Ferrari heeft Maserati in 1997 ingelijfd en heeft toen de productie van de Quattroporte stil gelegd om eerst een hoop verbeteringen te implementeren. Iets zegt me dat de modellen vanaf 1998 te prefereren zijn. Heb er vaak naar gekeken maar nooit aangedurfd. Voor m'n gevoel stonden ze tot voor kort allemaal voor maximaal 15 mille te koop.
Een welvarende klant had een prachtige Ghibli met 56.000 km op de klok en zelfs die werd op den duur ziek van de kosten. Dat voelt dan toch een beetje als riskant.
De wijzigingen per 1998:
Rear mirrors, wiper blades, radiator, rims, steering wheel, ext temp indicator place (now under the stereo), 17' inches wheel, no analog clock (replaced by a trident), cylinder heads, crankshaft, pistons, ball bearing turbo, new Hi-Fi system. New 16 inch eight spoke alloy wheels, with 17 inch wheels available as an option, were now fitted to the entire range a standard equipment.
Darker interior wood, different type of button for windows and AC control, different front armrest (now with only one compartment), new design of the dashboard (more electronic also i.e. the turbocharger boost indicator), seat mechanical part and control buttons, size and type of the logo on the trunk, lock system of the glove compartment, new rear seat carpet, new front door water seal, 2 airbags instead of one, no blow off valve, in the V6 Maserati use the water tank and steering wheel fluid tank of the V8, new alternator type and ancillary belt, new ABS (still from bosch), new fuel line, now you have some space to put your finger and open the trunk =), V6 use the V8 air filters, new wiring (at least in the engine compartment), oil stick...."
In the year since Ferrari took control, it has turned Maserati around. With a new factory, and great new cars, the future looks bright
Story by Richard Bremner, taken from Car Magazine, July 1998
When I asked Antonio Ghini what the Maserati factory was like when Ferrari took it over, he holds his head in his hands, smiles, and after a pause says, 'It was a mess.' Given that Ghini is communications director at Ferrari and Maserati and that, being a PR man, he is not one to issue negatives about those for whom he works, we can take it that we're dealing with a grade one mess here - a mess resulting from years of insufficient money, management effort and morale.
Since Ferrari came along in July last year (when Fiat group managing director Paolo Cantarella insisted that Ferrari take operating control of Maserati from Fiat Auto, which had run the company for the past four years) there's been a lot more of the first, plenty of the second and, as a consequence, an escalation of the third.
So, how big was the mess? Maserati's Modena factory was old, peeling, dark and dirty, and by all accounts equipped with a lot of kit that would have been new when your grandfather was a working man. Cars came out of the gates, but, as most of us know, they were not of your finest quality, even if they were always quick.
Fiat Group's contribution to the company's gradual regeneration has been to bankroll the exercise; more specifically, Fiat Auto, the car division, overhauled the Quattroporte for its third birthday last year, with an eye to improving quality and reliability. But these second-generation Quattroportes are going to be rare animals, because three months after Ferrari took over it decided to shut down production of the car altogether, in order to tear out the production line, install something modern and give the factory a lick of paint. More than a lick, actually - gallons must have been got through, coating everything from the exterior walls to the floor of the engine assembly room. There's a new blue 'Maserati' sign on the factory roof now, and an air of quiet purpose about the place that has been absent for years. Things are going on. Quattroporte production is slowly building - currently they're turning out two a day, but this will soon climb to 10 - and the new coupé, out later this year, was to be seen flitting about the plant, heavily disguised. It's said to be very pretty, and looked handily compact and muscular beneath its plastic cladding.
It will be built on the new production line together with the Quattroporte, the first examples of which are emerging now. That line is impressive (very impressive if you're a long-serving Maserati worker), mainly because it's shiny, new and appears well organized. More to the point, production is arranged along the same lines as the Ferrari factory at Maranello, where cars of very high, if not unimpeachable, quality emerge. So there's more than idle reason to expect Maserati to turn out cars of High quality too.
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