He bought the cheapest 400 HP Maserati V8 on the market for 9,000 € and soon realized where the catch was

A Maserati GranTurismo Powered by a V8, for the price of a used small city car? On paper, it’s hard to resist. But when a car that cost over €100,000 new drops to a price below €9,000, one question comes to mind: where’s the catch? That’s exactly what the team from the YouTube channel TDC set out to find out by buying one of the cheapest GranTurismos in the country. And at first glance, a few clues already suggest caution is warranted.

An inexpensive Maserati… that's been through a lot

This GranTurismo is equipped with the 4.2-liter naturally aspirated V8 engine developed in collaboration with Ferrari, producing approximately 400 ch, paired here with a six-speed ZF automatic transmission. It has approximately 61,000 miles, or 98,000 km, on the odometer—a mileage that is by no means extraordinary for a GT.

But its condition already partly explains its price. The car was once covered in a matte black wrap accented with gold details. When the wrap was removed, some of the paint came off with it. As a result, the body is in poor enough condition to warrant a complete repaint.

The interior isn’t much more reassuring. Sticky buttons, a worn headliner, a temperamental window regulator, LED lighting added by a previous owner… Not to mention a faulty electronic parking brake and brake lights that sometimes stay on, risking a dead battery. Yet the V8 still starts right up and purrs as ever. That’s enough to keep alive the hope that you’ve found the deal of the century.

The specialist discovers what lies beneath

To find out for sure, the GranTurismo is entrusted to a specialist Maserati. And once the car is on the bridge, the bill starts to take a whole new turn.

The front subframe is severely corroded and must be replaced or repaired. The rear subframe is also particularly badly affected. On top of that, there’s corrosion on a rear fender, a leak in the power steering coolant system, worn-out control arm bushings, all four stabilizer bar links that need replacing, play in the driveshaft, and rear brakes that need to be overhauled. And the list goes on with a tire worn down to the wire, problems with the power windows, a cracked coolant reservoir, and several minor electrical issues. In other words, it’s not a catastrophic breakdown that accounts for this Maserati’s price, but rather the accumulation of costly repairs.

€9,000 for the purchase… and potentially €25,000 in renovations

The final cost is determined after calculating the price of the necessary parts: about 14,000 €, not including labor. And that amount doesn’t even include the cost of repairing the bodywork. For the bodywork alone, estimates range from €6,000 to €12,000. In total, getting this GranTurismo back on the road properly could easily cost an additional €25,000—and that’s without a full restoration of the interior or replacing certain questionable cosmetic modifications.

So this Maserati for less than 9,000 € wasn’t exactly the deal of the century. But it’s not ready for the scrapyard either: its V8 engine runs, the car can still be saved, and it will actually serve as the basis for a restoration project. The catch was actually quite simple: buying a Maserati for €8,700 is possible. Maintaining it like an €8,700 car? Not so much.