[Vincent Eng]

Maserati must be having difficulty selling cars. I received a very odd marketing piece today that offered me free set of Omaha Steaks if I test drive a GT or QP Sport GT. I had to read the mailer twice because I first thought it was a joke. The steak offer reminded me of those timeshare pitches. Here's the link ; however you also need to insert the PIN that was sent.

 

[MaseratiBE]

Maserati must be having difficulty selling cars. I received a very odd marketing piece today that offered me free set of Omaha Steaks if I test drive a GT or QP Sport GT. I had to read the mailer twice because I first thought it was a joke. The steak offer reminded me of those timeshare pitches. Here's the link ; however you also need to insert the PIN that was sent.

I don't think so, i just came back from visiting the factory, you have to wait 1 year for a GT and 6 months for a 4P... they hired 180 people extra last year, and made profit of 6M Euro's, i would not call that difficulties

 

[Vincenzo]

Allie Ash, owner of FM of Washington, told me that he has 9 mos of backlog and over 60 down pmts on GTs. If I remember correctly, he has an allocation of 80 or so GTs. Seems to be doing ok in DC.

 

[Vincent Eng]

Perhaps the issue is QP sales. Regardless, I found it odd to use food give aways to market $100K+ automobiles. The target income bracket that purchase these vehicles generally don't respond to these types of marketing schemes. In that price range people generally know they want the car before they get to the dealership. Compare using a food give away for a Nissan Maxima, where the purchaser may also be considering a Honda Accord, and Toyota Camry. In this situation a food give away may help because you can compel more people to look at your car and not make a hasty decision to buy the Honda or Toyota without visiting the Nissan dealership. I think in the final analysis, I just think it's odd to have such a promotion for the price class of the car.

 

[Vincenzo]

I agree that it's odd. I received one of the same Omaha promotions in the fall after I had visited the dealer to test drive a GS and thought it to be a strange approach to selling a high-end car. If I can remember correctly, I believe there was a choice between steaks or a set of Callaway golf balls.

 

[QP Sport]

Food stamps?

... I received a very odd marketing piece today that offered me free set of Omaha Steaks if I test drive a GT or QP Sport GT.

Now, if they gave you steaks AFTER you bought the car, that I could understand. Then I could afford to eat AND buy gas for my car

 

[ScottishLadd]

The steaks are dumb but delicious

I agree and so do many others in the auto dealer world, If the factory cannot think of a better way to sell the best sedan in the world other than giving away free food to people that would never buy a QP but only show up for the free food and waste the sales peoples time. why not take the money and advertise the benefits of the car, show some really sexy TV commercials or if they have to give away the free steaks at least do it to those that buy one....

 

[Bcube]

Last year, we received a $100 gift card for Flemings Steak House for test driving the QP Automatica. As Flemings is a somewhat upscale restaurant, that was appropiate. Later in the year we got the Omaha Steak offer. That was definitely downscale and the meat quality wasn't worth the mail-in offer.

 

[tonyswfla]

Lots of Qps for sale here in US; still plenty of leftover 07s

 

[Vincent Eng]

I would be more interested in getting a guided tour of the workshop or some type Maserati owners event instead of getting a set of Omaha Steaks of sleeve of golf balls. My impression is that Maserati owners or prospective owners are for the most part car enthuiasts and a marketing promotion needs to be developed to capture that crowd - e.g., make the prospective owner feel like it's not a car sale, but rather they are joining the Maserati family.

 

[bluyork]

Spend their mktg money on events with actual Maserati owners in attendance, who are probably the best sales people for the car. Although some of us are likely cackling rogues who might scare some QP buyers.....

 

[MaseratiBE]

I agree also that giving a steak is a cheap thing, i was invited in Paris for the European presentation of the GT, that was with shows/champagne/walking dinner at one of the top locations in the world at the Eifeltower... nothing about steaks here in Europe with Maserati !! The other time i was invited here in Brussels at a great location with Champagne unlimited and again very nice walking dinner with nice show!!

I assume that this is not factory related and is some cheap move of the USA importer ?? I think you USA Maserati guys have more style than a cheap steak right ?

 

[Nielsq]

Lots of Qps for sale here in US; still plenty of leftover 07s

Very true.
If one wanta a QP, now's the time.
Lots of inventory, sales are sluggish, especially in areas where winter is experienced. Non auto. QP's are being deeply discounted.

 

[MaseratiBE]

Very true.
If one wanta a QP, now's the time.
Lots of inventory, sales are sluggish, especially in areas where winter is experienced. Non auto. QP's are being deeply discounted.

Hmm... why do they still make them in the factory on a almost 50/50 basis if the waiting list is almost 1 year for a GT ??

 

[Vincent Eng]

Hmm... why do they still make them in the factory on a almost 50/50 basis if the waiting list is almost 1 year for a GT ??

As I recall, Maserati is advertising the GT as a limited production car and they need to keep the numbers down as not to dilute their brand. I don't believe, however, they've outlined official figure other than it will be produced in far smaller quantities as compared to the QP. Or perhaps Maserati can take the US Maker approach and have a limited edition car that's limited to how many they can sell. My friend purchased a 2003 50th Anniversary Corvette that fell into that category. I also recall Lotus had so much excess Esprit inventory one year that they VIN the remaining factory cars for the next model year.

 

[MaseratiBE]

Maybe yes, i saw some GT's and QP made on the factory production line for the USA market, they told me they need to put some special things on it like yellow things on the front side and stronger bars on the front. could be that's limited ? They told me that they are accelerating production up to 10.000 cars a year and will limit it on that number to keep it exclusive.