1995 Mitsubishi 3000gt Spyder Sl Convertible 2-door 3.0l on 2040-cars

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2025 Maserati Grecale Folgore First Drive: Roughly translated 'electric Maserati SUV'

LECCE, Italy – Maserati believes its customers should decide if and when they go electric. While itÂ’s building up its range of EVs for motorists who think a twin-turbocharged V6 engine is the automotive equivalent of the horseshoe crab – the next-generation Quattroporte and Levante will notably be electric – itÂ’s still developing and selling gasoline-burning cars for those who are less than enthralled by battery technology. It launched the Grecale, its smallest SUV and its most affordable model by a significant margin, in 2022 and initially made it available with either a four- or a six-cylinder engine. ItÂ’s a bet that paid off: Aimed at the Porsche Macan, the Grecale has predictably become the Italian companyÂ’s best-selling model. The range expands later this year with the all-electric 2025 Maserati Grecale Folgore. In Italian, its name means "lightning," so that's fun.  Some carmakers, such as Mercedes-Benz, set their electric and gasoline-burning models apart by lumping the EVs into a sub-brand and giving them a powertrain-specific design. Maserati sees this approach as an avenue thatÂ’s best detoured, so the Folgore doesnÂ’t scream, “Hi, folks, look at me: IÂ’m electric!” It looks pretty much like the piston-powered Grecale with the exception of minor details. That's intentional. “In terms of the shape of the car, we donÂ’t want to change the customerÂ’s perception. Our customers know Maserati as a luxury brand, but weÂ’re also known for Italian design. We donÂ’t want to be generic; we want to be timeless. We donÂ’t want to follow a trend. Our mission is to achieve visual longevity,” Maserati designer Andrea Bruno told me on the sidelines of the Grecale Folgore launch. “These trends move fast. One month, everyone loves it. The month later, everyone has already forgotten it. We need to do something timeless.” Some of the visual changes made to the Folgore help improve driving range by reducing the drag coefficient. Up front, thereÂ’s a redesigned grille with a much smaller open area. Out back, Maserati added a redesigned air diffuser. Copper-colored accents also make the Folgore stand out, and the gasoline-powered modelÂ’s three fender-mounted air intakes are filled in and fitted with LED lights. Rame Folgore, a paint color that changes from gray-ish to brown-ish depending on the light that hits it, is EV-specific as well. It's the color you're seeing in our gallery, above. Other colors are also available.

2014 Maserati Ghibli Diesel

It used to be easier to make sense of the auto industry. There were mainstream manufacturers, and there were niche sports car manufacturers. That was before Porsche starting selling more crossovers than it does sports cars, Lamborghini began preparing to go down the same road, and Ferrari introduced an all-wheel-drive hatchback. But long before the arrival of the Cayenne, the unveiling of the Urus and the advent of the FF, the storied marque that is Maserati was already bolstering its sports car offerings with four-door sedans.
In fact, it's now been half a century and six generations since the launch of the original Quattroporte. So the idea of a four-door Maserati shouldn't come as any surprise by now, but the vehicle you see here has the Modenese automaker breaking new ground in another way entirely. And it's not the size, either: although the new Ghibli is smaller than the current QP, it's roughly the same size as the aforementioned original - not to mention the Dodge Charger, a corporate stablemate which similarly revived a coupe nameplate for a four-door sedan. No, what makes this Ghibli 'special' is what resides under the hood, because the model you're looking at packs the very first diesel Maserati has ever offered in its hundred-year history.
Sacrilege, you say? Maybe, but as so-called performance brands have turned their attention to four-door sedans and crossovers, they've also begun to embrace diesel propulsion. In Europe these days, even Porsche, Jaguar, the BMW M division and Audi Quattro GmbH are burning the midnight oil. So while it may be new territory for Maserati, the Ghibli is far from the first high-end, performance-oriented diesel on the Old World's market. It's also a vital addition to the brand's portfolio, particularly in Europe where the advantageous price of diesel fuel over gasoline (and the smaller volumes of fuel a diesel engine typically consumes) makes offering a model so equipped vital to the Trident marque's ambitious growth plans. The question, then, is whether it delivers.

Maserati's small two-seater could arrive by 2016

As a following act to the redesigned Quattroporte and the recently unveiled 2014 Maserati Ghibli, Maserati will be releasing a slew of new products in the coming years, including the next-generation GranTurismo, the all-new Levante SUV and a new 911-fighting coupe - possibly called Gran Sport. While all of this information was detailed last year in a leaked product plan document, there were no dates associated with any of the new products. Auto Express is now reporting that the new GranTurismo will be out in 2015 and the new smaller coupe is expected out in 2016.
According to the report, the new coupe will be smaller and sportier than the GranTurismo, and it will feature a mid-engine layout with a platform that isn't shared with the Alfa Romeo 4C. This product onslaught is a part of Maserati's plan to increase sales to 50,000 units globally by 2015.