Maserati Quattroporte 1999 News

   

   

Bouncing back from the GFC and poised to turn downward again as a surging Australian dollar threatens to push up interest rates, Australia has become a nation of widening gaps between the haves and have nots. Witness the strength of the luxury car market. In Maserati's case, Australia has recorded sales increases of almost double previous years. Spokesman for Australian importers, Ateco Automotive, Edward Rowe, says the GranTurismo coupe models doubled sales in 2011 year-to-date compared with the same period in 2010. "The Quattroporte is up 90 per cent in the same period and order books are getting longer,'' he says. "The currency rate, which favours importers, means we have added a lot more equipment to the models to make them more attractive. The GranCabrio, for example, has more luxury features and equipment than before.'' Australians who can afford to consider a Maserati are also more likely to buy a sports derivative rather than the more luxurious models. The launch of the GranCabrio Sport - the more sporty version of the existing convertible - is set down for December in Australia with a sub-$350,000 price tag. "We expect to sell in 2011 calendar year 40 Quattroportes, 90 GranTurismos and 35 GranCabrios - not including the Sport model which, as is expected, will be registered in the 2012 year,'' he says. "But we are aware of the potential for the global economy - and that of Australia - to tighten in 2012 so our estimates for these models will be similar next year.'' Buyers for the GranCabrio Sport are expected to come from BMW 6-Series and Mercedes-Benz coupe models. "It's an exclusive market and Maserati is doing well because of its exclusivity and especially the breadth of the customisation available on the cars.''

Fresh from hinting at a new SUV to take on Porsche's Cayenne, Maserati quietly let it slip this week that it is finalising details of its 5-Series/A6/E-Class rival.  The saloon, effectively a downsized Quattroporte, may be ready for sale in Europe by late 2013. It will be joined on the showroom by the new Quattroporte which, it has been suggested to Carsguide in Modena this week, will be slightly bigger to emphasis more cabin room. The mid-size car will use a tweaked version of the 4.2-litre V8 and the option of the 4.7-litre V8. It will have conventional drivetrain with a six-speed ZF automatic and double wishbone suspension at all corners. The new Quattroporte will have only the 4.7-litre engine but in two power derivatives.  No further information is coming on the two cars. But it is understood the new SUV - a tall coupe-styled car with all-wheel drive - will use drivetrain components and probably the platform of the Jeep Grand Cherokee. The SUV will use Maserati engines and will not be available with a V12 from Ferrari as has been suggested. Even a diesel engine hasn't been discussed. The SUV is regarded as - finally - the production version of the Kubang concept car of 2003, designed by Giugiaro.  A Maserati spokesman says the new mid-size and the bigger saloon were still being formulated for final design and engine choices.

... in Sydney when Jaguar displays its new XJ Supersport and Maserati spotlights its Quattroporte GT S at the Australian International Motor Show (AIMS).The XJ Supersport, the quickest model in Jaguar’s XJ range, adds new competition to the luxury performance saloon category.  Jaguar’s all-new XJ Supersport combines luxury appointment with substantial power and critically acclaimed handling.The Supersport is powered by a 5.0-litre supercharged engine, producing 375kW of power, 625Nm of torque and a 0-100km/h time of 4.9 seconds.  Interior luxury comes by way of leather seats that are both heated and cooled, and a 1200W Bowers and Wilkins surround sound system."The all-new Jaguar XJ reinforces the strength of the new Jaguar in the Australian market,” said Jaguar Australia general manager Kevin Goult.  “With its spectacular looks and performance, this XJ competes with a much wider range of challengers than any previous XJ."The all-new XJ challenges the notion that large cars should be conservative or constrained, with a blistering 0-100km/h performance time of 4.9 seconds.  “The XJ is far from a compromise in performance and maintains very high levels of expected luxury,” Mr Goult said.Maserati’s Quattroporte GT S, the company’s flagship saloon, will be making its Sydney motor show debut. The Quattroporte GT S is powered by a 4.7-litre V8 engine which produces 323kW of power and 490Nm of Torque.“The Maserati Quattroporte established this much sought-after market sector and remains the benchmark,” Maserati Australia and New Zealand general manager Glen Sealey said.  “Key measures that set it apart from its rivals are exclusivity and heritage.“Maserati offers a unique heritage and, with its products limited to the Quattroporte, GranTurismo and GranCabrio, a name and badge that will only be found in this rarefied area of the car market.“The drivetrain and chassis ensure that the Quattroporte is more than capable of withstanding performance comparisons with sports cars, let alone other saloons.“The driving pleasure is accompanied by the rich baritone roar of its engine, while enveloping its occupants in the highest levels of comfort and luxury,” Mr Sealey said.The Australian International Motor Show will be held at the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre in Darling Harbour. The show opens at 5pm on Friday, 15 October and runs until 6pm on Sunday, 24 October.

Slinging the bag around town said you were environmentally conscious, intelligently concerned for Mother Earth and so obviously eco-cool you cared not a whit that the bag’s shouty shade of green would never match anything you wore. Of course, it took only a nano-second – which seems a short yardstick of time, except when you’re measuring the viral spread of fads (and often the longevity of them) – before everybody else jumped on the bagwagon. Every shop of with even the slightest pretensions to … well, anything in the way of now-ness … had its own branded cloth bag. How environmentally sound all this was is open to question, since most of them were synthetic fabrics spun out of petrochemicals in third world villages where it’s of little concern if the water gets poisoned. But the continuing popularity of the bags, and the bagwagon, shows that everybody is putting the appearance of trying to be green Oddly, it has taken until now for Maserati – a name not normally associated with being slow – to join in. But when they do, they certainly take things to the next level. They’ve just announced their own initiative to save the planet, with a designer eco-bag produced in partnership with Italian fashion house Momaboma. And not only is it a reusable bag that replaces the plastic one – if there are any left in the world by now – but it has the double eco-barrel of also recycling rubbish. Well, not rubbish in our eyes. But car brochures from the Maserati archives that the company says would otherwise have been pulped. In the interests of international relations, we’ll just have to suspend disbelief about that claim. However it would be odd to pulp what was obviously a collection of rare archival material that would have collectors salivating onto their white gloves. Especially when a current model Maserati brochure is expecting to get $30 on eBay. For instance, we can see that one of the pages collaged into a the bag is a 3500GT brochures – an item cited in a story a couple of years ago as being part of an archival treasure, and which noted collector Philip Morrice says would be worth at least $100 in pristine condition. So we shouldn’t be surprised that the Maser bag is on the market for around $300. Perhaps that’s simply the price of saving the planet. Or perhaps it reflects the bag’s exclusivity, since only 150 of them have been made. Which means that you’ve got little chance of adding one to your accessory shelf. Never mind. We’re here to help by pointing the way to your own auto-exotica bag. Simply arm yourself with a pair of scissors and pot of glue, and print out some of the pages from our photo galleries… (may we suggest the Bugatti Bleu Centenaire or perhaps the Porsche 917) … your own eco-bag, and for a lot less than $300.  

Dozens of Australian owners of one of the world's hottest sports cars have been asked to return their vehicles for repairs, after it emerged that a software glitch could cause a high-tech stability control system to shut down. Maserati has announced that the glitch could cause problems for models in its Quattroporte range. The models are priced from $269,000 to $298,000. Several models, 30 of which have been sold and registered in Australia, have been recalled due to the problem, which could lead to the vehicle’s Maserati Stability Program (MSP) to disable itself. While Maserati’s website said the MSP stability control includes the car’s ABS and the “electronically controlled braking distributor”, a spokesman said those features will continue working regardless. “It doesn’t affect the ABS brakes or any of the other safety features,” the spokesman said. “It’s a software issue… if the battery gets down to a certain level, the traction control will trip out.” The problem arose from a defect in the MSP caused by “a bug in the electronic software”, Australian distributor Ateco Automotive said in a statement. The statement also said that owners of the Quattroporte 139 automatic model should contact a Maserati dealer for details. The Maserati spokesman said it was not a 'catastrophic' problem and a warning light will appear on the vehicle’s dashboard if the traction control did cut out.