How's Maserati doing?

And then, they will sell limited series of 5,000 or 10,000 cars to keep the exclusivity...

LOL !!!

 

the Maserati of Manhattan salesman, a friend. Maserati has lowered the price without saying a thing. biggest seller is the 4wd big engine car, now $85,000 loaded. was $100,000.

 

Last year I was getting mailings from Maserati offering gran turismos for $20k off. This year they have parking lots full of bland looking ghibli and quattroportes all over the place. I have a hard time understanding someone spending 85k on a ghibli that appears to bethe size of a 3 series sedan. Something tells me steep discounts are coming.

 

Steep discounts are already here.

 

Chrysler can't even get its own problems in order, now they want to ruin an exclusive Italian marque with volume.

 

I moved away from maserati for that reason. how you sourcing the same parts as a Dart. Its like chrysler philosphy. hmm lets take a $150k quattroporte shrink it. Shove a newer turbo engine we get for free. Put in a ZF transmission that worked great else where and it's a brand new car. People won't notice the lack of peddle and wheel response or the turbo lag, thats what the badge is for. I am just hoping the new Alfieri isn't touched by anyone at chrysler.

 

What do you miss, the Peugeot crapnav from the Granturismo?

They decided to replace the QP with two models, one bigger and more luxurious and one smaller and more driver-oriented, to cover two market niches; mechanically they are of course closely related. That's kind of how this industry works.

And what do you mean exactly by "turbo engine we get for free"?

 

I respectfully disagree with most of the comments on this thread. I am a Maserati aficionado, owner (QP previous generation) and likely the owner of one of the new models. I also owned a 750 and an A8L

Maserati is doing the right thing and they have a fantastic range of models (Ghibli, QP, GranTurismo and soon the Levante and Alfieri).

I go out a lot (Miami is packed with nice cars) and the verdict is clear and without ambiguity: a Ghibli or QP (or GT) makes people talk, look, smile, ...

A new Ghibli or new QP has a lot more class, a lot more sexiness than any comparable German models, a lot more! The powertrains are great (done in cooperation with Ferrari) and the interiors and overall image are great too.

Nothing compares to the distinctive sexy designs of these Maseratis (including the Panamera, wonderful car but...ugly as almost everyone will tell you, except viewed from the front).

Soon the Alfieri (one of the most gorgeous cars ever made, period) and the Levante (imagine a beautiful SUV with a Ferrari-sourced engine, to go against the beautiful Range Rover and the ugly Cayenne).

I understand if someone prefers bland cars, cars with no soul. Maserati is going strong, and soon even stronger.

By the way, the Ghibli is much bigger than the 3-series and even bigger than the 5-series!

 

Chrysler is becoming very profitable. The engine is build at a chrysler plant and is an updated version of the Pentastar V6. By free, i mean they did not design it like the last generation of maserati's (shared engine development from ferrari). I don't even know if they put any work to reduce turbo lag. Its shipped to italy for assembly.

At least they repackaged the peugeot nav (it was horrible still). This one looks exactly the same, button layout and everything like the Dart. It feels no love went into it. They even removed all the tools that use to come with the car (loved them). its the small stuff and the italian love i don't feel. On the other hand maybe they needed the money for the new alfieri.

 

I loved the last gen Quattroporte, so we agree there. I also really like the GT(purely aesthetically-don't have any seat time in GT), but I just think they missed the mark on this generation of sedans. I don't think they're as distinctive as Maserati's designs typically are and I think that was intentional. They want to become a more main stream brand with wider appeal so they felt they needed to tone it down a little.

My biggest issue with them is where do they really fit in the market? They want to compete with Audi/BMW/MB, but they're significantly more expensive for 'less' car in the eye of the average buyer. Even your typical F-car who is probably a little more sport-oriented(and would appreciate an exciting car with soul) than the average luxury buyer is probably going to realize 'well I can get an E63 with tons of tech and power, perhaps not as 'visceral' an experience for $100k with some options vs a QP for 100k + options and not nearly as much performance.'

I think Maserati is falling into that middle ground Infiniti was in for a while. They want to be 'visceral' and sporty luxury, but they're not powerful enough to really pull the guys who want that sporty sedan into the brand. Coincidentally I happen to think the Ghibli looks a lot like the Infiniti Q50.

At the end of the day I like Maserati, I'm just surprised people are so receptive to the Ghibli. Then again people seem to be taking to the new Range Rover and I'd take a low mileage 2012 over any of the new ones. I'd say maybe I just have issues with chance, but I love the new S and a lot of the stuff Audi has put out. If it's really bigger than a 5 series maybe I'd like it. I've had a 335 loaner for the past few days from BMW now and the front seats are surprisingly roomy.
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You need to get your facts straight. Maserati's current twin turbo V6 and V8 engines were designed by Paolo Martinelli the designer of Ferrari's F1 engines during Schumacher's championship run. The engines are built in Maranello and variants are also being used or will be used in current Ferrari models such as the California T. Just like the previous generation of Maserati V8 engines.

BTW the new Maserati SUV will not be built on a Jeep platform.

 

Car and Driver ranks the Ghibli in 6th place behind the Audi A6, Cadillac CTS, E-Class, and 5-Series. It's also the most expensive.

Not exactly inspiring.

 

Hi,

In my humble view, what it lacks in "test results", it more than makes up for it in sheer beauty, especially when compared to the cars you name . Also there is the sound factor. I respectfully disagree, very inspiring and it would be the car I would pick among all those ranked by C&D.

Regards,

Ramin

 

You bring up good points regarding looks and sound. Those other cars listed certainly don't do much in the looks department.

 

Maserati is definitely on the right way.

The Granturismo is already a classic of tomorrow, just wonderful to drive, imo a class of its own (style, sound and driving behavior). Since 2013 also the build quality is at a high level.

The new models Ghibli an QP convince me as well. Maserati has refined and modernized its own design language, the turbo engines (thank you Foncool for your clarification) are benchmark for the market regarding efficiency, power and course of torque, the suspension settings are more or less perfect and the used gear boxes are its finest (need for improvements exists in the availability of assistance systems, but I heard Maserati is working on that).

With the Levante and the Alfieri are very attractive products for the right segments in the pipe.

But, of course, at the very end Maserati's future is strongly depending on what will happens with the other brands inside Fiat Chrysler Automobiles. I hope Marchionne's "premium top down strategy" will be successful (Ferrari -> Maserati -> Alfa) and that he will revitalize in time the mass market brands Fiat and Chrysler.

Regarding the article: I guess Maserati don't want to LIMIT their production at 75k units. What I heard is that Maserati's sales volume should remain at that level from 2018.

 

I don't think there is any doubt that Maserati is on the right path with its low production cars, e.g. GT and QP. Hitting 75,000 units and staying there may be a challenge, though. Fiat group has not created a great deal of confidence with the Fiat 500 and the Alfa Romeo 4C. The Fiat dealership network seems to have been done well, despite lagging sales, OTOH the 4C rollout has been a debacle. It will be interesting to see how Maserati creates the dealer sales and service network that will be required to support such volume. It is certainly an opportunity to disappoint a record number of people. Fingers crossed.

To those who remember when the Biturbo came out, were there any volume issues?

 

I recently test drove a Ghibli SQ4. Lease price was very attractive, and I am a huge fan of the original Ghibli and other Maseratis of the 70's.

Unfortunately, the car was a big disappointment. Serious lag from 0-15mph waiting for the turbo charger to spool up. Do Maserati buyers really want to sacrifice performance for gas mileage?

Interior was meh; the touch screen was pulled from the Jeep and other details like the steering wheel and dashboard controls spoke Chrysler. Also, there is limited rear and side visibility for the driver and a cramped back seat for passengers.

The deal killer was that everything is an added option. By the time you build in the luxuries that other premium cars include standard, you are now in whole different car price category.

If this is the direction Chrysler/Maserati is headed, they will end up as they did in the 80's
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