Maserati Grancabrio 2014 News

The specialist Italian car maker recently reported its 2010 profit, together with the year's 5777 unit sales, which was up about 18 per cent on 2009. Maserati spokesman Luca Dal Monte admits 2009 was a depressed year - because of the global financial crisis - but on that still reported a $15 million profit for the company on sales of under 5000. It is a far cry from the record sales year of 2008 when Maserati made 8586 cars and one that may not be repeated soon. Dal Monte predicts 2011 will have "about the same'' sales as 2010. Asked if product development will be stifled by modest sales increases, he says it was incidental. "Profit doesn't affect future development,'' he says. "We are part of the Fiat Group.'' With Fiat behind it, Dal Monte indicates that new projects - the mid-size prestige saloon, a new Quattroporte and an SUV - are assured. Fiat bought Maserati in 1993 but it wasn't until 2007 that it made its first profit for some decades. In 2008, thanks to a resurgence of the marque, profit tripled over 2007 to about $110 million. The 2010 year saw 47 per cent increase in sales in the US; 54 per cent in China (off a low base as 402 cars sold that year); and 46 per cent in the UK. One week ago, Maserati opened a dealership in India. Maserati, like Ferrari, build to customer orders under the philosophy of making "one car less than is ordered''. That ensures it carries no stock and has minimal downside when global car sales slump.

The launch of the GranCabrio was timed to coincide with the opening of the new $32 million Ferrari Maserati Sydney headquarters, described this week by Maserati's commercial director, Raffaele Fusilli, as the ‘most beautiful’ in the world. "We are already holding 40 customer orders for the GranCabrio and I am confident that for the full year we will be able to sell at least 45,"  Ferrari Maserati Sydney dealer principal Edward Butler says of the $338,000 convertible. "We are predicting overall sales this year of 165 cars with all the growth coming from the GranCabrio."  Butler says he is confident that the new convertible will not draw buyers away from the GT car, but rather from key rivals BMW, Mercedes and Aston Martin. "With the traditional soft-top the GranCabrio is quite different to the Coupe and will appeal to a very different buyer ... that may not have been the case if it had a folding metal roof." Butler believes a key point of attraction for the new car is that there is a useable amount of legroom for the two rear-seat passengers.   "This is a car in which four people can comfortably sit ... it is not compromised in any way as a four-seater," Butler says.

Chop the roof off. The Modena-based thoroughbred carmaker has done just that with its slinky GranTurismo, delivering the GranCabrio, the company’s first four-seater convertible. The sleek newcomer makes its world debut at next month's Frankfurt Motor Show and will be available here in the third quarter of next year. A spokesman for Maserati importer, Ateco Automotive Ltd, Edward Rowe, says customers are already queueing for the car. “We have a list of people who have seen the spyshots and they have expressed an interest,” he says. Cost? Rowe says the price is yet to be confirmed but says “it will have a margin above the GranTurismo”. That means somewhere north of $300,000. In true Italian fashion, Maserati has gone against current thinking by making the GranCabrio a canvas soft-top instead of an electrically folding tin-top design favoured by the Germans. The company says this allows for a full four-seater capacity and also helps emphasis a link with past Maserati convertibles. The GranCabrio is continuing a long tradition in open-top Maseratis. It joins models that have played such an important part in the Modena carmaker's history such as the 1950 A6G Frua Spyder, 1960 3500GT Vignale Spyder, 1964 Mistral Spyder, 1968 Ghibli Spyder and 2001 Spyder designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro.