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After a nail biting wait, my new mistress, joining my yacht, GF, cat, has finally arrived.
RHD Ghibli base in Blu Emozione, with skyhook, sunroof, alcantara liner, nero with Cuoio tan extended leather, premium sound, GPS, wifi something or other I don't understand, sunscreens, etc etc. Took her for a longish drive last night, and am still smiling now. This will be a long love affair for sure
The blu really is quite amazing, looks quite different in sun than shade.
The one thing I did was change out the 18s for aftermarket wheels; went with 20s from Vossen, which are a deep concave; I probably would never have chosen that graphite colour, but they recommended it and it really does work (when you see in person). Pirellis are crazy expensive here, so am running Yokohama DB decibels instead.
I have read a lot of the comments on line, and maybe its because it is a newer build, but have a few comments, almost all positive:
-drives really well; after a lowered MINI I find sport to be nowhere near too firm; its fine in both sport and non sport (skyhook)
- premium sound is still good - hard to consider listening to music though when you can listen to the car itself
- I would not have chosen extended leather (dealer chose it for me) but it definitely looks better with it than without
- alcantara liner is well worth it; feels and looks great
- key fob is a serious piece of kit
- in sport mode manually selecting gears I don't find there is any real issue with turbo lag as the power band is a fair bit wider than with a 200HP MINI; exhaust note is fairly intoxicating although not nearly as loud and backfirey as my modified Arquay exhaust
- no issues with windows going up and down; one minor rattle somewhere in the dashboard
- no issues with brake squealing after the first 10km
- interior is very luxurious except for 2 minor things; the handles above the doors and the cup holder inside the cover in the dash; these are the only 2 things you would see I think IMHO that look like they came from a Chrysler; everything else looks luxurious and what you would expect
- screen and control menu system is very intuitive, and substantially better than iDrive (IMHO) as that stupid wheel system makes doing things a total PITA
- ability to control wheel/seating position is EXCELLENT (I think have some extended option on the seating) - no idea why anyone would not like the seats (1 review) maybe they should try sitting in a crap MINI seat LOL
- chiller in the console for drinks is great
- service from Empire Motorsport (distributors of Maserati Thailand) has been what you would expect of a true luxury brand - personalised; hands on; handling each step as needed - this is a very different and far better experience for me than buying what I consider to be the entry level luxury car brands (here that means Benz, BMW, MINI, VW - all of which are similar prices and where you are just a 'number' in the order process with no real ability to customise anything) - super, super happy!
The one thing I had was the car didn't arrive with the wheels I thought I had ordered; so the Maser distributor and dealer from VOSSEN kindly sorted out the wheels I wanted, and VOSSEN is providing some spacers on the rear wheels on the way (by far the best wheel brand to deal with here at least in Thailand, price point is attractive but VOSSEN/Eurohaus service has been simply amazing to turn everything around in 2 days). The deep concave gives a bit of an illusion of the wheel sitting inside the arch, but also it looks a bit more aggressive to have the wheel further out anyhow. TPMS were swapped out from the original 18s to the new wheels. So it's fair to say I ended up with something a little more special than the standard 20s which is very cool.
So the plan is now:
- add rear wheel spacers
- change air intake
- change X pipe or maybe more in the exhaust (I am quite ok with a louder exhaust system)
- change springs to lower the car about 1 inch
- ECU tune once someone cracks it since the base can match the S
- check bank account
Having not owned a car of this size ever, (have had 3 series but never a 5) it drives smaller than I expected which is nice; feels size wise like a really good version of a 3 when you chuck it around all over the road, but with loads of power and awesome ride. Space in the front is outstanding. Little smaller in the back, but I never sit in the back :_)
All in all.....I am sure Maserati has hit a home run with this car!
RHD Ghibli base in Blu Emozione, with skyhook, sunroof, alcantara liner, nero with Cuoio tan extended leather, premium sound, GPS, wifi something or other I don't understand, sunscreens, etc etc. Took her for a longish drive last night, and am still smiling now. This will be a long love affair for sure
The blu really is quite amazing, looks quite different in sun than shade.
The one thing I did was change out the 18s for aftermarket wheels; went with 20s from Vossen, which are a deep concave; I probably would never have chosen that graphite colour, but they recommended it and it really does work (when you see in person). Pirellis are crazy expensive here, so am running Yokohama DB decibels instead.
I have read a lot of the comments on line, and maybe its because it is a newer build, but have a few comments, almost all positive:
-drives really well; after a lowered MINI I find sport to be nowhere near too firm; its fine in both sport and non sport (skyhook)
- premium sound is still good - hard to consider listening to music though when you can listen to the car itself
- I would not have chosen extended leather (dealer chose it for me) but it definitely looks better with it than without
- alcantara liner is well worth it; feels and looks great
- key fob is a serious piece of kit
- in sport mode manually selecting gears I don't find there is any real issue with turbo lag as the power band is a fair bit wider than with a 200HP MINI; exhaust note is fairly intoxicating although not nearly as loud and backfirey as my modified Arquay exhaust
- no issues with windows going up and down; one minor rattle somewhere in the dashboard
- no issues with brake squealing after the first 10km
- interior is very luxurious except for 2 minor things; the handles above the doors and the cup holder inside the cover in the dash; these are the only 2 things you would see I think IMHO that look like they came from a Chrysler; everything else looks luxurious and what you would expect
- screen and control menu system is very intuitive, and substantially better than iDrive (IMHO) as that stupid wheel system makes doing things a total PITA
- ability to control wheel/seating position is EXCELLENT (I think have some extended option on the seating) - no idea why anyone would not like the seats (1 review) maybe they should try sitting in a crap MINI seat LOL
- chiller in the console for drinks is great
- service from Empire Motorsport (distributors of Maserati Thailand) has been what you would expect of a true luxury brand - personalised; hands on; handling each step as needed - this is a very different and far better experience for me than buying what I consider to be the entry level luxury car brands (here that means Benz, BMW, MINI, VW - all of which are similar prices and where you are just a 'number' in the order process with no real ability to customise anything) - super, super happy!
The one thing I had was the car didn't arrive with the wheels I thought I had ordered; so the Maser distributor and dealer from VOSSEN kindly sorted out the wheels I wanted, and VOSSEN is providing some spacers on the rear wheels on the way (by far the best wheel brand to deal with here at least in Thailand, price point is attractive but VOSSEN/Eurohaus service has been simply amazing to turn everything around in 2 days). The deep concave gives a bit of an illusion of the wheel sitting inside the arch, but also it looks a bit more aggressive to have the wheel further out anyhow. TPMS were swapped out from the original 18s to the new wheels. So it's fair to say I ended up with something a little more special than the standard 20s which is very cool.
So the plan is now:
- add rear wheel spacers
- change air intake
- change X pipe or maybe more in the exhaust (I am quite ok with a louder exhaust system)
- change springs to lower the car about 1 inch
- ECU tune once someone cracks it since the base can match the S
- check bank account
Having not owned a car of this size ever, (have had 3 series but never a 5) it drives smaller than I expected which is nice; feels size wise like a really good version of a 3 when you chuck it around all over the road, but with loads of power and awesome ride. Space in the front is outstanding. Little smaller in the back, but I never sit in the back :_)
All in all.....I am sure Maserati has hit a home run with this car!
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