Maserati Buyer's Guide

Maserati's auction market is the depreciation story told without mercy: five of our six tracked sales landed between £6,900 and £10,500, for cars that wore six-figure price tags or close to them when new. The exception, a Khamsin at £62,000, marks where the genuine classics trade.

The story, briefly

Racing glory in the fifties, the gran turismo era of the sixties and seventies (Ghibli, Bora, Khamsin), near-death under de Tomaso with the eighties Biturbo, and revival under Ferrari stewardship from the late nineties with the 3200 GT and its successors. Each era produces auction stock with a different risk profile, and only the pre-1980 cars have finished depreciating.

Which Maserati, for what money

Our singles tell the tiers: a 3200 GT at £6,900, a modern Ghibli at £7,085, a Spyder at £8,500, a Quattroporte at £9,724 and a Biturbo at £10,500 populate the accessible end; the Khamsin at £62,000 represents the seventies V8 classics, which trade well into six figures for the best elsewhere. Three modern Ghiblis are live on the site as we write.

What goes wrong

On modern cars: expensive routine servicing, clutches on Cambiocorsa gearboxes, and electronics whose diagnosis costs precede repair costs. The 3200 GT's throttle bodies and variators are known items. Biturbos carry their reputation for a reason, though survivors tend to be the sorted ones. Classic-era cars need Italian-specialist knowledge and unobtainium trim, priced accordingly. Across all eras the rule is Ferrari-adjacent bills on Jaguar-level purchase prices.

Our view

These are cars to buy with eyes open and a maintenance fund equal to the hammer price. On that basis a documented 3200 GT or 4200 at £7,000 to £10,000 is a remarkable amount of theatre for the money; without documentation it is a gamble the odds do not favour. The seventies cars are the keepers, for those who can reach them.