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Maserati
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Owned by | Fiat , under Ferrari's control. |
Introduction | To many people, Maserati was
a great name in the pre-war GP racing history as well as a glorious super
car brand in the 60's and 70's. With the introduction of great cars such
as Ghibli, Bora and Khamsin, it once challenged the mighty Ferrari and Lamborghini
seriously to become the best sports car manufacturer. However, after many
years struggling in financial problem, it became a second class luxurious
coupe maker and fail to repeat its earlier success.
Today Maserati becomes the smallest division of the Fiat group and is effectively ran by Ferrari. The new 3200GT has shown what the Maranello men can do to revive Maserati s reputation, although it would have been better if it came earlier. However, I believe continuing improvement to the car will eventually do that, given the experience of Ferrari boss Luca di Montezemolo. |
Sales figure | 1998 sales figure : 620 cars.
The new 3200GT intends to push sales to 6,000 cars annually once it lands in the US. |
Location | Modena |
Brief History | Maserati was founded in 1926
by 4 brothers, Alfieri Maserati, Ettore Maserti, Bindo Maserati and Ernesto
Maserati. For a long time it produced only racing cars, which won the GP
world championship in 1957 with J. M. Fangio and its famous 250F. After
that year the famous team stopped racing and concentrated on producing road
cars, especially was fast GT. As a result, Sebring, Mistral, Quattroporte,
Mexico, Indy and others greater sports cars described in here rolled out
continuously.
Back in 1947, Maserati brothers lost control of the company to Adolfo Orsi due to financial problem. The latter ran the company successfully until he sold it to Citroen in 1971. The new partnership with Citroen helped strengthening Maserati's finance a while, during which Maserati produced engines for the Citroen SM. However, heavy losses of Maserati led to the relationship to be broken in 1975. Then the "Professional Survivor" Alejandro de Tomaso came and steered the company to produce more affordable coupes base on a single basic platform. Therefore in the 80's and 90's you can see so many look-alike Maserati with different names - Biturbo, Spider, 222, 228, 420, 425, 430, Karif, 2.24, 4.24, Racing, Shamal, Ghibli and the newest Quattroporte. They were not great Maseratis, of course, but did help the company to survive. In 1993, Maserati was half taken over by the giant Fiat. Since then a new marketing position was set - sportier then Lancia, more luxurious then Ferrari, and being priced between them. However, without full control Fiat can hardly cure the deep-rooted illness. Therefore in 1997 it let its Ferrari division took over the remaining 50% ownership, accompany with the company s administration. In other words, Ferrari is now running the company and is responsible for the production as well as development. In Nov 1999, Ferrari bought the remaining 50% stakes from Fiat. Ferrari s first act was to revise the Quattroporte Mk II to improve build quality and refinement, then took over the development work of the 3200GT, an all-new Maserati for 20 years. The target was set against Jaguar. Although Maserati will never be what it was, the Ferrari era is certainly far more promising than the de Tomaso days. |
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