2012 Maserati Gran Turismo on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Fiat set to invest $12B on new models, stop Euro losses in 3 years

Naturally, you'd expect a massive automaker like Fiat to have an in-depth plan to exit the current European-market doldrums, and you'd expect that plan to include plenty of new vehicles to attract those precious buyers that still remain despite the financial downturn. And you'd be right, though Fiat does seem to have a few unexpected twists up its corporate sleeve.
Perhaps the biggest shocker is a report that Fiat will completely drop the Punto, a car with mass-market appeal aimed at small-car buyers cross-shopping the popular Volkswagen Polo. Its replacement will be a five-door Fiat 500 aimed at upmarket buyers (sounds awfully similar to the 500L) that will be built in Poland. Lower-end customers will reportedly be served by variants of the Fiat Panda.
Borrowing a page from the BMW, Daimler and Volkswagen playbook, reports Automotive News, Fiat is said to have plans to reignite production at its Italian factories by retooling them to build high-end vehicles from Maserati and Alfa Romeo. These will be marketed as premium products, built by skilled Italian workers (who are paid wages that are 75-percent higher than those building Fiats in Poland), and will be sold around the world.

2014 Maserati Quattroporte revealed in patent drawings

Curious about what the 2014 Maserati Quattroporte will look like? Recent spy shots of the big Maserati sedan haven't been much help, but now we have this: Three alleged patent drawings found by AutoWeek.nl. Better fire up your imagination, however, as like all European Patent Office images, these sketches have the unique ability to suck the beauty out of even Italian cars. Truth be told, if AutoWeek.nl had told us this was a new Buick, we might have believed them.
That said, we can certainly see the resemblance in the rear to the Maserati GranTurismo, with a similar C-pillar and that little flipped-up spoiler. In the front, too, we imagine the new Quattroporte will resemble its sportier sibling, with the crude lines from these drawings turned into more voluptuous curves through the magic of modern manufacturing.
Rumors say the next-gen sedan will be available with a choice of two engines assembled by Ferrari, either a turbocharged V8 or a supercharged V6. We're likely to see the new Quattroporte in the flesh for the first time at the 2013 Detroit Auto Show.

Maserati Levante crossover not Jeep based after all?

Maserati has been teasing its crossover project since 2011, which is when it first showed off the Kubang concept (pictured above). Still, the production version, rumored to be called the Levante, remains a complete mystery. The CUV was first rumored to borrow the platform from the Jeep Grand Cherokee, but new rumors indicate that the Italian, luxury crossover might actually take the underpinnings from the Quattroporte and Ghibli.
In a brief interview, Maserati CEO Harald Wester told CNN Money that the Levante wouldn't use Jeep's platform. Motor Trend spoke with an unnamed Maserati engineer who confirmed the rumor. Officially, the company says that no decision has been made.
We can add this to another long list of rumors about the Italian CUV. It was originally supposed to be built at Chrysler's Jefferson North assembly plant in Detroit. Then, plans were changed to build it in Italy.