Return of the Maserati Ghibli

And I personally find it hard to imagine walking past an M5 or RS6 when they aren?t exactly bad looking and offer me a lot more usability ...

I'd walk past both of those and straight into the Maser, because I don't want to be seen as a cock or a Supporter Of All That Is Evil In The Universe. I want a car, when I walk out of it, people will instantly yet mistakenly associate me with any illegal activities from high-quantity drug dealing to mass gangland hits, and they will fear me.

It's good to be feared. There's nothing better for that image than a black Maserati.
 
because I don't want to be seen as a cock or a Supporter Of All That Is Evil In The Universe. I want a car, when I walk out of it, people will instantly yet mistakenly associate me with any illegal activities from high-quantity drug dealing to mass gangland hits, and they will fear me.

I think I can safely say that is the biggest pile of steaming shit I had the doubtful pleasure to read from you so far in 2013. Gratz on that.
 
I think I can safely say that is the biggest pile of steaming shit I had the doubtful pleasure to read from you so far in 2013. Gratz on that.

Indeed, it is a load of shit. Most of the M/S/RS drivers I see are probably wealthy business people. Nothing is wrong with the image of those cars.
 
I think I can safely say that is the biggest pile of steaming shit I had the doubtful pleasure to read from you so far in 2013. Gratz on that.

I think I can safely say that you're not attuned to how to properly project evil intent. A black Maser will do it properly. I want to project evil intent.

Then again, you're not from Chicago. We still remember how to do it right.
 
Mercedes-Benz in particular, have done quite a good job of building a loyal customer base. Around 60% I last saw, said they won't consider anything else. I'm not sure it's so much a prejudice against Cadillac, but a conviction to a certain brand and a defence of their purchase.

The Germans have such a lock on the luxury mark in the US because of hyper-aggressive lease deals. BMW in particular does that the best especially for returning customers. If Maserati wants to take more then a couple percent of market share from the Germans then they need competitive leases which they will almost definitely not have.


We are going through this with Volvo right now. Volvo had great leases up through late 2007 to mid 2008. Leasing through Ford Motor Credit was easy and they rolled your property tax into the lease payment which was an absurdly good deal. When Ford cut Volvo off from FoMoCo Credit there was a limited time that good leases were offered through various outside banks like Chase or Fifth Third bank. Even US Bank had decent leases for a while. By the end of 2008 that was all gone though and Volvo spent the next four plus years shredding their lease portfolio. If you leased a S60 or S80 during the good FoMoCo leases then you probably got a payment somewhere around 350-450 a month on the S60 depending on equipment and mileage. On the S80 it was 400-600 depending on the same things and with little to nothing down. Come back in during 2009 and a S60 lease was over 700 a month. Volvo managed to push some of those people into S80s by offering a lease that must have cost them a fortune to negotiate with US bank. Less then a year later though and the S80 lease was also in that same price range or even higher. Three years of that and all those people leased Audis, BMWs and Mercedes models.


To compete with BMW and Mercedes on leases they will need to offer a leas that is competitive with the fat mid-range of the five series and E-Class. That means $2,000 to $3,000 out of pocket and payments under 600 a month. Anything more then that and most people in a BMW or Mercedes won't even look at the Maserati.
 
The question with this is of course, if they really know the nieche they try to get into here. Amough Jags, Audis, BMWs and Mercedes ... one does wonder if Maserati did their homework tech-wise. Not only engine wise, but also toys ... an Audi/merc/bmw in that class basically drives itself on the Autobahn these days ... what kind of toys does this have? I spot a manual adjustment wheel for the headlights in one of those pics ... and if they can?t even get that automated, I don?t see these coming with radar-guided cruise-control, a lane assistant or 200 Airbags ... all stuff that customers in the high-end of that class of car want. And I personally find it hard to imagine walking past an M5 or RS6 when they aren?t exactly bad looking and offer me a lot more usability ...

It looks like it'll have Chrysler's UConnect 8.4 touchscreen system as far as infotainment goes. It's a very well thought out system, super responsive, and can likely compete with the best systems from the competition when it comes to ease of use and performance. Feature wise, dunno if Maserati has any tricks up its sleeves with the system. The SRT cars have special features on the UConnect system, so surely there could be expanded feature set for the Maserati.

Other stuff like radar cruise control, rain sensing wipers, blind spot detection, and lane assist is certainly possible esp. if the rumors that the Ghibli is sharing the platform of the 300/Charger/Challenger prove correct as you can get that stuff on the 300 at least.

EDIT: Also, that second roller switch you mentioned isn't for headlight adjustment, it adjusts the intensity of the in vehicle ambient lighting. It's split off from the first switch which controls the brightness of the gauges
 
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I'm really liking this new Ghibli, somehow the design works so much better in this more compact car. The new Quattroporte misses the mark widely.

I want a car, when I walk out of it, people will instantly yet mistakenly associate me with any illegal activities from high-quantity drug dealing to mass gangland hits, and they will fear me.
It's good to be feared. There's nothing better for that image than a black Maserati.

What are you, 12?
 
I think I can safely say that you're not attuned to how to properly project evil intent. A black Maser will do it properly. I want to project evil intent.

Then again, you're not from Chicago. We still remember how to do it right.

Or you could buy a BMW, and (by your logic) actually be evil, rather than merely pretend to be evil. :p
 
Looks like the new Quattroporte was photocopied at 65%. Not a compliment.

On paper, that isn't a compliment because, unfortunately, the new quattroporte is ugly. Actually seeing it though, it's better than the sum of its parts. The proportions are WAY better on this. Me likey.
 
An observation: the badge on the trunk suggests a 4-pot diesel (not surprising if you're competing against German sedans) but the pictures of the gauge cluster says petrol.

edit: the badge says "Q4" and not D4, I guess. :p
 
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