Although not Ferrari...

My boss told me about this today during our company meeting. She was a bit surprised that I did not know about this before her.




Pasadena Star-News


High-class comeback
By Andrew Blazier
Staff Writer


Friday, June 18, 2004 - PASADENA -- The highest-selling Maserati dealer in North America is about to open the continent's first all-Maserati car dealership in Old Pasadena.

In three weeks, Giacomo Mattioli, the 36-year-old owner of Ferrari Maserati of Beverly Hills, will open Maserati of Pasadena. The 15-car showroom and dealership will occupy 6,500 square feet in the historic Union Garage building at 300 S. Fair Oaks Ave.

The location is expected to be the first of three Maserati sites to open statewide by the end of the year. Dealerships are also planned for Newport Beach and the Silicon Valley.

The mid-July opening will mark the only current all-Maserati dealership in North America and the first since the glitzy Italian sports car company disappeared from American showrooms 15 years ago.

Mattioli said Maserati selected Pasadena primarily for its affluent, younger population. The company targets professional singles and younger married couples with an annual income of at least $300,000 and net worth in excess of $1 million. "We're really excited about it. It's going to put Maserati on the map,' said Mattioli, a Santa Monica resident whose hometown in Modena, Italy, is also the birthplace of Maserati.

After its heyday in the 1960s and 1970s, Maserati fell into decline toward the late 1980s. The company pulled out of North America entirely after that, only ending its 13-year exile two years ago.

In 1998, in an attempt to revive the company, Italian parent Fiat S.p.A. turned Maserati's operations over to another auto legend and Fiat subsidiary, Ferrari S.p.A. Ferrari invested $1 billion in Maserati, overhauling its decades-old factory.

"It was pretty much in disarray,' Mattioli said.

When Maserati finally returned to the U.S. in 2002, it paired the reborn company with other high-end dealerships, as it did at Ferrari Maserati of Beverly Hills.

Maserati expects to sell 1,500 cars this year in North America - a 50-percent increase from 2003. The company's executives now believe they can let the car stand alone, relying on its limited production and high exclusivity to fill the niche they say has been vacated by Mercedes and BMW's move toward mass production.

"Now (consumers) are a little disappointed with the mass production strategy,' Mattioli said. "They want a more exclusive car.'

This fall, Maserati will add a four-door sedan, the Quattroporte, to its coupe and convertible models. Prices range between $86,000 for the coupe and $100,000 for the top-of-the line Quattroporte. Mattioli hopes to sell as many as 100 vehicles per year in Pasadena by 2006.

"We're not building SUVs. We're not building other things,' Mattioli said. "We're not planning volumes, but we're planning quality.'

-- Andrew Blazier can be reached at (626) 962-8811, Ext. 2477, or by e-mail at [email protected] .