1980 Quattroporte for Sessanta Sette Cinquanta!

When he sang Wango Tango, Ted Nugent wanted the object of his affections to pretend your face is a Maserati. Nice Price or Crack Pipe likes the Motor City Madman, but doesn't think this is what he had in mind.

Despite disagreement over what kind of plane yesterday's F100 was trying to emulate, it still flew off with a 74% Nice Price salute. Going from the eulogistic to the sensationalizing, today we have a Malaise-era Maserati that's fun for the whole family.

Unlike Ferrari, Maserati has not exclusively built sports/GT cars, having constructed their fair share of sedans over the years. Much like the BMW or Mercedes range-toppers, these massive four-doors - imaginatively named Quattroporte - share engines and a high level of performance with their GT brethren, but also provide copious room so you can take a few friends along for the ride.

This 1980 Quattroporte III has an asking price of $6,750, and is one of about total 2,200 built over a 14-year run. The third iteration (the Citroën SM-based Quattroporte II seeing only seven cars sold) comes from the De Tomaso era of Maserati. Alejandro bought Maser from Citroën, and exorcised all the hydraulic sun visors, swiveling headlamps and bass-akwards V6 engines from the Quattroporte's portfolio. De Tomaso wanted a car that was competitive with the Mercedes-Benz 450SEL 6.9, and hence the Quattroporte sported only the choice of Maser's 4.9 or 4.2 litre V8 engine from the Bora and Kyalami.

The seller doesn't say which engine is in this car, but instead simply has copy and pasted the salient section from Wikipedia regarding engine specs. As he does note that the car was "brought in" and required the retrofitting of an 80-MPH speedo (thanks Joan Claybrook), the question of whether this was originally intended to be a federalized car remains up in the air.

Other than that, the paint is shiny, the leather is mostly smooth and the trim bits - while having turned a rather lurid shade of orange - are at least present. All is not perfect in Maseratidom, however, and the seller lists a few shortcomings including some electrical gremlins and window glass issues. Also, it needs a new manual choke cable, as one luxury denied this car was reliable cold starting without the yanking of a dashboard knob. One thing he doesn't mention is the seat-back pockets which look like the kids have been riding with their feet in them. This gives them the appearance of empty clown pants, and takes away from the otherwise nice interior presentation.

Despite those shortcomings, this looks like a fine example of the businessman's express, and how often do you come across a $6,750 Maserati that doesn't have a Biturbo badge, or the unholy stench of K-car wafting from it?

So, does $6,750 make you want to hit that Buy-It-Now button for this mature Maser? Or does that price fail at extending your love past the brand's duoportes?

You decide!

eBay or go here if the ad disappears. Hat tip to SagarikaLumos!

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