Maserati is an interesting automaker. It’s a well-respected brand, with its name bandied about by hip-hop artists and the general public as a byword for wealth and style. At the same time, Maserati isn’t exactly lighting up the sales charts right now, and stock is piling up on the lot. The Maserati Levante is perhaps the worst in this regard, with dealers absolutely slashing prices to try and shift the unpopular SUVs.
Head over to Cars.com and you can see for yourself. There’s a 2022 Maserati Levante Modena currently up for sale that somehow still hasn’t sold over at Champion Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram in California. Listed for sale a full 553 days ago, it’s still got delivery mileage on the clock. Initially, it carried a $95,795 price tag, right around MSRP. Just a few days ago, someone at the dealership decided enough was enough, slashing the price down to $64,998—a full $30,797 saving.
“But Lewin!” you cry. “This is a fluke, an outlier! It’s a 2022 model, for crying out loud!” To that, I say—hush your tongue. The same dealership has a pair of 2023 models at a discount of $24,787 and $21,487 respectively. You could buy one and have change left over for a 2024 Toyota Corolla.
You can get a deal in Pennsylvania too, thanks to Maserati Alfa Romeo of Wilmington Pike. They’ve got a 2023 Maserati Levante GT that’s been on sale for 384 days. Originally listed at an MSRP of $102,535, the dealer is now offering the SUV at just $77,535 for a $25,000 price reduction. That’s after initial discounts of $10,000 failed to shift it in May last year. Meanwhile, over in North Carolina, you can get a similar 2023 model for $20,000 off at Alfa Romeo & Maserati of Raleigh. No surprise the dealer wants to get rid of it, since it’s been listed a full 503 days at this point. There are a bunch more out there, too!
As it stands, Maserati simply isn’t shifting units when it comes to the Levante. In the US, just 104 Levantes have been sold in the last 45 days. Overall, with 770 Levantes currently for sale, there is a 333-day supply of Levantes just sitting around waiting.
The upswing of all this is that it gives buyers a strong negotiating position at the dealership. With some examples having sat on the lot for over a year, dealers will be more eager to get rid of them to make space for faster selling stock.
The Why
It’s perhaps unsurprising given the Levante’s current position. It’s eight years old, with Maserati finally ending production of the current model in March this year. A new generation Levante was originally expected to land for the 2025 model year, but those plans have gone awry. Instead, the pending all-electric Levante is now slated for 2027, leaving a sizable hole in the Maserati lineup in the meantime.
The luxury SUV market is a fickle one, too, and the Levante isn’t the only one facing some headwinds. Similarly, the outgoing Infiniti QX80 and the Jeep Grand Wagoneer are also suffering in sales, seeing prices slashed across the country.
The Levante isn’t bad, per se. It’s an open secret among auto journalists that the great majority of cars today are by and large, fit for purpose. Stinkers are rare. At the same time, in a crowded market, the Levante fails to excite.
The Levante looks kind of like someone threw the front of a badass Maserati onto an old Subaru kid-hauler, and the interior touchpoints aren’t up to scratch for a car that crosses the six-figure barrier. Fundamentally, it’s old, and it just doesn’t look the part. A car in this category should stunt on lesser vehicles with its obvious wealth and opulence, and it’s hard to say the Levante really does that well.
If you’re the swanky kind of character that could see yourself in a Maserati Levante, now is the time to strike. There’s a glut of inventory right now, and it can only shrink from here now that production has ceased. Hunt one down with a big discount and score yourself a deal. Then see if you can figure out why nobody else wants one, and come back and tell us about it.
Image credits: Cars.com, Maserati
“The Why”
I suspect part of the problem is an overly optimistic MSRP, dealer market adjustment fees and other bullshit that scared away any potential buyers.
So it has a $95K MSRP. That doesn’t necessarily mean it was WORTH that much in the eyes of potential buyers.
And now this thing is 2 years old. If I were to come to a dealer with a 2 year old car that cost $95K new, chances are they would make me an offer of around $55K.
They should have been offering this massive discount a year ago.
But they didn’t because like so many sellers and dealers I see, they are still under the mistaken belief that post-pandemic-shortage pricing isn’t over.
In reality: It is.
In my view, they need to chop the asking price by another $10K for it to be a ‘Nice Price’.
Also some more reality… Maserati is NOT that much of a “well respected” brand.
Awful interior, bad tech, seats that hurt my back (ask me how I know). I would not take a brand new Levante for even half off at $50K
PLEASE someone buy it and then get Geico’s Mechanical Break Down Insurance and then blog about it.
RIP Berkshire Hathaway
Doing the Doug DeMuro all over again.
Yup. But that was used. This is brand new. It would be interesting to see it start as brand new and how much it degrades over the 7 years/100k miles.
You can get used examples of these with < 15K miles on them for under 50 all over the place.
People like to rag on crossovers for having no personality, but this one really takes the cake. Change the badges and the plastic bits on the grille and it could equally be a Buick, a Chevy, a Lexus, even a Ford.
This car has no reason to exist.
Looks, sure, but that’s always subjective. At the end of the day it can be had with a Ferrari designed and built TT V8 or TT V6.
The ’22 model was marked down from 3 Miatas to 2 Miatas.
Then it will quickly depreciate to less than 1 Miata.
I would rather get, and keep, 1 Miata (which would be parked next to the one I already have).
Is it, though? Iiiiiiiiiis it?
(This just made me angry all over again that Car Bibles got nuked from the face of the internet because I could’ve SWORN they ran a piece on all the ways The Teens clowned on posing Maserati owners online.)
Ah, Car Bibles. Now you’ve gone and made me sad. Maybe it needs a reboot.
love too have a site that no longer exists in any accessible, non-archival format on my resume because private equity ownership is trashhhhhhhhhh
I just did social media for it, and I’m beyond livid at how dirty that deletion was to the writers. A good reminder to always archive your work if you work in digital media, but damn. It shouldn’t have to be this way. Everyone refers to their past work when making freelance pitches or applying for new jobs, and it’s just sickening that the failsons who luck into the top roles of a media company can throw that away on a whim. From an “information is a public good” standpoint, the amount of information lost to deletions is simply unacceptable.
I wish a very bad, incurable case of itchy junk lice to anyone who thinks nuking others’ hard work off of the web is a good way to run a media site.
It’s still overpriced even with the discount applied
Is the Levante just a lux’d Tonale ie Dodge Hornet? Maybe use them as loaners for Hornet owners who seem to be in the shop often.
I thought it was a tarted-up Grand Cherokee! Complete with interior switchgear from the FCA parts bin.
It’s actually based on the LX platform.
Really? I could have sworn it was based on the K- car.
I first read this as them selling it for $31k and I thought that wasn’t too bad a price and might even be worth it. Then my skimming ADD brain reread it. Maserati is the fastest marque to make it to the stage in the luxury car life cycle where they end up in the food desert neighborhoods.
Maserati fan here that will probably die on this hill.
Yes, it’s a lonely existence…
Maserati is probably my favorite automotive “secret”.
Especially the stuff from 2005 to 2013 or so.
We don’t want to fight you we’d just like you to explain yourself
OK, here goes…
If you are car shopping parameters are as follows:
What cars do you arrive at?
The above was my shopping list when I bought my GranCabrio with low miles.
GRZs, plus add relatively lightweight and available with a manual and for under $30k.
I did forget to mention the convertible and 4 seats requirement.
Yeah, no convertible.
Darn, I was very ready to pounce with a Jaguar F-Type recommendation.
I genuinely love that there exists a list of automotive desires to which “lightly-used Maserati GranCabrio” is the right answer.
When my brother was replacing his RS7, I took a college try at talking him into a Quattroporte. Turns out our definitions of “reasonably reliable” were different.
Here’s the thing though…
I’m pretty sure the Quattroporte Vs are reliable. I can’t be absolutely sure because I don’t own one but the GranTurismo is the same engine and chassis as the Quattroporte V. I used my friend’s GranCabrio before I bought my own and my friend’s car was very reliable. My own GranCabrio is also very reliable. I know that everyone says Maseratis are junk, etc. That has not been my experience living with them for about 8 years.
> What cars do you arrive at?
Not Maserati :p
The Maserati certainly doesn’t arrive anywhere.
“Car needs to be reasonably reliable”
Well that disqualifies the Maserati!!!
LOL
My first car was a beater 1960 3500 GT Vignale spyder I picked up for $2000.
Half the price of a Ferrari 250 at the time.
Amazing car. Maserati has been a disappointment ever since Adolfo Orsi sold it to Citroen. Well the Bora isn’t a bad car but it’s just not the same. All the SUVs I see around town just bring sadnes.
Nice! I’ve heard that the 3500s are among their best.
That is an amazing choice for a first car!
My first car was a Chevrolet Celebrity so quite a contrast to your choice.
I feel like the products that Maserati made under Ferrari’s ownership were great. Yes, I am not a fan of the Quattroporte VI, Ghibli (I hear the Ghibli Trofeo is great though), and the Levante. I did have a Levante loaner when I had my car in for service at the dealer. I did like it. I just didn’t like it enough to buy it when we shopped for an SUV. It had the fancy leather package which looked amazing. The Grecale looks good though. We ended up buying a Porsche Macan S for my wife’s SUV but that was because my wife loves Porsche. If I were shopping an SUV for me, I would strongly consider a Grecale Trofeo that’s like 2 – 3 years old.
I will stand with you on that hill my friend
These seem reasonably popular in the New York City Metro area, where Tony Manero strutted his stuff.
All over the place in Tracy and Stockton California l.
A Maserati is definitely not my first choice for a commuter to the Bay Area from those places.
I don’t think they are commuting, I see them in the Costco parking lot at noon.
Maserati also doesn’t have the reputation that they did only 10-15 years ago. Stellantis came in and borked everything pretty damn hard with assorted parts bin nonsense. They’ve also offered absolutely ridiculous lease deals on a lot of their products to try to get something (anything) out of their surplus of stock. I remember a local dealership advertising the lease price for a six figure Quattroporte of $699 a month.
Unfortunately this has cheapened everything significantly. I know we have a small handful of serious Maserati fans on this site who will defend the products til the bitter end, and I understand that how they’re perceived definitely changes from area to area…but at least here in DC they’re largely considered gauche by the well to do.
At the same time they’re considered to be a massive flex for people of more normal financial means once the depreciation decimates them, and as a result you see a lot of these in assorted states of disrepair, on buy here pay here lots, et cetera. One of my neighbors in my area that’s more or less upper middle class has a Levante and I’ve gotta say…it definitely doesn’t look like a $100,000 car.
I’d imagine they bought it once someone else had taken the depreciation to the face, but still. A secondhand or heavily discounted Maserati just kind of gives off “try hard” vibes. You might be able to fool some of your family and friends into thinking you’ve made it with your $22,000 Ghibli, but don’t try rolling it up in the more exclusive parts of town. They’re not going to let you into the club, unfortunately.
Hardcore fans aside, for most people, Maserati trades on vague memories of a half-century-old sports car reputation.
So if you own a secondhand Maserati GT or whathaveyou, sure, you coulld fairly claim enthusiast street cred. But an SUV…nobody’s really buying it, as they seem super disconnected to any of that.
It strikes me as owning one of those small brand hyper expensive Swiss watches that you have to endlessly explain is just better than a Rolex damnit.
If you have to explain why your car (or watch) is cool then it isn’t all that cool, is it? And I say this as someone who gave up on explaining their car and just nods when coworkers tell me it reminds them of the Niro hybrid that parks in the same lot…
‘It strikes me as owning one of those small brand hyper expensive Swiss watches that you have to endlessly explain is just better than a Rolex damnit.’
A $5 quartz Seagull is better than a Rolex, at least as far as accuracy, complications and maintenance schedules go.
Fellow DMV resident, completely agree. The Bentaygas and G Wagens aren’t going to be impressed with your tinted window Levante.
The right price for these cars is $30K off the current over-inflated price. Pre-pandemic with the deals offered for Levantes they were in the $70k to $80k range (except for the range-topper model), and they sorta sold ok – not great, but there seemed to be consistent turnover on the dealer lots. Then they jacked up the price, because they could when no other cars were available, and now that people have options they need to compete on price – which should be roughly equivalent to the X5 or (base-model) Cayenne they compare to.
Now if they were offering $30k off a Grecale Trofeo, I might go do a test drive – the reviews on that model are really good, but damn is that car expensive – much more than a X3M. It is priced way too high.
The Levante stock at the dealer I drive by a few times a week hasn’t been turning at all, and it looks like they are starting to put together some deals, but right now the details are not that great – $899/month… but for 7,500 miles a year and $7,500 cap reduction – put a real deal together and these cars will start moving
So this type of price new might even drive the used prices down further? Excellent. 15 more years of depreciation and they should reach my preferred price point….
Whenever I see luxury products with a seemingly large (absolute, to my income anyway) discount, first thing I always think is how dramatic the cost – ask spread for it must be. I wonder how they decide how high the final price should be, after accounting for the actual materials and labor.
Price theory is fascinating for sure.
At business school we call this “The Reverse Land Cruiser”.
I imagine getting your Maserati serviced takes as long as selling 9ne of these? Wait a few months for the part from Italy hope they send the right one, then pay exorbitant fees for labor and parts. Buying that Toyota as well would be a smart investment
Yeah, I was thinking the same thing – but on the plus side, I expect when you buy one of these things, you get a loaner when you bring it in. So a given buyer likely does expend 100% of their driving time in a Maserati, just not necessarily the one they own.
What happens when that Maserati fails? Besides I want to see it in the paperwork.
Actually they probably give you a Toyota loaner so you don’t break down again ;-).
Years ago one of the guys I worked with had bought a Jaguar, but we all gave him grief because all you ever saw him driving was the more-reliable Buick loaner.
Not sure what the typical Maserati loaner really is – the BMW dealers up here typically give you some kind of BMW (and the better service writers try to move you up a model), but other dealers may have a wider variance of loaners.
Maserati dealer by me started out as stand-alone, then added Alfa Romeo, and then Fiat. So yeah, I’m assuming you get a loaner 500 at this point.
Here’s a 2023 Levante Trofeo for $44,500 off Original MSRP
I said this over on TheDrive, but Maserati is doomed once EV’s take over.
The only selling point Maserati has right now is the noise they emit. Once you get passed that, you’re left with an overpriced Italian electrical nightmare, with an an interior comparable to a 50k Lexus. They won’t be able to ride on name recognition forever once the clientele that remembers peak Maserati dies out.
Or when many peoples’ most recent memory of one is seeing a Ghibli in an Altima state of repair flying across 3 lanes of traffic emanating weed smoke
There’s some clapped out newer(i have no idea what they’re called) maserati suv with a guy emanating weed smoke while sitting in the “this is where the junkies buy fent” spot nearby.
There is a Ghibli GT at the same dealership that has been slashed from $87,045 to $54,998. I know the Ghibli is not great, but if you beat them up some more and grab it for like $49k…I could see it.
I hope my wife doesn’t see this article! She calls me every time she see a Maser on the road. She has no idea if they are good cars, she just wants Maser. I blame Joe Walsh (cred to V10omous).
The only reason they are inso many songs is they have the easiest name to rhyme with. I mean they aren’t all impossible but …
Could be on purpose actually. The guy that launched Bhad Bhabie or whatever made his money getting rappers to name check brands in songs.
What? The songs are far before these wannabes
Still overpriced, this is the sort of vehicle you lease, if you really want it. The problem with buying it is you own it, which is still the case after the warranty period. And if it’s already depreciated this much before being sold new, imagine what will happen after, if you think you can just trade it in and get out easily at a certain point
My Maserati cost $1.85…..
…It lost its turbos so now it don’t drive.
It turned to rust
Now I ride the bus.
I bought a Maser, at a good price
Ain’t never drove it, they tell me it’s nice
I take a taxi, ride in the back,
Or take an Uber, I really got jacked…
Seeing how low priced they are around me for pretty low mileage I have to ask if it is just the price of entry and repairs will be both frequent and expensive?
Also despite living in a (generally) well off area I’ve never noticed one of these on the road.
Given I can find 2019s for sale with ~60-80k miles for the mid $20s. no wonder nobody wants these things new. The updates are so minor, every competitor has jumped way ahead of them, and often for less money and better resale value.
Example listing for reference
And yes, you can get these in the high teens and low twenties now. A nationwide search shows one with 120k miles in VA for 17k. Maintenance may be a mess, but that’s a lot of car for your money no matter how you slice it.
Well I’m impressed somebody nursed one to 120,000 miles!
Is it illegal to roll forward the odometer, to make the car seem more reliable?
COTD, or should be.
The owner lives 100 miles from the shop