FCA Wants Maserati To Be Their New Cash Cow - Is That Possible?

Absolutely, Porsche already provided the blue print, Que the launch of Maserati compact crossovers & SUVS, midsize crossovers/SUVS, hell throw a compact sedan in and top it off with a small displacement sports car...BOOM

It's all about the money these days folks, when Bentley and Rolls Royce put their emplems on top of BMW and Volkswagen SUV Platforms...its a free for all and anything goes

My understanding is that exotics and upper end vehicles aren't the big breadwinners. It's the mass-volume people movers that rake in the cash. Audi's middle-sized SUV, the Q5, is near the top of their unit sales, in spite of the thinner margins. The A6, with beefier profits per unit, sells far fewer in number and contributes even less to Audi's bottom line. And the further you move up to the A7 and A8, the unit sales even get lower, as does the contribution to the bottom line. Don't even ask about how much Lamborghini or Bentley contributes to the Volkswagen Audi Group (VAG).

A similar story happens at BMW, with their bread-n-butter 3-series contributing a pile to the profit banks, while the 5, 6, and 7-series contributing progressively less, and Rolls Royce being a relative drop on the bucket in spite of their stratospheric price tag that's more than many people's houses.

I would say NO.

FCA is trying to build TWO premium brands simultaneously: Alfa Romeo and Maserati. That's dumb.

Fiat is their small car brand.

Chrysler pretty much is their mainstream/budget brand.

Alfa Romeo should have been near-premium aimed at Subaru i.e. like an Italian Subaru...feisty and unique. Given that Alfa Romeo underpins Chryslers, it would have essentially been Alfa Chryslers with sexy Italian styling (unlike the Giulia), hot turbo engines, and with available AWD.

I'd have done an AWD Dart Romeo aimed straight at the WRX STI and then a coupe version at the GTV, both in the $30-40K range.

Maserati should have been their BMW/Mercedes brand.

Dodge should have become a niche brand offering some American RWD affordable muscle with Dart, Challenger, and Charger their choices.

Jeep is Jeep.

Ram is Ram.

I'd argue that Maserati as a possible "cash cow" is a virtually impossible end-game.

In NYC, the few people I know who bought Ghibli's (about 5) universally HATE them. They are small and cheaply made. 3 of those people traded them in already).

After an initial love-fest, the Quattroporte's are not fairing much better.

FCA's best hope for a cash cow is to knock the ball out of the park with Alfa Romeo - perhaps positioning it with a model range like Audi's but with a price point about 10% lower. If that happens, Alfa will be the cash cow. Maserati has lost its credibility already, unfortunately.

Did they not realize the Ghibli is largely a Chrysler 300 under the sheet metal?

My father-in-law loves Maseratis. He currently has a Ghibli and likes it, but feels it's not as "Italian" as his last Qporte.

The current Qporte and Ghibli heavily leverage the Chrysler 300 platform. The front suspension is revised, but the underpinnings are much more alike than different. And that's the problem. The Qporte and Ghibli are excellent stop gaps. Maserati got product out, but there is a certain datedness.

I happen to like the Ghibli a LOT, but I'd love to have an SRT Hemi under the hood. A Hellcat Ghibli would be sheer genius.

The Giorgio platform is an evolution of the Ghibli's platform, so again we're talking stop gap.

Fiat and GM do not play well together, but if Maseratis were derived from Cadillac platforms rather than Chrysler (nee old Mercedes) platforms, the result would be better.

Ghibli or Qporte Hellcat is a genius idea - take the rest of the day off.

And before all the purists urinate in their pants with rage over my suggestion of a Hellcat Ghibli, there is a tradition of Italian exotics using American engines. The Hemi and Hellcat would be much more visceral and delightful than what Maserati currently uses.

The Hellcat is pretty much a bolt in deal that could be done to any Ghibli. And yes, I'm scouring for wrecked Hellcats.

Maserati is never going to replace Ferrari as a cash cow. They even advertise that they use Ferrari prepared engines. The question is - when Ferrari is spun off - how much will still be controlled by FCA -since they need that "cooperation" for engines for their higher end vehicles.

As far as the Hellcat engines - we are again mixing apples with oranges. In Europe - big displacement/horsepower American V-8 engines do not impress at the high end. A Maserati with a Hemi would be a non-starter there - even if it could be sold in the US.

As far as Maserati on Cadillac platforms - there is something I cannto put a finger on that is wrong about the Cadillac platforms for Europeans - no matter how good they are - they just missed the mark. I think this is a case where Cadillac - and whoever made the decisions for these platforms - simply failed to take the PUBLIC into the process - so they produced a car that seems to handle better than a BMW - but the rest of the package leaves both American and European buyers cold. Imagine - they gave up their traditional buyer - and failed to pick up new ones.