Why do the Ghiblis worth 4 times less than Daytona, Iso Grifo, and Bizzarini ?

There are a very tiny group of cars, and a very tiny group of people, who buy $1M plus cars, yet it's called a "market". Leave the semantics alone.

A market is a market is a market, slice and dice however you choose. Brush up on your community college basic business course.

 

Show me those raising prices (of sales not of asking prices) of that market first

 

In particular when those junk-cars come to EU, the "proud" owners have to face VAT and import taxes on those crap-cars!
The Biturbo cars are coming from US to EU doubling their prices???? I don`t now what some people here are smokin`.....

 

Here is something to think about, it was DeTomaso that took a horrid slug of a Merak getting rid of the ugly Citroen SM dash replacing it with the beautiful Bora dash, removed the hump back on the rear deck and banished the Vulcan blood in favor of conventional brakes. Plus he increased its power taking it from a slug to somewhat respectable.

It was also DeTomaso that played with the idea of a Merak turbo.

BTW anyone want to count how many manufacturers now build bitirbo engines?

 

Joe,
sorry - but POrsche made its fist Turbo in 1976, long before the Biturbo hit the rust!
The fact that many manufacturers now build biturbos doesn`t sanction your statement. They have efficiency reason doing this. Maserati BMW-look-alike Biturbo were made first under the 2-liter tax of the Italian Government. The endless other versions came later....

The Biturbo saved Maserati S.p.A. on short terms - but it ruined the elite-image of that manufacturer! Thats a fact! And don`t forget - in the late 90s at the end of the Biturbo-aera Maserati S.p. A. was near bankruptcy...

 

OK DeTomaso gets one thumbs up. Thank God the guy didn't own a football team, he's the Al Davis of Automobiles.

 

Well you could always put them on the ignore list that Fchat offers ...though it doesn't block what they post when someone quotes them.

Others in the international community have been doing their best to ignore at least one of them for years. Just ask around.

 

Walter,
The Porsche 930 was a single turbo (btw 10 years earlier another company was building air cooled rear engine cars that were turbocharger...... The Chevrolet corvair).

The fact is that a number of manufacturers were building turbo cars at that time Saab, lotus etc. but it was DeTomaso that lead the way of putting twin turbos on a production car, which was the state of the art in F1 at the time.

As far the biturbo ruining Maserati's image, no more so than the 914 did to Porsche, the 190e did to Mercedes, endless s&!@ box 3 series BMWs, or how about the Mondial 8 & the 308 GTBi, the Urraco? EVERY company has built cars like that.

While the biturbo era cars may not have had the looks of a Maserati they certainly had the performance which is something the Merak never had even in SS form. Do you like show or go?

 

Joe,
the 914 comes today in higher prices than the Biturbo.
And you can`t compare the very nice looks of a Uracco with this bax that was called Maserati, eh?
And the Merak is a much nicer, more sportive and elegant looking car than this Biturbo-thing! This Biturbo engine might be nice but the rest of the car is ...crap!

 

Then drive your car as long as it falls apart! My advise : never park it beside a Ghibli 4.7 or 4.9......

 

this thread must be the reason why Maserati drivers have the reputation of being 'gentlemen' whereas ........

 

I don't think your comment is fair.

These are heated discussions for sure, but the quality and level of the people around here is high enough and this place always remain civil. Sure enough, I'm one of the people stirring things around.

Everyone expressed his or hers views in the heat of the moment, but even then, things never went out of hand.

To be honest, Maserati drivers are usually people with a low profile, who don't feel the need to show off (unlike some other brands that we know).

 

thank you for reminding me. that is exactly where i'm going, back into my low profile.

 

There are a couple of people who don't quite fit the mold of the typical Maserati owner so don't let any absurd assertions of being gentleman about how they discuss some of the issues fool you.

I don't think you'll find any other examples on here of people who openly and in a hostile manner repeatedly attack certain models of Maserati's. It's one thing to discuss certain car's flaws and solutions for them but it's quite something else to just dismiss them as junk thereby implying something about the owners and also never offer any suggestions for fixing the issues. The cars with LHM system are a perfect example of this only exceeded by the Biturbo line. There's not excuse for behaving like they do especially when they're so ignorant about at least some the subjects. The real purpose of said repeated posts can only be to inflame and not inform.

A troll is a troll is a troll. Don't let them scare you away.

 

I wonder if Maserati would be still alive at all without Citroen and De Tomaso? What was the reason for the Orsi family to sell Maserati to Citroen? Had they lost already too much money or simply the interest in it? We know that Citroen never really got to grip with Maserati so they sold it to De Tomaso since he obviously was the only one interested with enough means at the time to keep going. So no matter how good or bad the biturbos are (I can't judge that since I have never owned or driven one) they somehow kept the mark alive. Otherwise some die-hards could only talk about the past when everything was better - even the (then non existing) future.

And let's not forget how many other cars that have been thought to be crap and not worth being saved are now gone and those very few surviving examples get all the appreciation. Who could ever imagine today's prices for those crappy German micro cars? Maybe because they tell us something about our history in a way no wikipedia can ever do. And the Citroen and De Tomaso era is part of the history of Maserati - like it or not.

 

The answers to many of your questions are here: Maserati - The Citroën Years · Books · Eau Rouge Publishing

Their participation is part of the reason that Maserati is the oldest of the Italian exotic car builders.
Maserati 1913. Ferrari post WW2? Lamborghini 1963 or so?
Every Maserati fan -- maybe except for Walter -- should be thankful for their contribution at least in that regard.

 

The one comment that I continue to see is comparing the number of cylinders of these cars and how that influences price. If one simply looks at the Gullwing/300Sl market or Aston market it is evident that the number of cylinders is of no consequence. Those who say that the quality of the car is what makes the difference, I agree. The green Ghibli SS Spyder sold for $880,000.00 last year, and Reggie Jacksons Daytona Spyder sold the year before for the same price. To do a correct restoration of a Ghibli will cost $200,000.00 That would include sourcing all correct/original parts and sorting the car perfectly. Thats what the cost is for a Daytona and is no different for a Ghibli. I have noted before that there is not a major auction that does not have a Daytona Spyder for sale. The same can not be said of the Ghibli Spyder.
It would be nice to see an auction that had 1 or 2 top notch Ghibli's and top notch Daytona's and see how they fair.
Each of the major players have had there down years, and produced cars that they are probably not proud of.

 

Next year will be interesting with it being 100 years of Maserati,


Graeme

 

Yeah something odd about that 100.
In 1986 I went to the factory to join the celebration of Maserati's 60th birthday.
Looks like some backdating has occurred since that time.
That or a Delorean is involved here ...
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Many car makers like to tamper with their founding dates. Daimler, Benz , Mercedes: all different founding years, celebrate the oldest one, of course. Skoda pretends to be one of the oldest car brands, but if you look closely, they started in 1895 with bicycles and the brand name was Laurin & Klement. And so on. And Maserati has indeed started as a company in December 1914 (=100 in 2014) , but the first car with a Maserati badge only appeared in 1926 (= 60 years in 1986).

 

....yepppp

 

"Maserati is the oldest of the Italian exotic car builders...."

Alfa Romeo was founded as A.L.F.A.(Anonima Lombarda Fabbrica Automobili)-- in 1910 -- or is that not exotic enough?

 

Actually Alfa celebrates their founding as 1906, when the company (Società Anonima Italiana Darracq) that became A.L.F.A. signed the paperwork to build Darracq cars under license in Italy.

 

Well I guess Maserati just needs to dig a little deeper then. Perhaps they can further back date the companies founding to the brother's parent's wedding night. That's when the manufacturing process actually got started ...

 

Interesting an old and good senior Italian friend often makes the comment, Italian genty drive Maseratis not Ferrari's.


Mind you this may have been true up to the late 60's

and as for the Maserati 100 years goes back to when they made spark plugs and bikes.
1926 is more appropriate but I am not going to argue with the Marketing department.

Graeme