[bimper]

Happy to share.............


Yesterday, I received a call from my dealer telling me that while my car was about 2-3 weeks away. There was a similar car available where the deal had fallen through. I grabbed it.

Nero Ribelle/Rosso interior
Red Calipers
Alcantra black headliner
Premium
Sports
20" Urano
Executive Luxury
carbon fiber plus the carbon fiber inserts
Premium sound

List was $94K

Leasing the car. They took my Audi A7 back from lease 11 months early and gave me $1,000 credit for it. $3,500 discount with 3.4 rate made payment $1,394 for 39 mo.

So basically I added about $350 to my monthly but now drive this gorgeous Maserati and a year ahead of time, had I had to wait for my lease expiration.

 

[Etodd31856]

Nice Deal. Amazing what can be done with the proper motivation !! Looks like buyers are on the winning side of the fence!!

 

[ratti]

Awesome!
Make sure to post some pictures of it.
Where do you live? are you going to be driving it year round or do you have another car?

 

[bimper]

Live in Miami and it will be my daily driver. Unfortunately, Florida is so flat and boring in general, so I will have research some cool roads to take full advantage. Here are some pix od the new baby.

 

[culverwood]

Looks really good.

 

[bimper]

Thanks.

My first impressions are as follows:

1. lag issue- its turbo, there is lag especially in normal mode but nothing terrible. In sport mode , the car turns into an animal, snarling, virtually no lag. Love this

2. Premium sound- much better than expected. At least as good as the A7 premium sound system, especially through my ipod.

3. Voice commands- for music its a bit dodgy. I have 12,000 songs on my ipod, so it always updating the list, I will slim it down and see how it goes. It worked off of my SD card which had only a few songs. For navigation it works extremely well.

4.Quality -I have the premium leather and its soft and buttery. Big improvement over the base model but there are some imperfections, like little indentations and the like in a couple of spots. The trunk, is large, the lid is tinny and kind of cheap. It pops up fast and bobs up and down. sounds tinny upon closing. should have an absorbing system but I guess because of the short height it was deemed unimportant. Everything else is outstanding.

5. The tires are Continental, 20" summer tires, seem good so far.

Let me know if anyone has any other questions.

 

[rsm]

1. lag issue- its turbo, there is lag especially in normal mode but nothing terrible. In sport mode , the car turns into an animal, snarling, virtually no lag. Love this

This is similar to my experience/observation. Although, I don't think it's turbo lag in normal mode, it's the throttle (ECM). That would explain sport mode's difference in programming; response is nearly immediate and literally awesome.

2. Premium sound- much better than expected. At least as good as the A7 premium sound system, especially through my ipod.

Really? Compared with my BMW and Audi the premium sound is merely adequate, not that great IMO. The sound is remote and boxy.

4.Quality -I have the premium leather and its soft and buttery. Big improvement over the base model but there are some imperfections, like little indentations and the like in a couple of spots. The trunk, is large, the lid is tinny and kind of cheap. It pops up fast and bobs up and down. sounds tinny upon closing. should have an absorbing system but I guess because of the short height it was deemed unimportant. Everything else is outstanding.

Same here with the premium leather, although my impression with the "imperfections" is a positive one. The slight tucks in certain places remind me more of custom furniture and in my view it enhances the car's character.

The trunk... yeah. Cheap sounding when closed and springs open with enthusiasm. Someday I'll see about having it insulated to at least deaden the tinny sound.

I'll refrain from commenting on the low quality MTS because I've covered it elsewhere in the forum. Otherwise, I agree, the SQ4 is a work of art on four powerful wheels.

 

[bimper]

I'm with you on the upholstery. I did just notice a tiny nick in the carbon fiber near my gear shift. I took it right over to the dealer who took pictures and will get back to me after they speak to the factory.

On the sound. I never said it was great, I was comparing to my Audi but after spending more time with it I would have to agree. The bass is really weak and sound overall is a bit deadened. It is still decent. Better than I expected after reading the forum.

 

[ratti]

I'm with you on the upholstery. I did just notice a tiny nick in the carbon fiber near my gear shift. I took it right over to the dealer who took pictures and will get back to me after they speak to the factory.

On the sound. I never said it was great, I was comparing to my Audi but after spending more time with it I would have to agree. The bass is really weak and sound overall is a bit deadened. It is still decent. Better than I expected after reading the forum.

They should have just replaced the piece, but i guess they want to see if it's something common on their end or something you caused. Fair enough

 

[bimper]

I am expecting that they will. How do you not? I will let everyone know when I get a resolution.

 

[AGMIA]

Bimper, I just picked up mine Saturday from the collection in Miami also. The car is fun to drive, but the radio is horrible. I have the "premium" stereo, but it has no bass at all, and doesnt sound very good. Coming from an Escalade with BOSE radio, very disappointing. I wonder if it can be upgrade or add a sub woofer. Sat radio also cuts out all the time...

 

[culverwood]

Sounds a good thing we do not use satellite radio in the UK, as far as I know. I suspect as it is not used in Europe the system has been back fitted to Ghiblis for the American market and has not had the development time necessary.

 

[bimper]

Another observation-You can use your voice to select artist, playlist, songs, etc. form an Ipod or SD card. Something my Audi A7 would not allow unless you uploaded the music first from an SD card. At first it would not work because I had 13,000 songs on it but once I reduced it, it works fine. Very convenient and cool.

 

[bimper]

OK. I originally thought the premium sound was decent but it is officially driving me nuts. The bass is so bad. It sits in the trunk and literally thumps and buzzes on tunes with any decent bass. This cant be right on a car of this class. I'm going to complain about this and see what the dealer has to say.

 

[AGMIA]

I was at the dealer yesterday, they said they are coming up with a fix for it. It has to do with the subwoofer being too loose... but overall im very disappointed, they had to order me a new amplifier mine died after only 300 miles on the car... and the Sat radio they are going to replace the antenna.... So baicailly i have to drive around with my bose headphones to hear music lol

 

[bimper]

My dealer said they were "hoping" for a fix as this Bass "rattle" is a common complaint. He things it will be solved with insulation of some sort.

 

[cfelbab]

Has anybody had the sat radio antenna replaced yet? Did it actually solve the problem?

 

[bimper]

AGMIA-Just noticed that you bought from the Collection. What was your experience like? This is my third car from them.

 

[colleyt]

This is funny because I am trading in my A7 9 months early too. Maserati Beverly Hills gave me a decent trade in value of $45k BUT Audi themselves recommended Carmax and im glad they did! Carmax gave me $48k and my payment on my loaded SQ 4 is $1,100

 

[bimper]

The bass has been fixed and the overall sound is much, much better. Not great but decent enough.