Maserati has dedicated nearly one century to creating a perfect marriage of luxury and elegance. Since December 1, 1914, the Maserati Company has paved an influential way in sports car culture and customer service.
The Maserati passion can best be described as being “reflected in the values that define the marque- innovation in the management of human resources and the working environment, and transparency in customer relations.” To foster and cultivate this customer concentrated mentality, there are Maserati clubs around the world, ranging everywhere from the Maserati Club in Italy to the Maserati Club inNorwayto the Maserati Club in South Africa.
This Italian luxury car manufacturer was established by the Maserati brothers in Bologna. The six brothers—Alfieri, Bindo, Mario, Carlo, Ettore, Ernesto— made Maserati a family business right from the start and all contributed in their own unique ways to make Maserati a flourishing sports luxury manufacturing company. For example, Mario Maserati was an artist who was believed to have designed the company’s motif, which is a trident image similar to Poseidon’s spear. The eldest of the brothers, Carlo, made perhaps the most principal contribution to the thriving company. Carlo literally took matters into his own hands and helped to build the first Maserati vehicle with his own bare hands. In terms of car creation, Carlo and Ettore were the main contributors to the original and long-standing Maserati design, as the two brothers built transformers for high voltage and low voltage cars to truly make their mark on the construction of these powerful engines.
The dawn of the Maserati trade name as identified today occurred on April 25, 1926 with the beginning of the Taga Florio. This was a telling race since Alfieri showcased the first “production” car with the Maserati name and trident emblem attached to it. Of the four manufacturers that were founded on building racing cars, Maserati takes the gold medal for being the oldest among the three other competitors—Ferrari, Lotus and Mclaren.
Moving from one family to another, the Maserati brothers sold each of their shares to the Adolfo Orsi family in 1937. Shortly after that, under Orsi ownership, the company was relocated to the family’s hometown of Modena. To this day, the Maserati headquarters remains in Modena. In 1967, the French car manufacturer, Citroen took ownership of the company, and while it used much of the Maserati brothers’ expertise and engine construction blueprints, Citroen marked a manifestly changed Maserati.
Then, in the mid 1970’s former Argentinean race car driver, Alessandro de Tomasso took management of the company. The renaissance of the company was perpetuated further with Fiat’s acquisition of the car company. While the once family-owned Maserati car company has experienced a lengthy road of owners and remodeling of its design, it appears as if Maserati is not ready to hang up its racing shoes just yet.
Current models include the Maserati Quattroporte (four-door saloon), Maserati GranTurismo (Grand tourer) and Maserati GranCabrio (convertible).
