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A car writer's year in new vehicles [w/video]

Christmas is only a week away. The New Year is just around the corner. As 2014 draws to a close, I'm not the only one taking stock of the year that's we're almost shut of. Depending on who you are or what you do, the end of the year can bring to mind tax bills, school semesters or scheduling dental appointments. For me, for the last eight or nine years, at least a small part of this transitory time is occupied with recalling the cars I've driven over the preceding 12 months. Since I started writing about and reviewing cars in 2006, I've done an uneven job of tracking every vehicle I've been in, each year. Last year I made a resolution to be better about it, and the result is a spreadsheet with model names, dates, notes and some basic facts and figures. Armed with this basic data and a yen for year-end stories, I figured it would be interesting to parse the figures and quantify my year in cars in a way I'd never done before. The results are, well, they're a little bizarre, honestly. And I think they'll affect how I approach this gig in 2015. {C} My tally for the year is 68 cars, as of this writing. Before the calendar flips to 2015 it'll be as high as 73. Let me give you a tiny bit of background about how automotive journalists typically get cars to test. There are basically two pools of vehicles I drive on a regular basis: media fleet vehicles and those available on "first drive" programs. The latter group is pretty self-explanatory. Journalists are gathered in one location (sometimes local, sometimes far-flung) with a new model(s), there's usually a day of driving, then we report back to you with our impressions. Media fleet vehicles are different. These are distributed to publications and individual journalists far and wide, and the test period goes from a few days to a week or more. Whereas first drives almost always result in a piece of review content, fleet loans only sometimes do. Other times they serve to give context about brands, segments, technology and the like, to editors and writers. So, adding up the loans I've had out of the press fleet and things I've driven at events, my tally for the year is 68 cars, as of this writing. Before the calendar flips to 2015, it'll be as high as 73. At one of the buff books like Car and Driver or Motor Trend, reviewers might rotate through five cars a week, or more. I know that number sounds high, but as best I can tell, it's pretty average for the full-time professionals in this business.

2022 Maserati Ghibli price of entry climbs to $77,695

Maserati announced the revamped Ghibli lineup in June, boiling down ten trims to four, but didn't announce pricing. The good have made their way to the Maserati configurator, so now we know how much more a 2022 Maserati will cost in relation to what came before. The big jump happens at the bottom, the previous base Ghibli becoming the 2022 Ghibli GT. The GT holds pat with the 3.0-liter twin-turbo V6 making 345 horsepower and 369 pound-feet of torque. It also gets 18-inch alloy wheels and chrome accents outside, with leather "comfort" seats and Dark Mirror trim inside, and automaker spokesperson Kas Rigas told CarsDirect the GT gains some standard driver assistance tech, wireless charging and black painted brake calipers.   The price bump for the new name and goodies is $4,010, from $73,685 to $77,695 after the $1,495 destination charge.  Above that, the Ghibli Modena starts at $82,395, putting it $1,210 over the previous GranSport and GranLusso trims that came above the S and all-wheel drive S Q4. The Ghibli Modena features a 424-hp version of the V6 engine with 428 lb-ft., restyled bumpers with black inserts, 20-inch wheels and "wraparound" leather seats. Turning the front axles to get the all-wheel drive Modena Q4 adds $2,600, for a total of $84,995. The price of adding AWD has gone up by $100, and this is the only AWD trim in the range now after having three last year; however, the price of getting into an AWD Ghibli in an upper trim has gone down by $2,990. Last year, the lower-tier S Q4 cost $81,185, but the S Q4 GranLusso and GranSport ran $87,985. Finally, the 2022 Ghibli Trofeo starts at  $112,095, just $710 more than the 2021 Ghibli Trofeo. Just under that, and for a short time, is Ghibli F Tributo honoring Juan Manuel Fangio (pictured) with exclusive colors and a "very limited" production run. Based on a search at the Maserati U.S. web site, a Ghibli F Tributo starts at $100,385 if you shop in a place like Arizona, or $102,885 in a place like New York state. Related Video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.

Maserati to cap output at 75,000 cars

Maserati appears set to take a page out of corporate sibling Ferrari's playbook with the possibility that it may cap global annual output in the coming years. Ferrari announced in 2013 that it would limit itself to 7,000 vehicles a year to maintain exclusivity, and so far, it has stuck to the plan.
According to an unnamed Maserati executive speaking to Reuters, the Italian luxury car maker wants to cap its sales to 75,000 vehicles a year. However, it's hardly there yet. The company doesn't forecast reaching that production benchmark until 2018.
Dave Sullivan, an auto industry analyst for AutoPacific, thinks that limiting sales could be a smart move for Maserati. "If it is profitable at 75,000 and doesn't require a significant investment in capacity to get there, this appears to be sound," he said to Autoblog via email. "Alfa Romeo is intended to be the volume brand and by capping Maserati, it means that even if you opted to buy the 'entry level' Ghibli, you still have a level of exclusivity."