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Maserati Levante production starting next year, Alfieri could come within 28 months

Maserati is on a roll. The new Ghibli and Quattroporte have been huge successes, and it unveiled the gorgeous Alfieri concept (pictured above) at the 2014 Geneva Motor Show. The next step for the brand is getting the Levante crossover into production.
"We are getting Mirafiori ready for production [of the Levante]. The first bodies are expected for 2015," said Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne to Reuters in Geneva. He also said that there isn't much keeping the Alfieri off the streets. "The platforms and motors are there. Technically, production could start in 24-28 months," he said. However, Marchionne refused to say whether the company would actually give the concept a green light to be built.
Fiat hopes to be profitable again by 2016, and while its acquisition of Chrysler is certainly going to help, rejuvenating Alfa Romeo and Maserati are also a major part of the plan. In 2013, the Italian luxury brand saw sales more than double to 15,400 vehicles. Maser is still far away from its goal of selling 50,000 units by 2015, but it's quite a start. Fiat bought Maserati in 1993, but business went through a decade or more of doldrums and falling sales. It appears that the century-old brand is finally finding a path forward with some gorgeous new cars.

Ram/Jeep Ecodiesel engine has Maserati roots

The 3.0L turbodiesel V6 in the 2014 Ram 1500 EcoDiesel earned a slot on Ward's Automotive 2014 10 Best Engines for its power, fuel economy and refinement. In a piece looking at how Fiat subsidiary VM Motor developed the engine, Ward's also makes note of the fact that the same lump goes in diesel versions of the Maserati Quattroporte and Ghibli. They're tuned a bit differently, naturally, with the QP putting out 275 horsepower and 442 pound-feet of torque, the smaller, lighter Ghibli making do with the same number of horses but a lower torque output of 420 lb-ft.
The 240 horsepower and 420 pound-feet put out by the oil-burning six-cylinder in the Ram was tamed with a host of advances, but it appears that Ram hasn't tamed demand: the initial allocation of 8,000 engines was spoken for within three days of the truck going on sale. Head over to Ward's to read the story of how Ram worked out the equation light-duty-pickup + diesel = success.

Camal Studio pays tribute to the Maserati GranTurismo

Although the Maserati GranTurismo may have looked pretty hot when it hit the scene in 2007, eight years on, it's starting to show its age. Maserati is focusing its attention on the new Quattroporte, Ghibli and upcoming Levante utility vehicle, but Camal Studio is evidently keen to pick up what Maserati has let fall by the wayside.
The design house, as you may recall, was founded by former Pininfarina designers - the same firm that penned the GranTurimso (among other Maseratis) in the first place. Camal calls its redesign the Tributo (a name which should require no translation) and it draws its inspiration from Maserati GTs past like the original Ghibli, Bora and Khamsin. The resulting design comes across as clean enough, but to our eyes somewhat unremarkable. And if you're going to go to the trouble of coachbuilding a Maserati, you might as well go for a bit more visual impact. But that's judging solely from the renderings, and that's just our opinion - the financially well-endowed customers Camal is going after may feel otherwise once they see it in the flesh.