Ferrari had just purchased Maserati from Stellantis! There were rumours during the last days: https://www.finews.com/news/english-news/63083-maserati-ferrari-sales-rumors-folgore-carlos-tavares-wall-street-journal-stock-price-ferrari
How the H-ll do you get all this information so early? Your contacts inside Maserati really run deep don't they!
I can’t help feeling that this will be better for Maserati than staying under the Stellantis umbrella. Ferrari surely didn’t buy Maserati to strangle it, so let’s see what comes forth……Thanks for the good news Walter! Best to all. M
Stellantis has problems of its own, they cut people left and right with several brands they own, and I'm sure were exhausted trying to figure out how to make it a profitable exotic brand out of Maserati. Rather than cut many more people it sounds like they are using the sale of Maserati to keep their other brands viable with a cash injection while their plans to save those brands can come to fruition. Ferrari are likely going to use Maserati as 'diet Ferrari', or 'not quite Ferrari', as Stellantis has sort of been trying to for years now. Their mistake was making cars that borrowed a bit too much from the Chrysler parts bin and pricing them way above market for the segment they were intended to compete. You hear any rumors about what might be next Walter? @wbaeumer
That decision is going to be made by one man, John Elkann. It was obvious part of Montezemolo’s vision of Maserati, that Marchionne didn’t share in search of higher volume before the merger with Chrysler. Marchionne had a vision of spinning off Maserati and Alfa in a separate IPO like he did with Ferrari when Maserati was turning a 13+% margin without an SUV, and before he put Chrysler management in charge of Maserati/Alfa. It won’t be as easy as it was when Montezemolo did it nor when Marchionne separated them. This is going to require a massive purge of the Maserati network, which is what’s needed anyway.
The next interesting question is: what becomes with Alfa Romeo? Will the "new" Maserati supply any parts or components to them? Or will Maserati get some of these from Alfa??
Clearly better stuff to smoke was needed by Marchionne for his "version"... Basically, he had no ideas about cars....
Sharing the Ferrari dealership network should also be a big win for Maserati. I have to imagine that would be a big turn on for new Maserati buyers. Thanks for the very interesting news, Walter!
I've heard news from my contacts that FORD MOTOR COMPANY is now considering buying Maserati........Touche' This will be interesting.
And that would be deja dodo all over again circa 1995, though the MC20 isn't really besting any of their models presently in terms of performance but ... Way back in 1995 when Maserati created the Ghibli Open Cup series there were rumours that when those cars got a much needed 2nd year update in the form of an Evoluzone kit with a greatly improved suspension, bump in HP and much better brakes (Ferrari 355 Challenge front, F40 Rears(lord know's why) they became real competition for the 355 Challenge and the race series was cancelled after two races. This is how I got mine. It certainly out ran a stock 355 & 360 on the Pocono, Summit Point and WG circuits but not the 360 Stradale or Challenge 355 & 360). I remember one drag down the main straight at Summit and the guy in the 355 Challenge had an instructor aboard but clearly wasn't listening. He late braked a bit too late and hard and went sailing off into dirt runoff there leaving a cloud of tire smoke. I was on the outside and had to guesstimate where the turn was and he was not. I had ABS so I didn't lock up and sailed right around. He didn't challenge me again. So Deelicious. Another time on that same circuit it was early spring and in the driver's meeting they warned about warming your tires up. Even so the first car out that morning didn't and spun and wreck his 355 Challenge almost directly after pit out ... major idiot. So as I was warming up my slicks for several laps I wasn't going as fast some hot shot M3 rookie drivers wanted me to go. In the driver's meeting they complained about a yellow Maserati dragging it's ass around the track. I smiled and saw another off in turn 1 coming soon, they needed some schooling. Sure enough, in the next session when my tires were warm enough that M3 pulled out behind me to pass but there was no way it was going to be faster down that straight as my car hit 60 in 4.1 seconds and I had fat flicks on it. This time he went straight off but behind me and I again made the turn with ease. They spent the rest of the day cleaning and straightening out some bent undercarriage stuff in the parking lot after being towed to the pits. I never though that car was as good in the twisty bits as the mid engined cars were but in Europe they were upgraded by several specialists in Italy and won some GT races. Mateo Panini bought one of these and had the premier specialist for these cars in Modena really trick his out. It's green and I think he still owns it but his wife didn't like him entering hill climbs with is so I don't h drive it anymore. That's how we met once at Lime Rock. That little 2.0L 4V twin Turbo Cosworth derived motor could really scream but dang was it ever peaky!
I believe that was why the Chubasco was shelved or at least speculated to have been shelved. The Chubasco wow'd everyone, Fiat bought Maserati very shortly after, Ferrari whispered into Fiat's ear to shelf that fantastic car that was just shown, done.
That sounds high to me, but... Ferrari itself is valued at around $75B USD so that wouldn't be unreasonable to take on... Kevin
I'm guessing that anything exotic is now out at Maserati and we will see a lot of high end SUV's and four door sedans. Bentley type if Ferrari wants to go expensive while not competing with their own models as it is not worthwhile challenge Mercedes, BMW, Audi or Jaguar. Too much volume to take on those cars, hence competition for Bentley with a sportier outlook???
IF true (and I have no opinion on that at the moment), this looks like a decent way for RACE to increase sales and income without diluting the Ferrari marque any further.
