Maserati doesn’t want me and they don’t care if I know it. So says Maserati President of North America, Jim Selwa. Not even the “mass affluent” who have to purchase their cars on credit interest them. The makers of the fanciest of all Fiats is “focusing on the super wealthy, the top half of one percent who control all of the world’s wealth.” Despite recent economic woes that the rest of us are feeling, the super rich are still spending. In fact, it’s been a good year for Maserati. In fact, it’s been a good decade, with worldwide sales up 700% since 1997. Apparently, I have a better chance with one of Maserati’s models than I ever have of stumbling into Maser’s target demographic. In other words, I have no chance at all.
Click here for another TTAC picture of Maserati's curb appeal
And you believed them. They lease the models, and so can you. Dollars to donuts, they will be leasing the cars out on easy terms, too.
So, really, their target market is people who either are exceptionally wealthy or people who are desperate to prove they are exceptionally wealthy.
It’s been a while since I’ve seen such blatant snob appeal.
I see more lease advertisements for Maserati than any other super-luxury car in the Wall Street Journal. Therefore, I agree more that they are finding their record sales in the “desperate to prove they are exceptionally wealthy” -Robert Schwartz category than in the people wealthy enough to throw down that kind of cash.
I’ll take mine in black with the blond model option. Sure my check is good, just wait until the sun burns out to cash it.
Funny how some super rich simply cannot bear to be seen with the plebe.
As far as I know, they have the same bodily functions as the rest of us…..
And when peple like Bill Gates and Warren Buffett both attribute their success to 90% luck, I just laugh at people who think of themselves as superior because richer.
A lease make perfect sense on a car like this. Who really wants to own it? Lease it for 3 or 4 years, drive it, enjoy it, return it when it is used up, and lease the new model.
And you believed them. They lease the models, and so can you. Dollars to donuts, they will be leasing the cars out on easy terms, too.
The lease terms I see in their ads in the WSJ are beyond nuts. $1500/month? Why bother? Either I have enough money that I can afford just to buy the thing and not care about eating the depreciation myself when I go to sell it, or I still am not at the point where I can waste money on an expensive but unreliable and money-eating Italian beauty.
“I still am not at the point where I can waste money on an expensive but unreliable and money-eating Italian beauty.”
It is the only thing to which a man should aspire in this vale of tears.