Again, go to
www.maseratilife.com and do a search for "cost of ownership". You'll find several posts addressing this issue.
YES, it can get VERY, VERY expensive to own one of these cars. Remember that for repair or maintenance work you're going to be taking it to a Ferrari dealer. So if you take it in for a regular maintenance check up you're going to pay at least $1,500. A clutch replacement is like $3,500 (on the manual, not F1 transmission). Either the Coupe/Spyder with the F1 trans or the Grand Sport (only comes with the F1 trans) are going to be more expensive because the F1 hydraulic pump goes out and costs $1,300 just in parts, plus you'll have to change the clutches and I think you need special tools to do this on the F1.
Take a look at this website that sells OEM Maserati parts at a big discount:
http://trident-parts.com/coupe--spyder.html
Looking here you can see that actually it's not too terribly expensive for parts for this car (when compared to the Porsche, not a Hyundai). So... IF you do the work yourself, then it's NOT very, very expensive to keep one of these cars running. That $1,500 service at the Ferrari dealer would be MUCH cheaper - $26 for the oil filter, $26 for spark plugs (cheaper than the Boxster), 0W40 Mobil 1 oil same as the Boxster with 10 quarts at $6.50 each. Coolant, power steering fluid, and brake fluid are all standard stuff, nothing exotic. So you could completely go through the car, flush all fluids, replace the plugs, belts, filters, etc. for maybe $250 in parts. Do that every year and the car will just keep humming along happily, as will you.
More major work, like clutch change, gets pricey because the parts are pricey. Again, that's why I would stay away from the more complex systems available - like the F1 transmission and the Skyhook suspension. R&R on the standard suspension (all shocks and springs) is like $2,000 while the Skyhook R&R is over $5,000. Keep it simple stupid. If you still really want the F1 transmission check out the Top Gear review on YouTube - they hated it, as well as the handling.
So you can buy an '04 Coupe 6MT with 25K miles for $35K. Set aside $10K and expect that every year you'll have to spend $250 in maintenance parts, $1,500 every two to three years for a new clutch and throw out bearing, $1,000 every two years or so for new tires, and $2,000 sometime in its lifetime for a complete suspension change. You could then drive it reasonably for 10 or more years.... as long as you stay out of the Ferrari dealership.... and you're lucky that nothing major breaks.
Kirk