September
02
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First Look: Maserati Ghibli
As part of my Maserati weekend in Sonoma, I got the opportunity to see the new Maserati Ghibli, which will be hitting dealerships later this month. I mentioned in an earlier post that the Ghibli should be a game-changer for Maserati. Here’s why.
Last year, Maserati sold 6,200 cars. That’s not terrible for a luxury brand with only two models (the Quattroporte and the Gran Turismo), but parent company Fiat wants Maserati to hit 50,000 annual sales by 2015. Time to diversify.
The Ghibli is intended to lead the charge toward increased sales. Slotted below the Quattroporte as an “entry-level” model, the mid-sized, four-door Ghibli should start in the mid-$80,000 range, which makes it competitive price-wise with the top-end variants of the Mercedes-Benz E-class and the BMW 5-series, as well as the Audi S6 and S7. That’s a huge new market, and one that an iconoclastic Italian brand like Maserati is perfectly positioned to take advantage of (oh, Alfa Romeo, won’t you get your act together?). And, so far, it seems to be working.
The Ghibli nameplate harkens back to the late ’60s, when it was appended to a two-door, two-seater with a V8 engine. The new Ghibli is more utilitarian, with four doors and a V6 (and an upcoming diesel), but the link to Maserati’s heritage is a nice touch.
I didn’t get to drive the Ghibli this time, so I tried to take enough pictures to make up for it. What do you think?
Woo hoo!
Fit me pretty well, I thought.
Stay tuned for more on the Ghibli as it debuts this fall!
MOTORista 
Wow! That car really looks good on you! Bet it would’ve felt good heading down the racetrack at high speed, too. *Sigh* I gotta say, though, that speedometer housing makes me a little woozy. Whassup with the curves?
The price is a bit out of my range (by a factor of, say, 20) but I’d be perfectly willing to rent one for a weekend excursion. But I’d still be worried about where to park it…