Maserati
Maserati have a reputation for building top quality luxury sports cars. Most sports cars, especially the early ones were built for performance with little thought put into comfort, let alone luxury. This was never the case with Maserati, right from the beginning they believed that a sports car could be a luxury car and they have always built them this way. It is this uncompromising approach that has made Maserati one of the most sought after and desirable car brands on the market.
Like most makers of sports cars Maserati where founded to build cars for racing. In this case it was by a group of four brothers. They set out to build cars for Grand Prix racing and were very successful. However they also came to the conclusion that they couldn't pay the bills just by racing. So they turned to building road cars in order to supplement their racing income. As in most cases it quickly became obvious that they could make more money selling cars than they could racing them so more and more of their attention was devoted to this side of the business.
The cars that Maserati built where always high priced sports cars and during the depression there was little demand for their product. The result was that the Maserati brothers eventually decided to sell their company. Over the years the company has changed hands many times with sales never being particularly strong. Although the company had a reputation for building high quality luxury sports cars and touring cars they never really had the resources to market them effectively. The result was that Maserati remained a small brand with limited sales. That changed when the Fiat group ultimately bought the company and put their resources behind Maserati.
As one of the largest car makers in the world Fiat had the resources necessary to make Maserati into a successful brand. They paired Maserati up with one of their other brands, Ferrari. This was an ideal match since Ferrari had a reputation for making top end high performance sports cars while Maserati focused on building luxury sports cars and touring cars. That meant that they could share a lot of the technology on the cars and a lot of the marketing costs without competing with each other and taking sales away from the other brand. The result has been strong sales for both brands in recent years.
Today Maserati have a range of cars from two seat sports cars to four door luxury touring cars. They have also been merged with Alfa Romeo which has helped to broaden their lineup and to increase sales. The result is that in 2007 for the first time in decades Maserati actually made a profit. This is good news for the company and it should help to ensure that this famous brand remains on the market for years to come. To the benefit of car enthusiasts everywhere.