What's the plan for the exhaust?

It currently has a Larini sport exhaust which I gather is much prized among the Maseratisti; it's pretty loud in town and my wife refuses to drive it until it's quieter!

Fuel consumption seems to be about 17mpg .

Have had one on loan now for over two weeks.

I wouldn't buy one [Frown]

Good bits first.

Glorious, tuneful and VERY powerful engine.

Smooth.

Decent auto gearbox.

Nice interior (but not if it's cream leather with burgundy suede headlining [Freak] ).

Can seat four (well two plus two anyway).

Looks different.

Bad bits.

NASTY, nasty, nasty throttle. Its fly-by-wire and waaaaaay too sensitive and light. Can't even feel the pedal below your foot.

Even nastier traction control. Fine if only one wheel is spinning, but sooo easy to light up both tyres, even in the dry. Absolutely lethal in the wet, when it's difficult to pull away from standstill without spinning the tyres due to the crappy over-sensitive throttle.

Car was obviusly built to be an auto. Three pedals only just fit in the footwell. The footrest is about 4cm wide, and your foot rests on the clutch pedal too. With trainers on, when I press the clutch, my shoe touches the footrest AND the brake pedal. Can't be driven wearing large shoes or boots. Turn your foot sideways and you can press all three pedals.

Dead feel to the steering, clutch, gearbox.

Slow gearchange (which may be down to having only done 400 miles).

Dodgy electrics already. First car I had, the clock either gained or lost 3 hours A DAY!. Electric seats occasionally move completely forward whilst parked up. Current car's radio has never worked (only done 400 miles). Also a piece of wiring loom has dangled out of the dash and touches my leg. My ten year old son got his fingers trapped between the seat and the rails while trying to move the seat.

Rattles like a six year old Coop, not a brand new Italian supercar.

Lots of backlash in the drivetrain. LandRover Discovery style clunking on clumsy gearchanges (which is nearly all of them with THAT throttle).

15mpg average [Eek!]

I could sum it up by saying that although the Maserati is stupendously powerful, it is not fast (other than in a straight line).

Give me a bendy A road, and I would have been LOADS faster in my old 20VT. Add a little rain and I reckon I could go faster in a normally aspirated Coupe. It really does feel that remote.

And before anyone says that I can't handle a powerful rwd car, when I got my 355, within two days I could stuff it into a corner, get a bit of understeer, then use the throttle to hold it either neutral or provoke a little oversteer. The 355 is beautifully balanced and you can feel it. The 3200GT is probably as nicely balanced, but you just don't feel attached to what the chassis or the tyres are doing.

Sorry if this bursts your bubble. You may absolutely love the car- just make sure you get a long (half-day?) test drive. Try manual AND auto. If I HAD to live with one, I'd have the auto, simply because the manual is so bad.

Its crap. Sorry.

OK, it ain't total crap, but I would be well pi55ed if I'd just spent £65,000.

If I wanted luxury and pace, I'd buy a second hand Jag XJR (not even an XKR), and spend the change on a Ferrari 348.

355 should be back by the weekend, or early next week. Counting the hours.