After reading through the initial few pages of the new Trident magazine, which is one of the highlights of club membership to me, I’m stuck by a couple of things regarding Maserati’s strategy going forward.
In general terms I can see what Marcchionne was trying to do with grouping Maserati and Alfa Romeo together. He was trying to get the synergy displayed by VAG where the top end of one brand overlaps with the bottom end of the next one up. That would get people to move upward through the FCA brands instead of defecting to someone else entirely.To be honest it was this that got me into the Ghibli. I was considering buying a Giulia Quadrifoglio but delays meant that I looked around for something in the same price range and re-found the Ghibli. Then good salesmanship got me into an S.
Perhaps it hasn’t worked because all of the focus has been on new Alfa models, at the expense of Maserati. Only time will tell if dividing them will work.
The second point runs on a little bit. I keep being contacted by Maserati to upgrade my Ghibli S to a newer model. There isn’t one though. Maserati have dropped the S engine from all but the Levante. They’ve dropped the V8 from the QP and its the base V6 or Diesel as choices. Call me a power snob but I don’t care how much more luxurious the interior of the MY19 Ghibli is I don’t want to drop 50HP. So Maserati don’t have a replacement car for me.
I understand that neither the S, or GTS QP, models sold in great numbers in the UK. This would be a reason to take them off the general production runs. It doesn’t explain why, given the new emphasis on customisation, they aren’t still available as a build-to-order option. If they gave me the option of ordering a new S I would be tempted. As it is they’ve lost a potential sale whilst I wait for the Alfieri to appear in a couple of years time.
To me it still seems that Maserati don’t really know what they want to be going forward.
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