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Honest opinion from a Ghibli owner.
Being a long time customer of luxury cars , I recently purchased a Maserati Ghibli. This is my honest opinion about the car.
I’ve purchased the Ghibli S Q4 witch I think is a direct competitor of the BMW 650i xDrive. I was debating between these two and chose the Ghibli.
The engine is really nice, pulling very strong anywhere in the rev band, thanks to the ZF 8 speed transmission. The way the programming was done on thistransmission, really transform the experience of the car while in sport mode.
Speaking of which, while in this mode, you get the true Italian sound experience! They have carefully tune the exhaust note to enhance even more the driving experience. Nicely done Maserati!
The interior is again very nice. The available options to customize it makes it a really a treat to the eyes. Rich leather, nice carbon fiber trims in my case and lots of Alcantara makes me want to spend lots of time in the cockpit. I’m a bit disappointed with the support from the front seats but they are not that bad.
As many reviewers mentioned, the Maserati Touch Control is nothing more then a new skin on top of Chrysler’s U Connect system. Does it work ? Yes… Navigation is easy, very snappy and fast but this is not suitable in a 100,000$ car. I was actually surprise to see from my own eyes, that the Chrysler version is more up to date and offer more features! A bit frustrating to see a 20,000$ Dodge Dart using the same unit but with more functionality!
Bluetooth integration is at a minimum level, witch will give you good quality phone conversation but bluetooth streaming will not provide you with songs name, artist info and so on. This really is annoying for me. All car makers offer this function even the Korean cars priced 10 times cheaper!
The fact that it doesn’t have any messaging or email integration makes me miss my BMW apps / BMW connected services a lot. I used to get myself up to date on emails while stuck in traffic during my commute to the office. Again not a show stopper but disappointing.
I can honestly say that the Maserati Ghibli looks amazing, feels very nice and drives well. In fact the attention you are getting from others is often awkward as this car looks much more expensive than it really is. If you are looking to get noticed, this is the car. Pedestrians, other car drivers, everyone looks at you!
After one week of driving the car in a normal way, the car started to rattle for many different places. Being concern about this, I started exchanging with other Ghibli owner across North America to realize this is not an isolated incident. According to Maserati, the fix is pretty simple, they are adding Dynamat like material to attenuate some of the rattles.
That sounds like a workaround that should have been take place before I got the car. They’ve charge me 4,000$ for Transport and Preparation. This is double of all German automaker!
So lets assume for a minute that this will fixe most of the rattles in the car.
You still need to get an appointment to get the car fix.
Maserati sold 15,400 cars last year worldwide. They are hoping the Ghibli will open up a whole new market for them and are expecting getting market share from Audi, Benz and BMW. Their plan is to sell 50,000 cars for this calendar year.
That is a nice plan but if this is the case, you have to make sure your dealership are able to accommodate this new traffic and most importantly, make sure the positive experience does not stop after you take the keys of you new car.
My experience was very far from a positive one. Upon calling services department, I got, sure you can drop you car we will look at it… ok when ? Do I get a loaner ? Could you provide more details ? A loaner ??? What is that, you want to know how long will the car be in shop ? Why ? Don’t you have a dozen of other cars you can use ?
Now that will not fly with ex german car owners. When you need service, you need it now, and you need to make sure, you either get a loaner or a rental no question ask.
Lets just say that the first week was a learning experience for me. I really like the car but it’s the little annoying things like that that make me realize the value of German automakers.
Maserati have nailed the uniqueness experience, the feeling of driving an exotic for the price of a luxury German car but they are sure not ready for prime time.
I honestly think that the car is not ready for prime time yet! All I know is after just one week with the car, I am convinced that I will be driving a German car shortly!
Being a long time customer of luxury cars , I recently purchased a Maserati Ghibli. This is my honest opinion about the car.
I’ve purchased the Ghibli S Q4 witch I think is a direct competitor of the BMW 650i xDrive. I was debating between these two and chose the Ghibli.
The engine is really nice, pulling very strong anywhere in the rev band, thanks to the ZF 8 speed transmission. The way the programming was done on thistransmission, really transform the experience of the car while in sport mode.
Speaking of which, while in this mode, you get the true Italian sound experience! They have carefully tune the exhaust note to enhance even more the driving experience. Nicely done Maserati!
The interior is again very nice. The available options to customize it makes it a really a treat to the eyes. Rich leather, nice carbon fiber trims in my case and lots of Alcantara makes me want to spend lots of time in the cockpit. I’m a bit disappointed with the support from the front seats but they are not that bad.
As many reviewers mentioned, the Maserati Touch Control is nothing more then a new skin on top of Chrysler’s U Connect system. Does it work ? Yes… Navigation is easy, very snappy and fast but this is not suitable in a 100,000$ car. I was actually surprise to see from my own eyes, that the Chrysler version is more up to date and offer more features! A bit frustrating to see a 20,000$ Dodge Dart using the same unit but with more functionality!
Bluetooth integration is at a minimum level, witch will give you good quality phone conversation but bluetooth streaming will not provide you with songs name, artist info and so on. This really is annoying for me. All car makers offer this function even the Korean cars priced 10 times cheaper!
The fact that it doesn’t have any messaging or email integration makes me miss my BMW apps / BMW connected services a lot. I used to get myself up to date on emails while stuck in traffic during my commute to the office. Again not a show stopper but disappointing.
I can honestly say that the Maserati Ghibli looks amazing, feels very nice and drives well. In fact the attention you are getting from others is often awkward as this car looks much more expensive than it really is. If you are looking to get noticed, this is the car. Pedestrians, other car drivers, everyone looks at you!
After one week of driving the car in a normal way, the car started to rattle for many different places. Being concern about this, I started exchanging with other Ghibli owner across North America to realize this is not an isolated incident. According to Maserati, the fix is pretty simple, they are adding Dynamat like material to attenuate some of the rattles.
That sounds like a workaround that should have been take place before I got the car. They’ve charge me 4,000$ for Transport and Preparation. This is double of all German automaker!
So lets assume for a minute that this will fixe most of the rattles in the car.
You still need to get an appointment to get the car fix.
Maserati sold 15,400 cars last year worldwide. They are hoping the Ghibli will open up a whole new market for them and are expecting getting market share from Audi, Benz and BMW. Their plan is to sell 50,000 cars for this calendar year.
That is a nice plan but if this is the case, you have to make sure your dealership are able to accommodate this new traffic and most importantly, make sure the positive experience does not stop after you take the keys of you new car.
My experience was very far from a positive one. Upon calling services department, I got, sure you can drop you car we will look at it… ok when ? Do I get a loaner ? Could you provide more details ? A loaner ??? What is that, you want to know how long will the car be in shop ? Why ? Don’t you have a dozen of other cars you can use ?
Now that will not fly with ex german car owners. When you need service, you need it now, and you need to make sure, you either get a loaner or a rental no question ask.
Lets just say that the first week was a learning experience for me. I really like the car but it’s the little annoying things like that that make me realize the value of German automakers.
Maserati have nailed the uniqueness experience, the feeling of driving an exotic for the price of a luxury German car but they are sure not ready for prime time.
I honestly think that the car is not ready for prime time yet! All I know is after just one week with the car, I am convinced that I will be driving a German car shortly!
. I have not turned the radio yet listening to the beautiful engine sounds all the time 
