This is the advice to follow. It shouldn't take long to know if a a car is for you. I was shopping for a car and thought I wanted a GranTurismo S. I liked the looks a lot, but after the drive I was underwhelmed and was back and forth whether to get it anyway. I am glad I follow my heart and did not go through with it (end up with XE R-Sport). Maybe you should consider a GranTurismo? Has a real back seat, lots of style and maybe closer to the BMW you are enjoying currently?

 

moses, I too was looking to buy the granturismo. I have owned 3 masers (a merak ss, qp III, and bora) so I figured a gt was a good fit. in the end I preferred the looks and value of the xk. keep in mind I am a dyed in the wool Italian car owner.

I am not sure of why the op is struggling so much as I just fell in love with the jag.

 

Have owned a 650 06 now have xkr 06 jag much quicker and sharper bm is great tourer sat nav better on jag

 

Also owned an '85 Biturbo E and Alfa GTV6; big, big fan of Italian cars. I like the looks of the GranTurismo better, but wish it was scaled down 5-10% in size. Sticky buttons, ok leather quality and ride that just was ordinary to me turned me off on the Maserati. I am looking for a car again (need by year end) and Maserati came up again, but I am pretty set on an AM this time around.

 

lol...moses, I have owned 2 gtv-6's I loved those cars. the look was so distinctive and the sound...oh the sound. shankle headers and a great exhaust made it the best sounding car I have ever owned...better than my 12 cyl Ferrari too!!!

great to know we have good taste in common

 

Very few humans have experienced the full misery of owning a Maserati Biturbo. The club may even be smaller than Bill Cosby's clinical trial volunteers.

I was stupid enough to keep it past 20,000 miles. That what 30 years ago. There was no forum, there wasn't even a place that sold all the parts.

30 years ago you could not have been too mature yourself.

I will say that it was FAR MORE Italian Sports than any Maserati today, which may as well be German, with loud exhaust and reliability anxiety.

85 Biturbo Black with Camel Interior- no not camel color, actual camel suede. BBS rims.

They have such passionate ways of describing 2 turbos or 4 doors.

 

 

In a way it taught me how trivial all other problems in life were.

I am not bemoaning about an insanely unreliable and expensive to repair car, not even the fact it would not run 15 miles before stranding you embarrassingly on a drawbridge and the town I lived in FL at the time was full of them.

It was like marrying Sophia Loren, and oh by the way, she has multiple-sclerosis, so yes it will change your life but not as you were hoping.

 

I've got my '05 XKR coupe in early '14. My best friend had a '05 or '06 650i convertible. He got so fed up with it lack of reliability and warning lights about warning lights always going off he sold it to an acquaintance for cheap, who then got rid of it one month later after a transmission failure. He then got a '05 XKR convertible and seems happy with it and thinks it styling is classic and ages well. I always hated the BMW's with Bangle butts. The new 650i's fronts are better looking than the old ones but there far more than vestigial reminders of that butt from the rear IMO.

While BMW, Mercedes and Jaguars suffer from pretty extreme depreciation - it seems only one of those brands increased relative and absolute quality and and the Teutonic pair seemed to engineer down to a 60K mile initial customer lease life for far, far too many of their systems. Wanna mid 2000's top of the line bi-turbo v-12 Panzer coupe for $10, they're available at that price for a reason.

My 2 cents and of course you realize you're probably not on the most neutral site for your question to be answered objectively.

 

Since Ferrari got their hands on Maserati; they lost their flair.

I had an '85 E with silver & dark grey boxer trim. This was in 1990ish? Had it a couple of years and sold it. Manual choke and metric tires... oh the good old days. Don't mind no power steering even today.

 

• Shot timing chain- replaced 16 valves.

• Turbos seized (threw them away) you would not believe what it cost to replace those bearings.
• replaced 3 throwout bearings (redefining throwout)

Even the Ford dealer who I traded it to, begged me a week later to buy it back. I told him to go fly a kite.

This is what I mean by heritage and association. Its difficult to have the same view of moonshine if you ever suffered food poisoning from it.

 

30 years later and they're still promoting race breed v6 twin turbos; irony.

 

The most beautiful car I have ever seen ironically is also a Maserati.
Its not the shape, its the absolute perfection in proportions.

 

Khamsin or Indy are my favorites from Maserati

 

Look at these proportions- in a way its the Rolls Royce formula, but no more car than necessary- even for 4 people. Its much smaller in person than you think. It preserves the 2to1 ratio between car and wheels but those wheels are only 16 I believe. Look at steering wheel for clues.

 

Two of those last three posts looks like the worst VW ever made, the deplorable Karmann Ghia.

 

It underscores coupe. Makes the DB5 look like a coarse joke.

 

What were you expecting from German interpretation on style and luxury.
Thats like being disappointed with German comedy, music or architecture.

 

The DB5 looks better to me.

 

There isnt a straight line on the Zagato.
The DB5's fender line is effectively a square sans the slight curvature in the front, contradicted by the inverse in the back.
Simple wire wheels, not deep dish, truck like front bumper, nipples for indicators. And there isnt anything particularly elegant about the front intake. Overall it has no proportion and flow.

Just saying.