Maserati Australia has completed its media and customer launches for the newly launched Quattroporte Automatic with programmes in Sydney and Melbourne, with a significant boost to sales and a warm welcome from the media.

"This is an extremely important model for our markets in Australia and New Zealand," says Edward Butler, General Manager for Maserati in Australia and New Zealand. "With our market predominantly an automatic market, this car will enable us to grow Maserati sales by attracting customers for whom the only blocking point in the past was the gearbox. Indeed, we are seeing DuoSelect sales maintaining existing levels and the majority of automatic sales being people new to Maserati."

For the customer launches, Maserati flew groups of customers by helicopter from the city centres of Melbourne and Sydney to the wine growing areas of the Yarra Valley in the case of Melbourne and for the New South Wales Capital, the Hunter Valley. Here the customers were provided an opportunity to drive the new model of open country roads following a brief presentation.

"This is a much more effective way of getting a feel for the car than driving it around a city centre, especially for customers with a busy schedule that would normally preclude travelling to an out of town venue," explained Mr Butler. "Our drive routes made it clear that the new Quattroporte automatic maintains all the performance and responsiveness of the DuoSelect without any of the negatives traditionally associated with a 'slush-matic' gearbox of the old school. At the same time it is easy and relaxed to drive in traffic. In short: the perfect performance sedan."
 

The response to Maserati's customer launch was immediate - more than a third of the customers attending the event put their name down for a new Quattroporte Automatic on the spot and Maserati Australia and New Zealand is now negotiating for a significant boost in supply for 2007. For the media, the programme was modified so that following a detailed technical and market presentation on the Maserati Quattroporte, they drove the cars from the centre of Sydney and Melbourne via 350 km drive routes to and from the respective wine growing area venues.

"With regard to the media we believe that it is very important to give them a solid stint behind the wheel so that they get a real feel for what the Quattroporte can do," says Mr Butler. "So the drive route included rush-hour city centre driving, freeways and a mix of country roads that included very demanding tight and twisty roads, as well as open, sweeping bends, in fact, all the roads that an owner is likely to encounter. In doing so, the media can see what really sets the Quattroporte apart from its rivals."

Clearly the drive route was a success. One leading journalist commenting after the drive "I am just putting the finishing touches to a feature on the Executive Expresses at the top of the market, to which the Quattroporte was to be just another car in the list alongside the Audi A8, S-Class and the Seven series, but after today my only conclusion has to be if you want a real driver's car, one that sounds, looks and drives the best, then there is only one choice: The Maserati Quattroporte Automatic!"