Maserati to Build Crossover SUV cum Sport Wagon

New Relationship with Alfa Romeo to Broaden Maserati's Model Range

The air in Modena, Italy must be electric with the recent happenings of Ferrari and Maserati. It all started with the surprise

Fiat Group is rumoured to be working on a Maserati crossover station wagon. (Photo: Trevor Hofmann, Canadian Auto Press)

purchase of Maserati by Fiat, from its previous owner Ferrari earlier this year. Next, several new products from Ferrari - namely the semi-racing FXX, the new F430 Spyder, and the upcoming 575M replacement and a 'budget' front-engined entry level Ferrari, not to mention the latest happenings of the prancing horse's Formula One team, have kept fans of the legendary brand on the edges of their collective seats. But the latest and perhaps most shocking news to hail from Italy's sports car hot spot is that Fiat Group is rumoured to be working on a Maserati crossover station wagon to boost the brand's ailing sales.

In the nine years that Ferrari has owned Maserati, they literally built the brand up from nothing. New factories, chassis architectures, body shells, engines, interiors, and a whole host of additional technologies were made from scratch for Maserati, or adapted from Ferrari components. While Ferrari did a commendable job of restoring the Trident

Over the past nine year that Ferrari has owned Maserati, they literally built the brand up from nothing. (Photo: Maserati)

brand, building a premium carmaker up from ruins, convincing a sophisticated clientele that they should invest was a daunting and only partially successful task.

The constant issue which Ferrari had with Maserati is component sharing. While sharing parts is usually a good thing, as demonstrated by Ford's Premium Auto Group, Volkswagen Auto Group, and more recently the new-wave of Mercedes-Benz/Chrysler Group shared platforms, Ferrari felt that cross pollinating with Maserati would yield two major negatives: unnecessarily inflated prices for Maseratis and the devaluing of the Ferrari brand name.