Thanks to the pandemic slashing the supply of new cars and driving up the price of used ones, it can be easy to assume that your dream gamble on a heavily depreciated performance car you could never afford to buy new will forever be out of reach. For example, there was a time when I thought I might one day be able to afford a first-generation Audi R8 with a manual transmission. I just checked, and yeah, that’s definitely never going to happen. And then there’s the Maserati GranTurismo.
Earlier today, a few of us were discussing the disconnect between regular people’s impressions of Maseratis and their actual quality. As Adam said, “It always astounds me how regular folk think Maseratis are like, Bentleys or Rolls Royces in terms of quality and expense, when they’re really like a tier above Alfa.” It’s true, and yet, there’s always been that little voice in the back of my head that says, “What if you made a bad decision and bought a GranTurismo?” I don’t want to make a bad decision, but at least they’re so expensive now, I couldn’t actually buy one, much less afford to own one.
So I did what felt like a smart decision at the time and looked up used GranTurismo listings in my area to reassure myself that buying one isn’t remotely an option. As it turns out, that was a bad decision because, apparently, early GranTurismos are ridiculously cheap (to buy) now. Maybe I hadn’t been paying enough attention and should have known, but I expected the cheapest ones to be in like the $30,000-to-$40,000 range. But no. There were several within a short drive going for the low-to-mid 20s.
That’s just wrong. It’s still a Maserati, but unlike earlier models, GranTurismos are actually real cars that you might be able to convince yourself might not leave you bankrupt and crying on the side of the road. I now know I could actually afford the payments on a $22,000 Maserati GranTurismo, and I don’t like it. That isn’t the only one that I saw, and now the voice in my head is now saying, “Just do all the maintenance and repairs yourself, and you’ll be fine,” which is a very bad thing to hear when you’re trying to make smart life decisions.
I will not buy a cheap Maserati. I will not buy a cheap Maserati. I will not buy a cheap Maserati.
I will not buy a cheap Maserati. If I did, I would quickly regret it, and I don’t have nearly enough savings to take such a risky gamble on something that could end up costing me so much money. But then again, you never know, I could get lucky. The last (and final) time I went on a cruise with my family, I found $250 in casino chips in a chair that I was sitting in. That’s pretty lucky, right? Maybe I could have the same luck with a GranTurismo.
No, I definitely wouldn’t. But maybe you would?