2002 Red Maserati Spyder Gt Convertible on 2040-cars

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Reid Bigland appointed CEO of Alfa Romeo, Maserati

There's been a big shakeup in Fiat Chrysler's leadership team, as head of US sales and FCA Canada CEO Reid Bigland will replace Harald Wester as the chief exec for Alfa Romeo and Maserati. Wester will retain his position as chief technical officer of FCA. Both men will hang onto their positions on FCA's Group Executive Council. The move is an interesting one considering the widely publicized issues at both Alfa and Maserati. Alfa Romeo's problems are almost too many to list. The brand has promised a full-scale return to the US market for more than a decade, but faced repeated delays. Its latest volume model, the Giulia, is being savaged by reviewers over quality issues, and the company has frequently pushed its upcoming CUV back. If that were the only problem, it'd be annoying, but according to Automotive News, Alfa's relaunch is also considerably over budget. Maserati is an entirely different can of worms. Alongside Alfa, it's been stung by a slow Chinese market. Profits are down, according to Automotive News, and it's been widely rumored that the company will delay its next sports car, the Alfieri, until 2018 – it was previously promised for this year. Meanwhile, two of its three other models, the Quattroporte and GranTurismo, are dangerously long in the tooth, and the Levante is still months away from US sales. Can Bigland sort these issues out? Maybe. As Sergio Marchionne said in his official statement, "[Bigland] has an extraordinary record of growing sales and market share in the US and Canada over the last 7 years at FCA, including leading the growth and positioning of the Ram and Dodge brands for part of that time."

Maserati confirms the Grecale SUV will get a high-performance version

Maserati will parachute its second SUV, the Grecale, into territory controlled by the Porsche Macan. It hasn't unveiled the model yet, but it has already confirmed a fire-breathing high-performance variant is in the pipeline. "We will have a Trofeo version of [the Grecale], we will have a Modena version of that. We will have a GT version," revealed William Peffer, the CEO of Maserati's North American division, in an interview with The Drive. While he stopped short of revealing specifications, Maserati saves the Trofeo name for its quickest and most powerful models. As of writing, all of its cars with the exception of the MC20 are available in Trofeo tune. They're powered by a twin-turbocharged, 3.8-liter V8 engine — even the smaller Ghibli — and they gain a number of chassis tweaks as well as several model-specific styling cues. We expect the Grecale will get a similar treatment. One ingredient of the traditional Trofeo recipe that the Grecale might not be cooked with is the V8. It's an older engine, and we're not sure that an eight-cylinder fits in the engine bay. Rumors claim the model will ride on an evolution of the Giorgio platform that Alfa Romeo's Stelvio and Giulia are built on, so the top engine might be a V6. Maserati is nearly done fine-tuning the Grecale. It will unveil the model in November 2021, and sales will start in time for the 2022 model year. Additional details about the firm's next SUV will emerge in the coming months. Related Video This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.

Why Italians are no longer buying supercars

Italy is the wound that continues to drain blood from the body financial of Italian supercar and sports car makers. The wound was opened by the country's various financial police who decided to get serious about superyacht-owning and supercar-driving tax cheats a few years ago, by noting their registrations and checking their incomes. When it was found that a rather high percentage of exotic toy owners had claimed a rather low annual income - certain business owners were found to be declaring less income than their employees - the owners began dumping their cars and prospective buyers declined to buy.
Car and Driver has a piece on how the initiative is hitting the home market the hardest. Lamborghini sold 1,302 cars worldwide in 2010, 1,602 cars in 2011 and 2,083 cars in 2012 - an excellent surge in just two years. In Italy, however, it's all about the ebb: in 2010, the year that Italian police began scouring harbors, Lamborghini sold 96 cars in Italy, the next year it sold 72, last year it sold just 60. The declines for Maserati and Ferrari are even more pronounced.
Head over to CD for the full story and the numbers. What might be most incredible isn't the cause and effect, but where the blame is being placed. A year ago the chairman of Italy's Federauto accused the government of "terrorizing potential clients," this year Luca di Montezemolo says what's happening has created "a hostile environment for ­luxury goods." Life at the top, it ain't easy.