The arrival of the new Maserati Quattroporte Automatic and GranTurismo are set to end 17 years of losses for the Fiat-owned Trident brand, reported Automotive News Europe this week.

"We will definitely break even this year," ANE quoted Maserati CEO Roberto Ronchi as saying on the sidelines of the Quattroporte Automatic's introduction in Monte Carlo last month. Parent Fiat group is even more confident about how the carmaker will do in 2007, the newspaper added: "Maserati will finally return to profitability in 2007," said Fiat group CEO Sergio Marchionne in a call with financial analysts late last month.

Fiat has owned Maserati ever since 1990 when it bought a 49 percent stake (it completed the transaction three years later) but the Modena-based sports car brand has consistently lost money each year. For eight years from 1997 Fiat Auto passed control to Ferrari who developed the Quattroporte and a new generation of Coupé and Spyder during their watch. It reverted to Fiat Auto control two years ago and, under the direction of the then CEO Karl-Heinz Kalbfell, fresh cost cutting and efficiency measures helped reduce a 168 million euro loss posted in 2004 to 85 million euro in 2005, and further shrinkage in the red ink to 33 million last year, despite a 2.6 percent year-on-year drop, from 2005 to 2006, in sales revenue. Fiat Group Automobiles, the new designation for Fiat Auto, Fleet Director Roberto Ronchi added the Maserati CEO's position to his job portfolio last September, and he has continued with the Trident's drive forward.

The Maserati Quattroporte Automatic is one of two brand new products introduced this year that Maserati is pinning its plans to get into the black firmly on. This version of the sedan began being introduced into the US and European dealerships late last month, just weeks after its world debut took place at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit. The addition of the new ZF 6-speed automatic transmission to the super luxury saloon, more than three years after it was introduced, will now allow the Quattroporte to tackle fully a market segment where the automatic option rules the roost.
 

"We worked 18 months with ZF to upgrade the transmission to cope with our engine, which reaches 7000 rpm, and we also co-developed 20 different gear change patterns," said Antonio Cesaretti, head of the Quattroporte project at Maserati told ANE who quoted Ronchi as saying that around 80 percent of Quattroporte sales this year will feature the ZF gearbox, with this levelling to 60-70 percent a year from 2008 onwards.

"I had many potential buyers who really loved the Quattroporte, but after the test drive they said they wanted a proper automatic transmission," Piero Mocarelli, vice chairman of Milan-based RossoCorsa, one of Italy's largest Maserati dealers with sales of 125 new cars last year, told ANE, who added that customers indicated that they preferred the ZF offering to the Fiat Group-owned Magnetti Marelli's own offering.

The second new product to arrive in the dealerships this year will be the all-new Maserati GranTurismo, which is set to be unveiled in 12 days time in Geneva. Initial images and details were announced earlier this week. This new four-seat sports car will replace the 9-year-old Coupé model, and is based on the Quattroporte floorpan. Initially it will be powered by Maserati's 4.2-litre V8 engine, but a GranSport-style version with the same 4.7-litre V8 that features in the new Alfa 8C Competizione is expected to arrive in 2008. Maserati have also been developing a Spyder model, fitted with a retractable "folding hardtop" and this option could also arrive next year, slotting into the market space which has been vacated by the recent ending of production of the GranSport Spyder.

These two new models are expected to boost Maserati's sales from the 5,600 it achieved in 2006 to around 7,600 this year, commented ANE. Last year the Quattroporte accounted for 3,500 of sales, this year that should rise to 5,000-5,000 units.