quattro(porte) for sale...

[Bryan Gunn <bgunn@voicetek.com>]

Hi folks,

Yeek! Be afraid, be very afraid. A friend of mine has an '89 Maserati 228.
The 228 has many, many re-engineered features and enhancements and it still
runs poorly. The 228 has EFI, no smog pump, redesigned seals, and a zillion
other things. The older cars are carburetted, have smog pumps, burn 
more oil than gasoline, and in general are lucky to have
made it 47K miles. And the prices of parts! Man, I'll never complain about
the quattro again. 228 brake discs are $250 each! This should give you an
idea of the unflinching financial commitment a Maser requires.

However, his stock 228 (when running correctly) is damn fast. It can drop
my mildly tweeked quattro like a ton of bricks. And the 228 runs like 6lbs
of boost stock? When my friend gets around to putting in a "free flow"
exhaust, free breathing air filters, and bumps the boost a bit, look out.

And I'll give the 228 credit for having a really nice interior. Leather,
suede, and wood everywhere. Nice (looking) design and layout of everything.
And very quiet. Too bad the instruments are wildly inaccurate if at all
functional, the power windows and locks are jokes, and you can guess how
well "computerized climate control" works in an Italian cars. It does,
however, have a gold Cartier clock in the center of the dash.

To be fair, my friend just bought this 228 a couple months ago with 57K on
it, and he doesn't know much of the car's history. It appears to have had
rather inept service and some coarse treatment. We've already ironed out
many of the car's running problems and little glitches, most of which were
caused by mechanics goofing things up then trying to hide their mistakes. 
When we get the thing spot on, it's going to be a neat car. Faster than 
the quattro, too. Until we get to the turns. Hee hee.

But a quattroporte is a damn scary vehicle in terms of parts and service.
-- 
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*            Bryan Gunn                  Email: bgunn@voicetek.com           * 
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