Maserati Classiche and the Maserati Certification of Authenticity

Mark,
Ferrari finally accept the Bradvan for certification for 2 reasons:

1. the convertion was done in period!
2. the history of the car after it had been converted.

So, question is now: what is original (and only for that Ferrari and Maserati had established their services..-and of course they want money out of this...!)? Original is what had left the factory when brand new! All Khamsin, Bora and Merak had left the factory with this silly additional components - no matter how logic thas all was!

US-Khamsin, Bora and Merak that had been converted -in recent years- to their original design/specs do NOT match criteria 1. and 2.
And thats a fact! Whatever we all discuss here...

 

I detect a distinct lack of an appreciation for the politics involved here, specifically in the USA market place as regards the anger such a policy would generate here amongst fans and owners.

For the longest time vintage Maseratis, almost all of them save for the racing cars were held in very low esteem and deemed not worthy of collectors purchasing and investing capital into restoring or repairing them. They languished for a very, very long time ... then in the last 10 years or so when so many vintage European and really all vintage cars got a tremendous boost ,slowly the vintage Maseratis came out of the doldrums. We've had a market drop but not exactly a crash. Perhaps just a return to normalcy. For those who did invest and restored some of these cars spectacularly just how do you think a policy such as you suggest is going to make those owners feel about Maserati? Some of those cars have made their way to Europe and elsewhere. I doubt the owners of those cars are going to welcome your ideas either.

Such a policy could well send the vintage Maseratis reputation here in the USA back to the bad old days of being less than when compared to Ferraris and Lamborghinis.

That's a terribly strategy for the company and this where they can be of great benefit now by quashing such notions and finding a way to ameliorate the situation.

 

Why do I bother?!

Walter did you even read my posts? It seems you did not understand them...and please think and be constructive instead of shooting down my efforts

 

Exactly when did it change? For all the admiration, promotion, preaching from the mountain tops that all us long time Maserchist have done over the years, Maseratis have NOT reached the level of Reverence to Ferrari that Aston Martin and Lamborghini has achieved.

This Classiche program if it is administered properly (a lot will depend hiring the right individuals for North America), is the best chance for Maserati to finally reach that level.

 

Wasn't sure I should mention this or not, but what can it really hurt... Owning both older and a newer (2006) Maserati,
I wonder how this policy MAY affect new Maserati sales in the US?... To me at least, it seems if Maserati is going to deny certification
of converted US cars, or not provide some other sort of recognition process, would classic Maserati owners still be potential buyers of new cars?
I say this, as I was interested in what the new Gran Turismo would be like and maybe considered purchasing one. But if I am let down on this
certification process, because I wanted to make my classic cars more reliable for US driving, why would I necessarily give my money to the same
company who MAY be thinking my classics would never be worthy of any factory recognition, especially when returning them to the Euro spec
(the original design)!

Just some more food for thought... But again, we may need to wait and see how this all sorts out! Ultimately, I am not sure the certification is
necessarily in the best interest of Maserati, especially here in the US, and our European brethren who bought US cars and Euro-ed them (made up word )..

Ok, I am ready to be excoriated for this....

Mike

 

In its present form, not at all and I’m not referring to the cars. SpA needs to do a purge of its NA network, the success of not only the Classiche program but the company itself is dependent on the North American market. Done properly with the right personnel the Classiche program can compliment the sale of new Maseratis and vice versa.

 

I never did any judgment about that.
And I clearly understand your point and of course it is problematic for the owners of the US-cars. But please remember, that I told my opinion on this issue also years ago.Don`t blame with all this!
The true dilemma is now with the factory and I wonder how they will solve the situation...

 

I absolutely do not shoot down your efforts here! What counts are facts - and as of the Breadvan you clearly know more about this car, its importance and its history than me.
The whole Certification thing is not my cup of coffee and I will be much looking forward to see whow Maserati S.p.A. will solve this huge problem. Time will tell...

 

You could not be more wrong on this point. They designed, built and sold the cars this way and they may very well damage the company's reputation if they abandon these cars in this manner.
They are in the sole position to "officially" to fix this.

 

I corrected my previous message with contained a typo. Yes, its clearly Maserati dilemma now...

 

You may not as yet be happy with the resurgence of the Maserati name but it has undeniably improved here in the USA and amongst collectors. There are far more well restored and good running vintage Maseratis than there were 20-30 years ago. For the longest time very few people felt comfortable investing the time and money to fix or restore vintage Maseratis. That's what changed. It's slipped backwards a bit more recently and I fear that should they abandon the USA vintage cars and their owners it will trigger an even bigger decline.

 

As already mentioned before - I understand your point.

 

Let's up the dollars involved a bit. Look at these two posts https://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/posts/148270539/

A friend of mine had Gary go through his P400 Miura and do the split sump conversion while rebuilding the engine. I wonder what Lamborghini's stance on Miuras like this is? Most everyone does this change and plenty of other changes because of the idiocy of the original design gorgeous looking as it is.

 

A similar argument could be said about adding power steering to a Daytona or a Ghibli. In the past Ferrari did not "red book" a Daytona that had PS, not sure if that has changed .... probably not. It comes down to how you plan to use the car.
Ivan

 

or a factory euro 4.7 Bora w/ EZ PS

 

Ruh Roh.

 

My 2 bobs worth from an Ozzie..
Stay calm we still have Covid to worry about.
Lets just enjoy our classics and see were this new concept takes us.
If the factory is going to start producing obsolete parts I see it as a good initiative from someone who did a ground up restoration on a Bora.
Regards all and have a Happy and Healthy 2022.

 

The production of obsolete parts I see as potentially a great contribution. The other day I suggested to Fabio one thing they should consider is to make available good reproductions of the original owner's and parts manuals. Many were already done as part of the Classiche kits which were available a few years ago therefore printing more should not be difficult. I also suggested using existing distribution channels (ebay, Amazon, etc) to make it easy for people to buy and pay for the parts.

Fabio said Mr. Cristiano Bolzoni ([email protected]) is responsible for this new project. Does anyone in this group know him? It would be great if he participated in this group.

Ivan

 

Yes and he is aware of this thread. For obvious reason it would be doubtful that he would participate. There are individuals at just about every manufacturer that monitor their brand forums.

 

An important part of the implementation of any marketing program is to understand the requirements of your customers. In this case it means not only which parts are needed (and will sell and not sit on shelves) but also figuring out the billing and distribution process. What better way to gather those requirements than to communicate directly with us, the customers?

I do not know if this is still the case but the last time I bought Classiche paperwork the ONLY way of paying was via a bank to bank transaction. My understanding is that in Europe this is more common but in the USA that means sending an international bank wire which is both time consuming and expensive for such a small dollar transaction. I suggested either credit card or Paypal but I do not know if anyone at Maserati was listening. The bottom line is the implementation of a worldwide marketing program such as this needs some thought and research as geographic needs differ.

Ivan

 

Ivan - I can`t agree more. Over the last 5-6 years I ordered copies of factory paperwork for about 7,000 Euros and had always to pay via direct bank transfer. Time consuming...
Yes, they should make payment via PayPal possible.

 

Ivan the problem is that in Europe Paypal is still seen as a joke something teenagers use to buy junk off Ebay etc, there is a lack of familiarity with it among companies, particularly in the south of Europe.
And yes wire transfers are the norm here whereas in the US they are not so readily known.

Regarding forums the factory, any car factory in my experience would not get involved because they do not see it as serious places of discussion. They also do not want to get dragged down in conversations that get out of control. Finally as Fabio has mentioned to me several times the Maserati intranet is off line, closed. His computer and that of all staff -except probably top management- does not have access to the internet, just email etc.

 

They would be very, very wrong. While I'm not endorsing Paypal per say as there are others as well. Bank wire transfers are a total PITA. It's the only way I actually did lose my money to a crooked parts dealer in Germany.

 

Sorry to hear.
What year did that happen?

 

A couple of things to remember. Until the recently Classiche was basically internally a 1 man operation (Fabio) with help from Cozza a day or two each week as a sub department in the After-sales department of SpA. Setup when former Ferrari staff transferred into Maserati. BTW it wasn’t easy for them to get it established, there were a number of people opposed to it.

Other than the retail sales of lifestyle items (different department) in the showroom at the factory, SpA as a manufacturer doesn’t deal directly with the public, its transactions are with other companies where funds are transferred via bank wire. All the business I did with the various manufacturers payment to me was always via bank wire transfer.

Lamborghini was the most fun in their early days as part of Audi. Requests went to Sant Agata then to Germany. The transfer came from Germany through Italy to the US then through the Swift system.

i’m sure as the expanded Classiche program evolves things will become more streamlined, but there will be growing pains. Give it time .