Tag Archives: Maserati Ghibli

Official: 2014 North American Car and Truck/Utility of the Year long list released

By Chris Paukert

North American Car of the Year crystal award

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Is it that time of the year again already? The 2014 North American Car and Truck/Utility of the Year award “long list” has just been revealed, with 29 nominees sliding into the car category and 19 up for consideration in the truck/utility space. As ever, both NACTOY lists serve to illustrate the ever-widening scope of product that our industry has to offer. Tiny electric vehicles like the Chevrolet Spark EV and luxury bruisers like the new Maserati Ghibli bookend the car list, and the truck/utility nominees continue to illustrate the growing popularity of crossovers.

Last year, the Cadillac ATS claimed the car award (the Ram 1500 took home the truck category), and this year, General Motors has a healthy crop of nominees, including two from Cadillac (CTS, ELR) and four from Chevrolet (Corvette, Impala, Spark EV, SS). On the other side of the fence, the Buick Encore and Chevrolet Silverado/GMC Sierra twins are also vying for the coveted cut crystal. Kia and Mercedes-Benz also have a lot of vehicles up for consideration. The Korean brand is represented by the Cadenza, Forte, Soul, and Quoris on the car side, and the Sorento on the truck/utility front, while Daimler will see its B-Class, CLA-Class, E-Class and S-Class models in the mix.

As ever, the long list gets its name because it serves as broad brushstroke roundup of new or substantially updated vehicles released in time for consideration. Given the fluid nature of new vehicle releases, the long list shows which vehicles are eligible for consideration – some of them may not have been seen or driven by the NACTOY’s 50-strong juror pool yet. Select vehicles may thus fall off the list if they do not become available for judging in a timely fashion, while other vehicles not shown on the list may be still be added at this stage. Later this fall, after jurors have driven the vehicles, a first round of voting will be held, and the resulting “short list” of a dozen or so vehicles will trigger further assessment followed by another vote that will result in three finalists for each category. A final round of voting will commence, and the winners will be announced at January’s Detroit Auto Show.

Check out both lists of nominees by scrolling below, then have your say on who you think should win in Comments.

*Full Disclosure: Author is a NACTOY jury member.

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2014 North American Car and Truck/Utility of the Year long list released originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 23 Jul 2013 15:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at Autoblog

Report: Maserati Ghibli pricing announced for UK

By Damon Lowney

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Maserati’s newest car, Ghibli, is a stunningly well-proportioned luxury sedan mixing the styling of the larger Quattroporte sedan and the GranTurismo coupe. We found it plenty good to in our First Drive review, and now we know how much it will cost (in the UK, at least).

Ghibli pricing announced at the Goodwood Festival of Speed is for customers in the UK, but based on current exchange rates and prices of other Maseratis sold here in the US, we can estimate its MSRP for our market. The base Ghibli, with a twin-turbocharged V6 making 325 horsepower, will cost 52,275 pounds for the Bits, making $75,000 a good guess for American buyers. If that number holds true, however, the Ghibli would be in a price category above its main competition from Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz. Take a step up to the Ghibli S, sporting a naturally aspirated V8 producing 404 hp, and you’ll have to fork out 63,415 pounds or an estimated $91,000 here.

Just for kicks, the Europe-only Ghibli Diesel, which makes 270 hp and 420 pound-feet of torque with its diesel V6, is the least-expensive Maserati 48,830 pounds. Running an estimated $70k for us, we’d really like to have that one, too. After all, the sparkplug-less engine is the same one found in the Jeep Grand Cherokee EcoDiesel.

Maserati Ghibli pricing announced for UK originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 16 Jul 2013 11:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Autoblog Podcast #329

By Dan Roth

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Subcompact sales, Ford 1.5-liter EcoBoost, Toyota Corolla vs. Ford Focus, Maserati Ghibli

Episode #329 of the Autoblog Podcast is here, and this week, Dan Roth and Zach Bowman talk about the slump in subcompact sales, the upcoming 1.5-liter Ford EcoBoost engine for the Fusion, the Toyota Corolla and Ford Focus best-seller debate, and the Maserati Ghibli. For those of you who hung with us live on our UStream channel, thanks for taking the time. You can follow along after the jump with our Q&A. Thanks for listening!

Autoblog Podcast #329:

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In the Autoblog Garage:
2013 Ford F-150 SVT Raptor
2013 Honda CR-V

Hosts: Dan Roth, Zach Bowman

Runtime: 01:24:02


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Autoblog Podcast #329 originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 16 Apr 2013 16:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Official: Maserati Ghibli revealed ahead of Shanghai debut

By Jeffrey N. Ross

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We knew it was coming, and here it is: the 2014 Maserati Ghibli. Maserati’s plan of selling 50,000 cars per year by 2015 starts with the Ghibli, which will be positioned in a more volume-friendly market against the Mercedes-Benz E-Class and BMW 5 Series. The Ghibli will make its official debut later this month at the Shanghai Motor Show.

Although our first look at Maseati’s newest sedan is limited to just three images, we can see that the car will have a sportier exterior design than its bigger brother, the Quattroporte, to go with an equally luxurious interior. Under its long, sleek hood, Maserati has confirmed that the Ghibli will utilize a pair of 3.0-liter turbocharged V6 engines – one gas and one diesel – both mated to eight-speed automatic transmissions. A rear-wheel-drive configuration will be standard, and the Italian automaker’s new Q4 all-wheel-drive system will be available.

Scroll down for the brief teaser press release.

Continue reading Maserati Ghibli revealed ahead of Shanghai debut

Maserati Ghibli revealed ahead of Shanghai debut originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 09 Apr 2013 09:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Report: Maserati Ghibli overtakes Levante, headed for Shanghai?

By Seyth Miersma

Maserati Ghibli prototype cold-weather testing

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While earlier reports indicated that the next Maserati product out of the gate would be the Levante SUV, Motor Trend is now reporting that the Audi A7-shaped Ghibli has cut in line. Word is that we may see the new Ghibli as early as the Shanghai Motor Show in April.

Citing unnamed sources, MT predicts that the minds at Maserati now see a more pressing need to fight off the likes of the Mercedes-Benz E-Class and the BMW 5 Series than to go after luxury utes. However, if our spy shots of Ghibli prototypes are anything to go on, it’s also likely that the sub-Quattroporte Maser won’t be a traditional sedan. The car above’s long nose, low roof and brief, sloping rear deck all bring to mind Audi’s lovely A7, Meaning the Ghibli may fall into the always murky four-door-coupe/luxury hatchback genre.

Bi-turbocharged iterations of both a V6 and a V8 should make up the early powertrain choices for the Maserati, meaning the top-spec Ghibli should have loads of shove to match its promised good looks.

Maserati Ghibli overtakes Levante, headed for Shanghai? originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 13 Feb 2013 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Spy Shots: 2014 Maserati Ghibli prototype spied for the first time

By Jeffrey N. Ross

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Looking to better compete with mainstream luxury automakers, Maserati has already announced its plans for expanding its model lineup. Now, these spy shots give us our first look at a new, smaller sedan that resurrects the Maserati Ghibli nameplate. Seen for the first time as a prototype rather than a Quattroporte-based test-mule, this is the closest-to-production view of the upcoming Ghibli thus far.

Aside from its name, we don’t know much about the 2014 Ghibli, but we do hear that this Maserati, like the upcoming Maserati Levante SUV, will have a direct lineage to a Chrysler product. While the Levante will be based on the Jeep Grand Cherokee, it sounds like the Ghibli could use the Chrysler 300 as its starting point. This means that the standard version of the car could get Chrysler’s 3.6-liter Pentastar V6 – rumored to produce around 400 horsepower – paired with the latest eight-speed automatic transmission; sportier trim levels would almost certainly get a V8 from Ferrari rather than using the 300C’s Hemi.

As for some of the details apparent in the spy photos, we can obviously see the size difference between these two cars when comparing previous spy shots of the newly released 2014 Quattroporte, which we drove last week. We also see that this car gets some performance-oriented, cross-drilled brake rotors, and based on the depth of the snow in which this car was caught testing, we also wouldn’t rule out the use of all-wheel-drive on the Ghibli.

2014 Maserati Ghibli prototype spied for the first time originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 17 Dec 2012 09:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: Autoblog