i was curious because of the quality. for example the qp. after 2005 the qp recieved a full automatic and a sport and executive package. was that ferrari's idea or fiats? did fiat ruin ferrari's main intension of the qp or did this change have no affect?
Fiat, under the direction of Luca di Montezzemolo, calls all the shots. As you may recall he was head of Ferrari and now is probably the most powerful and influential person in Italy. Fiat controls Ferrari, Maserati, Alfa Romeo and Fiat autos. Ferrari will be maintained as the premier brand and Maserati will always be one tier below. Alfa will be third. Maserati will be the " Mercedes "
within Fiat and will no longer be a true sportscar, but rather a luxury GT car, which was always the place for Maserati road cars since their inception in 1947. Racing cars preceeded them by many years. I believe that Ferrari saw that marketing a lower price level sports car would not give it enough market to be profitable. Hence, we have the new Maserati plan, auto. QP and GT.
I think , even though we don't like it, it's a smart business decision. Just my $.02.
Nielsq NYC