To survive in the current economic conditions, luxury brands need to have a volume product in their portfolio.
Even Rolls Royce, the finest luxury car maker there ever has been, has the RR Ghost which forms a comparably low entry point for the British luxury marque.
Maserati decided that it too needs something below the Quattroporte to gain good volumes. Maserati realized that it needs a smaller sedan to compete against the likes of BMW M5, Audi S6 and Jaguar XFR-S. The new sedan, that brings back the Ghibli nameplate, is expected to be launched at the Shanghai Motor Show in April.
Here is the 2014 Maserati Ghibli in a nutshell
- Codenamed M157, it is based on a shortened version of the Quattroporte’s new steel platform. The length will be restrained to 4,900mm, making it 300 mm shorter than the Quattroporte.
- It will be rear-wheel drive primarily but all-wheel drive will be an option. It will borrow the subframe and electrically adjustable suspension from the Quattroporte.
- Lorenzo Ramaciotti, the designer who was in charge of the new Quattroporte, is overseeing the design of the Ghibli. In fact, both models were largely developed alongside each other.
- Two petrol engines and one diesel will be on offer –
- 385bhp 3.0-litre V6 petrol
- 480bhp 3.8-litre twin turbocharged V8
- 3.0-litre V6 diesel
- All three engines will be mated to an eight-speed automatic gearbox from ZF.
- Production of the Ghibli will happen at the former Bertone plant near Turin, Italy
- Pricing is expected to start at around USD 75,000 (around 40 lakh rupees)
Maserati hopes that together with the Levante SUV, the new Quattroporte, GranTurismo and GranCabrio models, it can achieve a sales target of 50,000 units in a year by 2015.
