 Exotic Car Bargain

this is a 2004 maserati coupe and it is an unbelievable bargain this car is currently listed for sale for just 20 000 actually 1995 meaning it's a modern maserati sports car for the price of a toyota yaris and while most of these came with this horrible sequential automatic transmission that was just unreliable and terrible to use this one has a manual transmission which makes it far more desirable and today i'm going to review it i've borrowed this maserati coupe from ws auto sales which is a car dealership here in san diego that has a fantastic inventory of weird and unusual vehicles everything from pristine 1980s and 90s toyotas to manual transmission bmw suvs i love their quirky cars and you can check out ws by clicking the link in the description below so let's talk maserati coupe this car was sold here in north america from 2002 to 2006 although it was called the grand sport in its final model year this car is the predecessor to the maserati gran turismo and the idea is the same a nice looking two-door four-seat maserati you could use for performance driving or for grand touring maserati also sold a two-door convertible version of this car that they called the spider under the hood the coupe has a 4.2 liter v8 and makes 385 horsepower about 330 pound-feet of torque an engine that was derived from the v8 used in the ferrari f430 unfortunately most maserati coupe models used a terrible automatic transmission called cambio corsa which was a sequential manual unit that was horrible to use and incredibly unreliable it was the hot new thing at the time but it has aged terribly about 85 of maserati coupe models have cambio corsa but this one has a true six-speed manual and it's also cheap like all maserati models this car has lost value quickly and significantly and now it's priced under 20 000 with just 39 000 miles so today i'm going to show you around this car which might just be the most car you can get for 20 grand first i'm going to show you all of the interesting quirks and features then i'm going to get it out on the road and drive it and then i'm going to give it a dug score all right i'm going to start the quirks and features of the maserati coupe and the most important place and that would be the transmission you can see this car has a true six-speed manual transmission which was very rare and a huge improvement over the terrible cambio corsa automatic jerky unreliable transmission that most of these cars had i'll talk more about cambio corsa during the driving portion of this video one interesting thing about the manual transmission in this car is that the leather shift boot appears to have like a wart in it part of it is up a little higher than the rest of it interestingly this is not just a problem with this card this is how all of them were built and i've never really understood why the left bottom half of the shift boot kind of comes up like it has a growth it's really strange but that's how they made them for some reason and speaking of leather boots let's talk about the parking brake boot which is also interesting you can see it's at the bottom of the parking brake and the notable thing is that it's not just stitched on there instead it's velcroed on and you can just remove the velcro and then remove this little snap that's also there and remove the parking brake boot not exactly the highest quality thing when you look down and see velcro there but that's what maserati chose to do and next up another thing that maserati chose to do in order to save money in this car was mount the window switches in the middle in most cars you have window switches on the driver's door and then the passenger window switch on the passenger door but maserati put them in the middle so they wouldn't have to make different doors for left hand drive and right hand drive which would save them a lot of money and that's why the window switches are in the middle of this car now often you see power mirror controls mounted on the driver's door but again maserati didn't want to do that because then they would have to make different drivers doors for left-hand drive and right-hand drive so the power mirror controls are also in the middle you can see them here it's sort of weird to have the focal point in the center of this luxury sports car interior be the mirror controls but that's what happened so that maserati could save some cash and next up also in the middle and worth noting next to the mirror controls you have the cup holder i say that singular because there is just one cup holder in this car four seats two front seats one cup holder if your passenger wants to put their drink somewhere too bad and next up moving back to the center control stack near the shifter you can see there are five buttons directly above the shifter some of which are kind of interesting for one there's a blank and maserati chose the blank to be the button nearest to the driver which is always an interesting decision but there are other interesting buttons up there too for example there's a button marked msp with a slash through it this is the button you press if you really do not want to go to the minneapolis-st paul airport no actually turns off the maserati stability program which is maserati's version of stability control you also have a sport button over there you press it and then sport turns on i drove this car a little bit earlier pressed the support button and noticed no discernible change but the placebo effect of being in sport mode is always a good thing and next up another interesting item in the center of the dashboard in this car you have an analog clock the mark of a true luxury automobile one other interesting center item is between the seats in the center console you have this storage area but if you open it up you'll see it's like the smallest center storage area ever in some cars these things are like six ten inches deep in this it's like an inch which leads one to wonder what exactly is going on underneath here that they couldn't make this larger no one knows but fortunately the center storage area isn't the only storage you have in this car you also have a glove box one interesting item is on the outside of the glove box you can see it says coupe gt or coupe gt if you prefer that's what maserati called the manual transmission version of this car if you got an automatic the glovebox would say coupe cambio corsa but the manuals were called the gt but that's one way to distinguish them and even though nobody remembers that distinction if you're talking about the maserati coupe gt technically you are only referring to the manual version of this car anyway open up the glove box and you'll see nothing particularly interesting as far as storage just a regular glove box but there are two buttons in there one pops open the fuel door the other pops open the trunk they're in the glove box because the theory is you could lock the glove box to prevent valets from accessing it and then valets won't have access to your trunk and they also won't be able to put fuel in your maserati and next up another interesting interior item is the sun visors you drop the passenger side sun visor and you can see there's a visor mirror and lights like you'd expect you drop the driver side sun visor and you can see there's an airbag warning label now a lot of automakers figure out a way to get the airbag warning label on there in addition to a visor mirror but not maserati apparently it was one or the other so in this car only the passenger can drop the visor and look at themselves and next up we move on to the gauge cluster in the maserati coupe which i've always felt has a pretty good look to it this almost looks like a vintage gauge cluster certainly like an old-school sports car design and i've always felt they really nailed it with the look of the gauge cluster in this car with that said there are a few interesting gauge cluster quirks and features in this car starting with a little screen at the bottom center of the gauge cluster now if you have an automatic maserati coupe that screen shows what gear you're in and also the temperature but if you have a manual car the gear feature is disabled so it only shows the temperature and only in the bottom third of the screen instead of creating a new screen with a larger temperature display they've decided to only utilize a small portion of the screen and leave the rest blank and next up right above that screen you have a little graphic of the car from the top down it's intended to show when your doors are open and you can see when you open a door it doesn't show like a door open instead a little red line appears where that door would be it's the same story with the hood or the trunk or whatever else you might open in this car instead of actual door open graphics appearing you just get a little red line corresponding to whatever piece is open it's kind of interesting next up another interior item worth noting in here is the headliner which i find to be absolutely beautiful i don't find this interior to be particularly nice or cheap it's just kind of average for a car like this but the headliner i think is gorgeous i love the stitched look i love these stitched lines through it it gives it this kind of vintage high quality feel and next we move on to the back seat in the maserati coupe yes this car has a back seat and getting in is no easy task to start you pull these little latches on the front seat push the backrest forward and then the seat automatically whirs forward to give you more room so you can climb in back this process takes a little while then you actually climb in back which is not especially easy and then you're here and i have to say once you're in the back of this car the rear bucket seats are pretty tight and pretty narrow you can see these are not wide flat seats you kind of have to squeeze into them and you don't really have much leg room either not exactly what you'd expect for a grand touring vehicle but what about the other luxuries in the back seat you might be wondering well good question there is an arm rest you can put it down and rest your arm you also have in between the seats a small velvet storage area and right next to that another small velvet storage area that screams true a luxury grand touring vehicle and to top things off back here you also have coat hooks you can push them down from the ceiling and then you can hang your coat which again very luxurious now i'm just kidding i'm actually surprised by the relative lack of amenities back here for a grand touring car this is not a place i would want to spend a grand tour or even an hour and by the way one other interesting thing about the back seats is that the convertible version of this car didn't have them the coupe was a four-seater but the convertible was only a two-seater in fact the convertible was eight or nine inches shorter than the coupe in late so they were basically two different cars that happen to look the same and when you compare the two next to each other you can see that the convertible version didn't have room for back seats there's less space between the doors and the rear wheels in the convertible model it was a physically smaller car you don't see that very often where the coupe and convertible have different wheelbases and lengths and number of seats but it was the case here and next up we move on to the outside of the maserati coupe and i'm going to start with the tail lights which might not seem like anything special but that's a shame most americans don't know this but the maserati coupe was actually an evolution of an earlier version of this car which was called the maserati 3200 gt that car was never sold in north america but it did have some very cool tail lights they called them boomerang taillights it was like this thin strip that kind of curved around the side of the car like a boomerang when maserati revised the card have it become the coop they started selling it in north america the boomerang tail lights went away and instead we got these normal tail lights and next up another notable exterior item with this car is the fuel door you can see it right there it's kind of at the top of the rear fender next to the glass which is an odd placement for the fuel door it's very high up compared to most cars and when you're putting the fuel in you have to make sure you don't drip over any bodywork which is not ideal kind of a strange spot and next up a few other noteworthy items on the outside of this car one is the key and you can see it's like blue and light gray even though this car is like dark gray with a black interior clearly this was not an attempt at color matching instead all of these cars had blue keys at the time maserati was trying to like make blue their color and so all of the maserati coupes had blue keys like this it was rather unusual another unusual thing about the key is that you have two buttons on it you have a button for the trunk opener and then you have a button with dots on it that is the lock unlock button why did they go with dots instead of a picture of a lock we may never know and next up let's press that trunk opener button on the key to get into the trunk and when you open it up you can see there's not really anything particularly noteworthy back here except for the fact that a lot of the trunk space is taken up by this aftermarket stereo equipment as you would expect from a cheap used maserati one interesting thing about the trunk though is that even if this thing wasn't in here it's a pretty small trunk for a car like this a grand touring car there's not much space back here and you can't fold down the seats in case you have a larger item to stick inside it's an unusually tiny trunk and frankly it's a lot smaller than i was expecting but anyway closing the trunk and moving on to a discussion of the general exterior styling of this car when this car first came out i thought it was beautiful i loved sort of the simple clean look of it a lot less aggressive and daring and unattractive as the maserati models that came later but over time i have to say this design is now starting to look dated maybe it was too simple and clean and not exciting enough i will say i vastly prefer the look of the convertible version of this car the maserati spider with its shorter wheelbase to me the coupe always looked like kind of a stretched out long wheelbase version it never quite looked as good and finally we move under the hood in the maserati coupe and this is undoubtedly the most beautiful part of the car look at this engine absolutely gorgeous with the maserati logo right there in the center and the sides say maserati in the typical script the colors are beautiful everything is gorgeous in here 385 horsepower about 330 pound-feet of torque and like i mentioned before ferrari derived engine from the v8 in the f430 there are not too many 20 000 cars that have a ferrari derived engine or an engine this beautiful at all and so those are the quirks and features of the maserati coupe now it's time to get it out on the road and see how it drives all right driving the maserati coupe i have never driven one of these with a manual transmission although i had a summer job at a ferrari dealer like when i was a teenager and i drove a few of the automatics first impression i am shocked at how tight the pedal box is um really insane you expect that from like a couple or like an 80s ferrari not like a gt car clearly this was intended to be a vehicle that had an automatic transmission one thing i always liked about this car even the automatics was the amount of ready power they had from the outside this looks like a like a kind of a beautiful pretty car you don't really expect it to have all that much muscle the gran turismo was a much angrier looking car but it actually did have a pretty good amount of power to it 385 horses was not a small number then and it's still pretty good alright i'm gonna bring it out here it actually falls it really really does it does not have the sound that modern maserati models do that sort of sound uh experience definitely came later now i keep saying that the automatic was such a terrible transmission and let me explain it was a terrible transmission it was a paddle shifter thing but it wasn't like a modern dual clutch where it's really smooth instead it was almost indescribably clunky and awful and every time you shifted gears the car would lurch like you were driving with a learner driver who didn't know manual and was letting off the clutch way too hard and it was just a terrible horrible driving experience and in addition that transmission has ended up becoming very unreliable as the years have gone on and now nobody wants to drive it or maintain it and so that is absolutely the worst of the worst in terms of transmissions but at the time it was the hot new cool transmission you could get this like sequential manual like race cars had and that was considered to be the cool thing and also a lot of people did it does blow me away what a bargain this car has become um i knew it'd get cheap because all maseratis get cheap but i mean there's one on auto trader right now for 12 grand it has too many miles this one's only got 39 000 but regardless you can get these things for not much money and if you get them right which means well maintained with the manual you have a pretty good car on your hands a fast car and it wasn't just speed i also always loved how these things handle the steering is actually really good it's tight it's quick it steers well even 39 000 miles and 15 years later this car is still pretty tight and pretty precise unlike in the ferrari world where a manual can be you know 50 grand more 100 more depending on the car these things are about the same money so you find a manual you have a more reliable car and you still get [Music] this is a fast car like a legitimately fast actually fast car it's fun and the steering is really sharp i will say in terms of handling there is a little bit of body roll the car is certainly not as flat as like a mid-engine exotic or even like a 911 from this era but the intent was that this was a little bit more of a gt car and so that's the maserati coupe this was a horrible car back when it was new and it cost almost a hundred thousand dollars but these days it's a modern maserati sports car with nice styling and a ferrari-derived engine for 20 grand seems like a bargain but if you get one just make sure it has a manual transmission if you can find it anyway now it's time to give the maserati coupe a dug score starting with the weekend categories and styling this is a nice looking car and it easily gets a 7 out of 10 though the convertible would probably earn an extra point next up acceleration does 0-60 in the low 5 second range and it gets a 5 out of 10. handling is good sharp steering but a bit of weight and body roll and it gets a 6 out of 10. fun factor is good and it gets a 6 out of 10. cool factor is also good though most people have come to realize maserati doesn't have the brand name sparkle it once did and it gets a 6 out of 10 for a total weekend score of 30 out of 50. next up are the daily categories and features it's fine nothing excessive and it gets a 3 out of 10. comfort is about what you'd expect and it gets a 6 out of 10. quality is ok the car is relatively reliable with the manual transmission but it certainly could be better and the interior materials were never that great and they're slowly becoming sticky with age which is a common issue for these cars and it gets a 5 out of 10. practicality is normal for a car like this and it gets a 4 out of 10. value is strong given the performance the look the brand name and just how ridiculously cheap these are and it gets a 7 out of 10 for a total daily score of 25 out of 50. added up and the dug score is 55 out of 100 which places it here against other sporty cars from this era plus the newer maserati gran turismo the coupe basically ties the e46 bmw m3 which makes sense because they have about the same performance and they cost about the same these days although amazingly i think the maserati might actually be more reliable especially if you can find one with the far more desirable six-speed manual transmission [Music] you

Channel: Doug DeMuro

Views: 971,208

Keywords: maserati coupe, maserati coupe review, maserati, maserati review, maserati 4200gt, maserati 4200gt review, maserati 3200gt, doug demuro, demuro, doug de muro, maserati coupe gt

Id: pJddtAyz4As

Length: 21min 49sec (1309 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 14 2020