[maseratifan]

I'm tired of hearing about the "Ferrari Connection" as a selling point or a morale booster.
Maserati is awesome in it's own right!

 

[maseratifan]

Well...I'm not sure that is completely true. The engines aren't built by Ferrari technicians as Ferrari engines are (despite all the marketing hype), they may have had a separate construction line at Ferrari and built with different components, but now even less so with the separation from Ferrari. The modern Maserati cars werern't designed and built by Ferrari guys devoting Friday's to their little "Maserati side project." It is Maserati people designing, contracting, and building the coupe and spyder and certainly the QP (the MC12 much less so admitedly).
I think Maserati deserves some credit as a separate business enterprise that certainly should be thankful to Ferrari expertise, but that is waning. They are a fine outfit on their own right.
So many companies nowadays are intertwined, but they should still be recognised for their own defining character. Maserati is clearly a separate endeavor from Ferrari, and I for one am extremely thankful they make the cars that they do....and they don't need to hang their collective heads in servitude to any other entitiy in my opinion.

 

[maseratifan]

That's kind of what I mean and what worries me a little bit. The idea that when it is more linked to alfa will Maserati "suffer." It is as if Maserati is some beaten stepchild being handed around the "family" and wherever it lands will determine the quality and value of their cars. I think they are on more solid ground now with much of their own uniqueness, identitiy, strength, and hopefully in house expertise. I hope it will stand tall as a more recognized separate entity making cars (and sharing parts like the germans do), but be Maserati (the 4 brothers would be proud).

 

[maseratifan]

I think my point was meant to be more philosophical in nature (perhaps more wishful too). I know Ferarri engineering and technical expertise is at the heart of Maserati's worldwide rebirth (for lack of a better term). But for ~5 years now Maserati has been building cars under their own day-to-day management, borrowing ongoing technical expertise from various suppliers, and I think it is time to start saying that Maserati is great because of the people who work there now. Every modern automotive company relies upon outside sources for various components. Saying a Maserati is designed by PininFarina is no more a slight against Maerati's in-house capabilities as saying the same thing about every Ferari designed by PininFarina. I am VERY thankful for the Ferrari connection, I don't think Maserati would be where it is today without it. But going forward, more and more, Maserati must be recognized as a technological/design/manufacturing tour-de-force in it's own right if it is to survive the couplign with Alfa.
(JGT your points are well taken.)

 

[maseratifan]

I had forgotten this little tidbit...whe I insured my CC I remember the insurance company having a hard time finding my car listed, because the VIN kept coming up as a Ferrari.

 

[maseratifan]

love to hear more about the similarities in parts!