Real World Review: 2002 Maserati Spyder Cambiocorsa Posted 2010/04/06 @ 10:00 PM By Myles Kornblatt
We receive fleet cars at MotoBullet and enjoy driving them to give official reviews. There are only two problems:
1. We only get them for about a week, so we can’t assess long-term value.
2. They are usually loaded with more options than the average consumer would purchase.
This is where our friends at Dealer Auto Exchange have come in. They are allowing us to pick late-model cars from their selection to give an honest review. These are cars that were bought and used by real consumers.
Now we can mix our impressions of how the car was when new, and how it behaves after being used by actual consumers. We can measure results of what can be expected after a few years of real ownership, and/or what you can expected to find on a pre-owned car lot.
THE CAR
It is a 2002 Maserati Spyder with a 4.2-liter 390 hp V8 and the Cambiocorsa semi-automatic transmission. It is hard not to like this Italian. When driving passion is the focus of any design, the result is sex on wheels. So while we’re going to be as objective as possible with our review of the our Maserati Spyder, just know that we are already predisposed to liking it.
Our car has less than 30,000 miles, and it is being offered at $27,800.
OVERVIEW
So how does a Maserati end up at Miata money? Decades adrift have created an interesting situation for Maserati. The company built its reputation on beautiful and fast sports cars. But then various corporate owners spent the 1970s, 80s, and 90s cashing in that image with cars that looked like Mitsubishis and were built as haphazardly as gingerbread homes. Eventually Maserati fell into the hands of Ferrari. Maserati’s former cross-Modena rival was able to hand down major technical expertise and equipment such as engines and transmissions. Ferrari even gave Maserati time to bring back graceful lines to its sheetmetal.
But even as the design and engineering are now back to premium standards, the years of abuse to Maserati’s reputation makes them more affordable on the second hand market. It is the same problem Jaguar had before Ford ownership and Rolls-Royce had before BMW. If their timeline is any indication of how long Maserati’s reputation has to stay in the penalty box, its pricing should recover soon.
Since Maserati’s logo is Neptune’s trident, our Spyder is appropriately painted in Nettuno (Neptune) blue with a slightly darker blue top. The British are usually the ones who specialize in a body/top combination in two shades of the same color, but it fits very well on this Italian.
The Maserati Spyder utilizes a lot of Ferrari’s technology, so the design is crucial to differentiate the two car companies. Where Ferrari traditionally uses Pinninfarina, Maserati used a famous design house from its past, Giorgetto Giugiaro, to wrap the Ferrari architecture. The result is a distinct design that still holds its Italian sexiness today (do we need to mention again our bias towards this car?)
The interior is covered in hand-stitched tan leather. We are not usually worried about wear and tear on a car that’s done less than 4,000 miles per year, but the real concern is how this droptop has held up to years in the sun. Just because this car hasn’t been driven very far doesn’t mean it hasn’t spent serious time next to the valet stand. If a company doesn’t do its interior homework before building a convertible the soft leather and plastics can fade into something very unappealing. On this particular car we’re happy to report that the inside still looks factory fresh.
DRIVE LINES
Driving the Maserati is like conducting a symphony, literally. The exhaust at idle has a rhythmic low-level rumble that encourages play time. With every 2,000 revs added the sound dramatically quickens and changes until it is screaming, “From now on, this is how you should always live your life!”
Of course what’s starting all this noise is the engine. The 4.2-liter V8 is the same unit Ferrari uses in various displacements across its lineup. In this application it makes 390 hp, which at less than 3,800 lbs gives this GT car a similar power/weight ratio to a Porsche Boxster S.
The transmission on the Spyder is worth noting. The Cambiocorsa (race change) is taken directly from Ferrari’s F1 racing development. It is a elecrohydraulic manual transmission with shifting via wheel mounted paddle shifters or computer-controlled automatic shifting.
As expected from Ferrari, the paddle shifting is quick and precise, but what is surprising is the automatic mode. Because these are performance cars (and should be driven as such), the automatic mode of these transmissions can sometimes feel like an afterthought. For example, until last year when Aston Martin switched from the Sportshift to the Touchtronic 2 automated manual, the automatic mode felt like a rookie was doing the shifting. But even back in 2002 when our test car was built, Ferrari/Maserati was able to build the Cambiocorsa to feel solid when shifting for itself.
The whole package (engine, transmission, exhaust, etc.) results in a car that begs to be driven. The low center of gravity really presents itself in the corners. When taking this Maserati around a 90 degree banked turn on our test circuit, the car gripped hard enough to let us continue to power through at speeds that have made other sports cars break loose. Combine that with the wind-in-your hair experience of the Spyder, and it’s a good argument to play hooky for the day on the backroads.
MINDFUL ITEMS
An eight-year-old Maserati will easily impress friends and dates much more than any other car at this price point, but this envy comes at a cost. Behind the trident it is all Ferrari, and a precision instrument needs to be kept fine-tuned. So although this car is going for Miata money, don’t be fooled into thinking that everything will be so cheap.
A Maserati puts owners in an exclusive club, but there are membership dues. This will require keeping advised maintenance intervals with parts and service that are not exactly provided at any corner garage. The servicing is not catastrophic, but it is recommended to set aside about $600 per year for maintenance (including detailing). The Maserati Spyder we tested didn’t skip a beat, and we can only hope the new owner will keep it that way.
PRICING
Book value for similar 2002 Maserati Spyder Cambiocorsas is in the mid-$40K range. Market pricing for these cars is about $10K less due to the conditions mentioned earlier in this article. This Maserati Spyder is being offered at Dealer Auto Exchange for $27,800. For more Details on this specific car visit Dealer Auto Exchange’s website.
It is a 2002 Maserati Spyder with a 4.2-liter 390 hp V8 and the Cambiocorsa semi-automatic transmission. It is hard not to like this Italian. When driving passion is the focus of any design, the result is sex on wheels. So while we’re going to be as objective as possible with our review of the our Maserati Spyder, just know that we are already predisposed to liking it.
The interior is covered in hand-stitched tan leather. We are not usually worried about wear and tear on a car that’s done less than 4,000 miles per year, but the real concern is how this droptop has held up to years in the sun. Just because this car hasn’t been driven very far doesn’t mean it hasn’t spent serious time next to the valet stand. If a company doesn’t do its interior homework before building a convertible the soft leather and plastics can fade into something very unappealing. On this particular car we’re happy to report that the inside still looks factory fresh.
The Cambiocorsa (race change) is taken directly from Ferrari’s F1 racing development. It is a elecrohydraulic manual transmission with shifting via wheel mounted paddle shifters or computer-controlled automatic shifting. 
A Maserati puts owners in an exclusive club, but there are membership dues. This will require keeping advised maintenance intervals with parts and service that are not exactly provided at any corner garage. The servicing is not catastrophic, but it is recommended to set aside about $600 per year for maintenance (including detailing). The Maserati Spyder we tested didn’t skip a beat, and we can only hope the new owner will keep it that way.
