Free guide · 2007–2015 · 4.2 and 4.7 · F136 V8 · 405–460 PS
Maserati GranTurismo: what to check before you buy
What this car is, and the zero questions that decide whether the one you are looking at is a good buy.
In this guide · 6 chapters
Who built it, and what they built
A naturally aspirated V8 that came off a Ferrari production line, in a coupé with four seats and a boot. That is the whole proposition, and it is not available new from anybody.
The F136: 4.2 litres and 405 PS from 2007; the S takes it out to 4.7 litres and 440 PS from 2008; and the Sport from 2012 makes 460 PS. Type M145, styled by Pininfarina, built until December 2019. This guide covers the cars from 2007 to 2015.
Timing chains, not belts. There is no cambelt interval on this car. After a series of guides about belts and their dates, that sentence is worth reading twice.
The thing that decides what you are buying is not the engine
There are two gearboxes and they are not variations on a theme.
- The ZF automatic with a torque converter. No clutch to wear out.
- The MC Shift, an automated manual with a real clutch. It wears, and how fast is almost entirely down to how the car has been driven.
The buying guide has a chapter on that difference, because it is the most expensive variable on the car and it is printed in the advert.
One piece of genuinely good news, before the rest
The engine is not the risk. The sources describe an engine running chains, regarded as very reliable by owners and by the specialists who look after it, with cars reported at 150,000 to 200,000 miles with no internal work. For an exotic that is an unusual sentence, and it moves your attention to the gearbox, the cooling system and the electronics. The engine item to settle first is the cam variators on early cars.
How the figures in this guide work
There are no prices in here, and that is deliberate. A workshop rate differs by a factor of two or three between countries, and a specialist's quote in one country tells you nothing in another. What does not move is how much work a job is — that follows from what has to come off the car.
So every item says whether it is an hour or two, half a day, a day, two or three days, or a week or more in the workshop, and whether the money sits in the part or in reaching it. Ask any workshop one question — what is your hourly rate? — and every item becomes your own number.
The six questions that decide whether this car is a good buy
Five of these can be answered before you travel. The third needs a cold engine, and it is the one most buyers get wrong.
1. "Is it the ZF automatic or the MC Shift?" The single most expensive fork on the car. It is in the advert, and if it is not, ask.
2. "If it is an MC Shift — what does the clutch read-out say?" It is read out, not felt. Ask for it before you make an offer, not after.
3. "Can I start it from cold?" Do not explain why. The buying guide explains what you are listening for.
4. "Has it ever lost coolant, and has anything been done to the expansion tank or the hoses under the intake manifold?" The parts are cheap and the access is not.
5. "Any oil leaks — and if so, valve covers or the timing drive case?" Those are two very different answers.
6. "Does it have Skyhook, and is it working?" Not every car has it; on one that does, the dampers are an item of their own.
What the honest answer to all six looks like
A seller who says "it is the auto, it has never lost coolant, there is a small weep at one valve cover, and it has Skyhook and it works" has just told you more than an inspection would. A seller who cannot say which gearbox it has does not know the car.
Which years, which specification
2007 — the GranTurismo arrives with the 4.2 and 405 PS, and a ZF automatic.
2008 — the S arrives with the 4.7 and 440 PS, and with the MC Shift automated manual.
2009 — the S Automatic: the same 4.7 with the ZF automatic.
2011 — the MC Stradale, the hard end of the range, and at first a strict two-seater.
2012 — the Sport, 460 PS, replacing the S and the S Automatic, and the most complete version of the car.
Two periods to be careful with, and both come from the sources rather than from us. The 2007-2008 cars for ordinary age-related items, and the MC Shift cars for the clutch. Neither is a reason not to buy. Both are a reason to want the paperwork.
And the variators. Early cars are the ones the sources associate with the variator rattle, and Maserati issued its own bulletin for it. Maserati addressed it, so on an early car it is a question about history: ask whether the bulletin repair has been done. Exactly which cars the bulletin covers is in the buying guide.
What it is worth
No price list — it moves by country and by month. What this guide gives you instead is the method, and on this car the method has two lines.
Line one: the gearbox is the valuation.
A ZF automatic has no clutch to replace. An MC Shift has one, and the sources put its life anywhere across a factor of five, depending entirely on how the car was used — on the most expensive consumable on the car. Two otherwise identical cars are not comparable if one is an MC Shift with an unknown read-out.
Line two: the cheap parts behind the expensive access.
The expansion tank is a weak point, and so are the coolant hoses under the intake manifold. Those hoses are inexpensive in themselves; reaching them means taking the manifold off. So a car with a documented cooling-system job has had money spent on it that does not show up as a shiny component anywhere.
Which gives you three kinds of car.
The documented automatic. Service history, no coolant story, a small oil weep at worst. Pay the premium.
The MC Shift with a read-out. Perfectly buyable — priced against the percentage. Ask for the figure and put it in the offer.
The MC Shift without a read-out. This is the one to be firm about. You are not buying a car with an unknown clutch; you are buying a range, and the range is five times wide.
Compare entry prices, not asking prices — and on this model, an unknown clutch percentage is an entry price you cannot calculate.
What it is actually like to own one
It is a four-seat coupé that is almost five metres long, and the two rear seats are usable by adults for usable distances. That is rarer than the engine.
The noise. Naturally aspirated, and it makes its case at the top of the rev range rather than at the bottom. Owners describe the exhaust as the reason they keep the car, and they are not being sentimental — there is no turbocharger in the way of it.
The gearbox, from the driver's seat. The ZF automatic is smooth and unremarkable, which on a car of this age is a compliment. The MC Shift is quicker and more involving and it is a consumable. Which one you want depends on whether you want the drive or the running cost.
What owners actually say. Two things come up over and over in the forums. That the engine is the part they worry about least, and that the electronics are the part they worry about most. Both are worth believing.
And the honest expectation. This is an Italian exotic and the parts have exotic prices. What it is not, is a car that will surprise you: its big items are a clutch you can read out, a cooling system you can ask about, a variator noise you can listen for and an oil leak you can see. Everything that is expensive here is knowable in advance.
The buying guide — €24
Everything above is what the car is. This is what you check.
Eight faults that belong to this car, taken apart one by one, with how much work each repair is and how to tell which of them you are looking at. Eight things that are simply fifteen years old, every one with how much work it is, what tells you about it at a viewing, and whether it has to be done now, within a year or two, or not at all. What a coupé of almost five metres collects at the nose, and why the wheels are information. Why one line in the advert — which gearbox — decides the most expensive variable on the car. The viewing in six steps, including the cold-start moments that come only once. The sentences you say to the seller, and how to build an offer out of what you found.
And a card you print and take with you — twenty-two lines, in the order you do them. That comes as a separate file, because nobody wants to print a whole guide to take a few pages to a car park.
This is what one of the eight looks like
7 · Wheel bearing and speed sensor, per corner
Half a day · in the part Chapter 5.6. A hum that rises with speed, and a warning that comes and goes.
And this is how the card reads
- 1 · The paperwork · FIRST. If this fails, stop.
- 2 · The cold start · you only get one
- 3 · The read-out · before the test drive
- 4 · The engine bay, engine off
- 5 · The test drive
- 6 · Underneath and outside
What €24 buys, put next to what it saves
An MC Shift clutch can last anywhere across a factor of five depending on how the previous owner drove — two or three days in the workshop, and nothing about the drive tells you where you are. A ZF automatic does not have the item at all. The guide is €24. It will not stop any of that from being needed — but it does tell you which of them you are looking at before you agree a price, and that is the whole of the difference between paying for a car and paying for someone else's postponed maintenance.
Why there are no prices in it
Because a price we cannot verify is worse than no price, and because a price would be wrong for most of the people reading this anyway. Workshop rates across Europe differ widely, and so do parts prices. A quote from a specialist in one country tells you nothing in another.
What does not change is how much work a job is — that follows from what has to come off the car. So every point in the guide says whether it is an hour or two, half a day, a day, two or three days, or a week or more in the workshop, with a labour figure where a source gives one. And it says whether the money sits in the part or in getting to it, which is what lets you tell a fair quote from a bad one.
If you want a figure, ask any workshop one question — what is your hourly rate? — and every effort level in the guide becomes your own number, in your own currency. One question, and the answer is actually true for you.
How this guide was put together
Because you should know before you pay for it.
- Every fault and symptom comes from a source the guide names, the manufacturer's own documents first. The effort levels are our assessment, unless a source gives the hours.
- The guide says plainly that the engine is the part you worry about least, and that the electronics are the part owners complain about most. Both of those come from the sources rather than from a sales pitch.
- The effort of every job is counted item by item and checked against the list before every edition.
- It says as plainly what you can leave alone as what you have to do. Two of the eight age points start from leave it.
Leave your email address at the checkout and both files arrive straight away: one guide and one card, as two pdfs. No subscription, no account.
The full guide · €24
17-page guide, A4 and phone · 2-page inspection card · instant PDF · VAT included
Have every car inspected before you buy by someone who knows this engine. This is general information about the model and not advice about a specific car.