Maserati UK sales (or rather lack of them)

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bigbob

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Maserati UK sold 65 cars in January and February. That's despite the move 'downmarket' to cheaper SUVs with the Grecale. Last year in total they sold 892 units. The two figures for lower priced Alfa Romeo are 133 and 1546 respectively. For those of us who love either or both brands this is really worrying. When will Stellantis accept that the model is not working?

PS Porsche sold over 24000 cars in the UK last year.
 
Phil H

Phil H

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My daughter had a main dealer warranty problem with a Fiat 500 and Fiat UK simply fobbed her off with a BS response; she emailed Stellantis 'customer services' who didn't even bother replying. Given their lack of interest and UK support for Maserati, I get the overall impression that if Stellantis can easily make money in the UK they will, but they don't want to work for it.

You'd at least think that with the number of 500's on the road they'd show a bit more interest in brand approval, but as we're only the 51st state why bother..........

It's not only the Maserati sales targets that hurt, it is/was the level of stock investment dealers had to make, hence the exodus.
 
jonny

jonny

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Just sold our Alfa Stelvio because of terrible dealer/service network. Only one dealer now near(ish) to us (HWM in Walton has shut its Alfa servicing, as has Bishops in Guildford) ... when I called the remaining dealer to book the car in the next booking was in 5 months' time.
 
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bigbob

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dickygrace said:
The sooner it gets back to niche and low volume the better. 6-7 dealers and keep it low volume it’d be fine. I feel for the dealers as it’s crazy how many new cars they’re meant to sell each month/year.
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Agree. The current supercar, GT coupe and GT convertible are brilliant cars and will sell to a degree. Make them expensive and exclusive with no/limited discounts and build a brand messaging around it like VW have done with Bentley. If I was buying a new MC20 I would not want to pick it up next to someone taking a discounted 24 month lease on a bottom end Grecale. They can have a £150k SUV as well if they want as it works for Porsche, Bentley, Aston.

Fiat should sell cheap cars, Alfa mid priced and Maser expensive. Maser and Alfa SUVs are the same cars and they cannot sell either very well.
 
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dickygrace

dickygrace

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bigbob said:
Agree. The current supercar, GT coupe and GT convertible are brilliant cars and will sell to a degree. Make them expensive and exclusive with no/limited discounts and build a brand messaging around it like VW have done with Bentley. If I was buying a new MC20 I would not want to pick it up next to someone taking a discounted 24 month lease on a bottom end Grecale. They can have a £150k SUV as well if they want as it works well for Porsche, Bentley, Aston.

Fiat should be cheap cars, Alfa mid priced and Maser expensive.
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All high-end manufacturers have hugely varied prices for different models. Would a buyer picking up a SP2 Monza at £1.4m have a problem that a ‘peasant’ just bought a £150k Cali T? Bentley not the best example, they give £60-80k off their list prices of top end, overpriced cars; so it’s not just Maserati.

I don’t see the Grecale as the problem, Porsche aren’t complaining about the ubiquitous Macan, it’s made them billions. It isn’t the Grecale, or even its price point, it’s the volume they’re expected to sell them in, which in turn means depreciation is steep, which slows down sales. If they were exclusive, hard to get hold of, they’d hold their money and more would buy. PCP/Lease deals would be more competitive on the back of this too.

The other factor is that most, by no means all, but a good proportion of buyers are older folk, as they have the wealth to afford one. Do folk who’ve been petrolheads and driving cars with charismatic, noisy engines, wish to drive a 2.0 4 pot MHEV and pay £70k for the privilege? So EU/greenwashing laws are a fundamental part of the current problem.

I think if the MC20 made a better (V8) noise, there’d be more owners of them on this forum. If the new GT were a V8 they’d be a far more desirable car than they are now. I chat to Maserati enthusiasts day in day out, not one has said they can’t wait to be able to afford the 3l Granturismo.
 
allandwf

allandwf

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Does anyone remember Troubleshooter, Sir John Harvey-Jones, when he went to Morgan?
I agree, with some on here, that Maserati should be more exclusive.
 
Phil H

Phil H

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allandwf said:
Does anyone remember Troubleshooter, Sir John Harvey-Jones, when he went to Morgan?
I agree, with some on here, that Maserati should be more exclusive.
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That goes back a bit. A good series, and he didn't always get it right.
 
B

bigbob

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dickygrace said:
All high-end manufacturers have hugely varied prices for different models. Would a buyer picking up a SP2 Monza at £1.4m have a problem that a ‘peasant’ just bought a £150k Cali T? Bentley not the best example, they give £60-80k off their list prices of top end, overpriced cars; so it’s not just Maserati.

I don’t see the Grecale as the problem, Porsche aren’t complaining about the ubiquitous Macan, it’s made them billions. It isn’t the Grecale, or even its price point, it’s the volume they’re expected to sell them in, which in turn means depreciation is steep, which slows down sales. If they were exclusive, hard to get hold of, they’d hold their money and more would buy. PCP/Lease deals would be more competitive on the back of this too.

The other factor is that most, by no means all, but a good proportion of buyers are older folk, as they have the wealth to afford one. Do folk who’ve been petrolheads and driving cars with charismatic, noisy engines, wish to drive a 2.0 4 pot MHEV and pay £70k for the privilege? So EU/greenwashing laws are a fundamental part of the current problem.

I think if the MC20 made a better (V8) noise, there’d be more owners of them on this forum. If the new GT were a V8 they’d be a far more desirable car than they are now. I chat to Maserati enthusiasts day in day out, not one has said they can’t wait to be able to afford the 3l Granturismo.
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I'm sure if fixing it was easy then Stellantis would have done so. It is hard creating that fairy dust environment which makes people pay a lot more for only a little more. Do people realise that a Cayenne is a Touareg or a Bentaya is a Q7? Probably not but the unit profit margins will be vastly different. Ditto Rolex and Tudor.

Anyway, part of the reason they are doomed is that sports/GT cars are doomed. In the context of modern ICE cars, the GranTurismo is great but we are past peak ICE car as GPFs killed them. People go on about how good the Cayman/Boxster 4.0 GTS is but I've not driven a large engined car that was so uninspiring aurally.

I reckon Supercars and Hypercars will keep doing well but Maserati is sort of stuck in no mans land. Makes me think I should have bought another V8 GranTurismo before they stopped making them but I'm sure there are loads of people of here thinking the same. Good for your business Dicky!

PS I was put off a 2.0 litre Maser SUV when they told me how short the service interval is in miles - just nuts.
 
Phil H

Phil H

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bigbob said:
I'm sure if fixing it was easy then Stellantis would have done so. It is hard creating that fairy dust environment which makes people pay a lot more for only a little more. Do people realise that a Cayenne is a Touareg or a Bentaya is a Q7? Probably not but the unit profit margins will be vastly different. Ditto Rolex and Tudor.
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I'm not convinced that Stellantis understands the European mindset, or wants to. On the other hand, Rolex/BMW/VW/Porsche have it down to a fine art and folk are happy to go along with it.
 
Ewan

Ewan

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The Granturismo is going to be a tough sell. The MC 20 will only sell a few dozen. It's the Grecale that will make up the majority of the (maybe) 900 or so new cars they might sell here this year.
There must be plenty of people that have had multiple Mecans over recent years that now fancy a change to something similar but different.
 
Andyk

Andyk

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dickygrace said:
The sooner it gets back to niche and low volume the better. 6-7 dealers and keep it low volume it’d be fine. I feel for the dealers as it’s crazy how many new cars they’re meant to sell each month/year.
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This…
 
Andyk

Andyk

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61,156
bigbob said:
Maserati UK sold 65 cars in January and February. That's despite the move 'downmarket' to cheaper SUVs with the Grecale. Last year in total they sold 892 units. The two figures for lower priced Alfa Romeo are 133 and 1546 respectively. For those of us who love either or both brands this is really worrying. When will Stellantis accept that the model is not working?

PS Porsche sold over 24000 cars in the UK last year.
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That is a worry. Didn’t realise it was so bad. I know high end cars are struggling at the moment but that does seem low. The servicing schedule doesn’t help and certainly with the car that should be making them money the small SUV the cost to service is just silly compared to the competition. Not sure if they would survive going back to building just niche models that didn’t really on huge sales but would love them to do that. Difficult time ahead I feel.

Saying that how are they globally as the UK has never been a place where they sell loads but the home market and other countries they may be doing better ?
 
LDM 3200

LDM 3200

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In many ways I think the Brand as far as new vehicles is concerned is invisible, probably the same with Alfa Romeo too. Add to that the poor service that a number of dealers provided, you would really need to want one, and know where to look to get one.
 
G

gemini

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Andyk said:
Saying that how are they globally as the UK has never been a place where they sell loads but the home market and other countries they may be doing better ?
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In France, only 213 new maserati for 2023!
On the other hand, in Japan, 1734 maserati were sold the same year.
 
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