Italians Losing Their Mojo - Maserati Going All Electric, Alfa Cutting Future Sports Cars

No money, no new models, no way out!

All smart moves. Two coupes are not needed as volumes will be low. More CUV's are a better plan. An affordable GTV that sits below the current model range would have been a plus to allow a lower entry point into the brand. If it could be made off of the new smaller CUV platform that could work.

Thoughtful response though I believe an Alfa GTV coupe would be a winner.

The total destruction of The Maserati and Alfa Romeo brands began when Marchionne appointed Chrysler management to run the brands out of Auburn Hills replacing all the former management staff that came over from Ferrari when they controlled Maserati.

Look at Ferrari is doing since they separated from FCA, they just revised their future sales and revenue Upward. Time to sell Maserati and Alfa back to Ferrari, let them do what they obviously do best Build, sell and market specialty upscale Italian vehicles. Let Chrysler and PSA do what they do best, sell low cost mass market vehicles;

Prior to FCA Maserati was a dead brand and Alfa Romeo was even more dead. With FCA, Maserati flourished--relatively speaking--but their versions of the Chrysler 300 (Ghibli and Qporte) were allowed to get old, so that momentum was squandered. The Giorgio platform should have been given to Maserati, but Marchionne botched that with his BS belief that people cared passionately about Alfa Romeo--and people so obviously don't.

Marchionne ruined Maserati and Alfa Romeo NOT Auburn Hills. If Auburn Hills called the shots, new versions of the 300, Challenger, and Charger would have debuted 5 years ago.

Personally Alfa and Maserati should have different owners. Having both under the same roof is too much. Maserati should compete with Bentley and Alfa Romeo with BMW. I doubt Ferrari would be keen on buying either of them as they will make their own SUV line and maybe even a 4 door car one day as true Ferrari's vs another brand making the "Ferrari" of SUV's. Time will tell where this all will lead.

You are aware that Ferrari owned Maserati from 1997 to 2005 and they increase sales 10 fold. Are you aware the Ferrari California was originally to be a Maserati, the replacement for 4200 GranSport?

Marchionne then had Ferrari “sell’ Maserati to FIAT Group where it was paired with Alfa and Abarth under former Ferrari Director of Product Development Harald Wester who expanded Maserati’s product line and increased sales 8 fold.

Marchionne then replaced Wester with 1st Reid Bigland, then Tim Kuniskis. They moved Maserati’s operational HQ to Auburn Hills, they replaced all the former Ferrari/Maserati staff with Chrysler personnel, they over saturated the market areas with subpar Chrysler dealers, sales have been in a free fall ever since, profitability has dropped from 13+%, to under 3%. That was purely caused by Chrysler management.

Alfa Romeo is practically a mirror image of what happened to Maserati only Alfa is still run by Kuniskis out of the tower of terror in Auburn Hills.

Alfa and Maserati do NOT need separate owners because Alfa is not a premium brand and never has been. Alfa should be an Italian Subaru and Maserati should be the Italian BMW.

Saying that Ferrari owned Maserati is pure bullshit because Fiat owned Ferrari. That same asinine mindset thinks Audi owns Lamborghini when VW owns Audi.

Saying that Ferrari increased Maserati "ten fold" is lying with numbers because 10X a handful isn't much more.

The fact is that the Maserati 300s--the Qporte and especially the Ghibli--increased Maserati's sales much more than Ferrari ever did.

Stick to doing buy here, pay here Kia, you are so far out of your depth. Working in a small mass market dealership reading a few buff magazines and having a poster of Ferrari Enzo on your bedroom wall or as a background on your phone does not make you an expert in Italian automotive corporate structure.

The fact that Maserati was held together by tape and glue is indicative they lost the plot years ago. Technically they years behind and overpriced against far superior products.
Alfa has been sinking for a long time too. The best selling Alfa in Europe for years was the car that became the Dart here, dynamically inferior to competition.
Neither adopted to changing marketplace.

@foncool say what you will, but you're completely wrong on this issue. Why would anyone have a poster of a Ferrari Enzo?

I always wanted a Maserati golf cart.

No idea how PSA is doing but I don't think it is much better than FCA. I can see the benefits of saving money on sharing R&D on future cars, especially EV and other alternatives. But I sure hope they will figure out how to kill the non selling and over lapped models. There be like 10 brands and over 50 models between them.

Their biggest issue is going to be overcapacity and over-reliance on European manufacturing base. It will take a CEO with the skills of Jack Welch to rationalize all of this and make it efficient.