My dream is always to have more car brands in the United States, so I was excited when the merger of Fiat and Chrysler brought us a bevy of Italian badges not seen since people were bumpin’ Scatman John from the speakers in their 164L. In retrospect, I’m not sure it made the brands any better.
The Morning Dump today is devoted to brands and what happens when you don’t pay attention to them. Brands are not your friends, but neither is beloved character actress Margo Martindale, and I kinda care what happens to her. Up first is Maserati, which has a gorgeous new ad campaign out that’s just a sad reminder of how ignored the brand has become.
Nissan created an EV brand with the Leaf, only to watch Tesla suck up all the oxygen in the room. The Leaf is turning over a… new chapter, but production issues are apparently already hampering its return. Ford’s brand has survived numerous downturns, but now it’s losing one of its most recognizable buildings.
And it wouldn’t be a Morning Dump without celebrating a specific beloved (by me) brand, which celebrates 100 years of being a merged carmaker.
Maybe Stellantis Should Just Sell Maserati
Am I being unfair? It’s possible I’m being unfair. I woke up to run, and it was too dark, so I picked a yoga routine to do, but it turned out to be the wrong one. I didn’t realize this until I was halfway through, so I just finished it. Perhaps that’s coloring my views this morning.
I was out looking for news, eating cereal, when I noticed a few stunning photos in a release from Maserati. It’s about a tie-up with Acqua di Parma, the Italian “art of living” company that makes fragrances, soaps, and other things that smell nice.
Here’s the description:
The Acqua di Parma x Maserati collection includes a bespoke Andiamo Car Diffuser, finished in Acqua di Parma’s signature yellow and embossed with the Maison’s emblem alongside Maserati’s iconic Trident – an elevated companion for every drive. The Passepartout Leather Charm rendered in genuine leather with yellow stitching and the Maserati logo on the charm, complete with a 12ml Colonia Eau de Cologne. Completing the Acqua di Parma x Maserati collection is the Art of Travel Coffret, presented in Acqua di Parma’s iconic hat box. Inside, the special edition Andiamo Car Diffuser is paired with a Luce di Colonia refill and a set of driving gloves in Maserati blue nappa leather, trimmed with yellow piping. The gloves, designed for comfort and grip, are fingerless, perforated at the knuckles, and fastened with tone-on-tone laser-etched buttons.
Contemporary and innovative, the bespoke Acqua di Parma x Maserati Andiamo Car Diffuser sets the car interiors with a pleasurable and comfortable atmosphere to match the modern driving experience where technology reigns. Its circular shape is inspired by the iconic boxes of Acqua di Parma and is a perfect fit for any interior with its simple and intuitive mounting system that allows for easy magnetic attachment to the car’s ventilation grill. The fragrance is then diffused via the vehicle’s air circulation by activating the car’s ventilation system and the diffuser’s simple cursor. The fragrances come in special refills that can be replaced anytime, allowing to choose your favourite scent for every journey.
If I’m in Milan or Saint-Tropez, perhaps I will pick up a car diffuser. What’s immediately noticeable, however, is what’s missing. Do you see it? Here’s another one.
Ok, one more. Can you notice the theme in all of these photos?
The photographers and producers of this shoot did an excellent job. Everything is staged in a lovely way. The lighting is just right. It’s pleasing to the eye. Now that I know that Acqua di Parma is not some sort of cheese drink, I am inclined to try some of it.
What’s missing is a new Maserati. There is no Maserati you could even use that would fit here, and that’s sad. The current lineup is a relatively nice but expensive supercar tucked in with some electric cars no one wants and some mediocre rebadged crossovers.
The current inventory for Maserati of Long Island–the one place a Maserati dealer should do well–is just 16 Grecales. Imagine the above with a Grecale, and it doesn’t work. I’m not sure it even works with an MCPura or whatever.
If you look at a sales chart for Stellantis, the company now breaks out regions and then singles out Maserati as its own quasi-seperate entity, which means you can see just how poorly the brand is doing globally. In the first half of the year, only 2,500 vehicles were sold, down 22% from an abysmal 2024.
It keeps getting reported by various entities that Stellantis is at least pondering selling Maserati, though the company also keeps denying it’s actively for sale. Obviously, both things can be true simultaneously.
The company, in theory, was supposed to transition from Hoboken Fancy to EV-Only, but does that even work in 2026? Who is going out of their way to buy an electric Maserati? The most recent pivot has been towards racing, but Maserati was dropped and replaced by Citroën in Formula E.
It’s a brand that has no meaning anymore, unfortunately, and the search for meaning only highlights the clear lack of a mission. Maserati has been swapped between too many entities for too much of its life. It made beautiful cars. It made winning sports cars. It made luxurious touring cars.
When Fiat grouped Maserati and Ferrari together, there was a brief moment where it seemed like Maserati had a clear market, even if that market was: cars for people who couldn’t afford a Ferrari or didn’t want to wait for one.
Being lost in the massive Stellantis empire, Maserati hasn’t gotten enough attention and has therefore wandered away from even that mission. It’s too luxurious to be mainstream, too mainstream to be real luxury, too caught up in EV hype to be motorsports, but too motorsports to make sense as an EV brand.
I cannot say whether or not Maserati will ever be sold, but I can say that I wish it would be. Or folded. Anything but what’s going on at the present.
Nissan Leaf Reportedly Delayed By Battery Shortages
I wanted the new Nissan Leaf to be good. Nissan arguably got there first, and it’s a bummer the Leaf just wasn’t quite right, because the company was the first major OEM to push wholeheartedly into the space and deserves credit for it.
So I was delighted to read that Sam–as good a judge as anyone–thought the new Nissan Leaf was finally good. “Leaf” is a brand worth saving.
Sadly, it’s not enough to build a good vehicle; you also have to be able to build enough of them to meet market demand. That might be a problem for Nissan, according to this Reuters report:
Nissan Motor has reduced its production plan for the new model of its Leaf electric vehicle by more than half for September-November owing to delays in battery procurement, the Nikkei business daily said on Tuesday.
Lower than expected battery yields at a Nissan affiliate had caused the revision, the Nikkei said, adding that the Japanese automaker planned to release the new EV model by the end of the year.
The newspaper did not specify the original or revised production targets but said that the output plan has been cut by up to several thousand vehicles a month at its Tochigi plant in eastern Japan, where the new version of the Leaf is made for the U.S. and Japanese markets.
Half? Half?!?! That’s bad.
Ford Will Demolish The Glass House
Ford’s longtime HQ is the “Glass House,” which was probably modern at the time but looks very 1950s now. will soon be gone. Ford is trying to be a new company, so it’ll be replacing it with a new HQ in Dearborn.
Here’s what Ford has to say:
For nearly 70 years, the iconic Glass House served as the nerve center of our global operations and we honor its incredible legacy. But the future of our industry demands a different kind of space – one that is more connected, more flexible, and built for the speed of a technology – and software-driven company.
As we continue to adapt our campus for the future, the Glass House will itself be transformed. Once our teams have vacated the building, it will be sustainably decommissioned and ultimately demolished over the course of roughly 18 months as we prepare to repurpose the site as an asset to our teams and our community.
We are working with the City of Dearborn on a plan for how the site can best serve our employees and neighbors, and we will have more to share about those plans later.
Ford also sent out a helpful infographic about the transition. I think the building was iconic, even if not obviously impressive. Before it gets torn down, I hope they’ll engage in some sort of killer Gymkhana-like sequel.
Happy 100th Anniversary Of The Škoda-Laurin & Klement Merger
The big news this week, the huge anniversary that everyone is waiting for, is, of course, the 100th anniversary of that day in 1925 when Czech automaker Laurin & Klement teamed up with the industrial and arms company Škoda to make a new, much larger automaker just called Škoda.
The history of the Pilsen-based engineering company dates back to 1859, and ten years later it was acquired by engineer Emil Škoda. Under his leadership, and carrying his name, the company grew into the largest industrial enterprise in Austria-Hungary and even collaborated with the carmaker Laurin & Klement. In the 1920s, both companies faced economic difficulties in the wake of the First World War and the collapse of traditional markets. In 1924, a devastating fire further damaged the L&K factory in Mladá Boleslav. Václav Laurin and Václav Klement therefore decided to seek a strong strategic partner.
At that time, L&K employed 1,125 people, while Škoda Plzeň had more than 30,000 employees. However, its automotive output was limited, focusing mainly on the licensed production of British Sentinel steam lorries and Hispano-Suiza luxury cars. Unlike other options considered, the merger with Škoda Plzeň guaranteed the continuation of independent automotive development and production in Mladá Boleslav.
On 20 July 1925, the general meetings of both companies approved the merger, with shares exchanged at a ratio of 2:1 (L&K/Škoda). The decisive date came on 12 September 1925, when the Ministry of the Interior granted its approval. Laurin & Klement was formally removed from the Commercial Register on 29 December, but its traditional logo continued to appear alongside the Škoda name on models introduced up to August 1925. The Mladá Boleslav carmaker emerged from the merger significantly stronger – a resilience soon put to the test by the looming global economic crisis. The link with the Pilsen headquarters was forcibly severed by nationalisation in 1945.
Compare the stewardship of Škoda under VW to what happened with Maserati, and you’ll see that it’s possible to platform-share with other brands and still make them successful. It probably helps that Škoda is a mainstream brand, whereas Maserati is not.
What I’m Listening To While Writing TMD
I had to do it. It’s “Scatman (ski-ba-bop-ba-dop-bop)” by Scatman John. In the ’90s, the longer the parenthetical in the title of a song, the better the song was sure to be.
The Big Question
How would you save Maserati?
Top photo: Maserati
If we don’t include the parenthetical qualifier, I agree that the longer a song name in the 90s was, the better it is.
Prime example is Standing Outside a Broken Phone Booth with Money in My Hand by Primitive Radio Gods.
I’d resurrect Lee Iaccocca to re-configure their product line to fit “If you can find a more luxurious car, buy it!”
Maserati has been a shell of its former self making an inexplicable mix of questionable quality cars for longer than it was ever actually good. The cool early-aughts Ferrari-powered Coupé, Spyder, and Quattroporte are the exception, not the rule.
For better or worse, that’s what Maserati *is* and that’s why I love it.
As someone who is supposed to move into the new building in the next few months (crossing my fingers that stays true), you have no idea how excited we are to leave the armpit that is the current product development center. It was also built in the 50’s and is just old. Years ago, on my first day at work, I was appalled by how uninviting and uninspiring the building was. Hasn’t changed. From the little glimpses we’ve seen, this new building looks amazing.
I’m the Scatman.
That Maserati it so beautiful it hurts to look at it.
Maybe once Ford builds a new HQ, they can concentrate on fixing all their quality issues.
“How would you save Maserati?”
Hot take here, I wouldn’t save Maserati. Or Alfa Romeo, for that matter. The brands are shells of their former selves and do not have global appeal. They barely register outside of Italy, and that isn’t enough to sustain them. To adequately position them for global competition, Stellantis would need to invest billions in new product, and more billions in marketing. Even then, it would still be a gamble. The company does not have that kind of money to gamble when it needs to shore up its volume brands that actually make money. The company sells plenty of high-end vehicles through its traditional volume brands, it does not need these two. The market for “middle luxury” sports cars seems to be dying, the market is bifurcated between high end supercars and more attainable offerings from volume brands. Jaguar is facing the same issue and I think its days are numbered as well.
Stellantis in general just has too many brands, I see it as similar to GM pre-bankruptcy. They could jettison half of them and nobody besides a small number of car enthusiasts would care, and it would free up resources to strengthen their other offerings.
Agree with your take on middle luxury, seems the world now is just the 1% and all the rest.
That and to the extent the segment still exists, the Germans are utterly dominant.
I said similar to your last paragraph on a previous Stellantis-focused article. So much consolidation only benefits the people who orchestrate it, and it never works out for all the brands involved. Inevitably some get ignored, and others will have resourced reduced due to issues at a completely unrelated brand/country. The theoretical resource-savings never materialize, or at least offset the negatives.
Yup. And if they want to save either, they need to just pick one and kill the other.
You should also include Lancia in your list. Barring a few street cars derived from rally models, Lancia really hasn’t done anything interesting since the FIAT takeover in the 1970s.
Maybe they could merge, Alfa Romaserati?
Maserati is a stupid brand anyway LOL
They could’ve gone poof 40 years ago and nobody would miss them 😛
What would Ferrari do anyways? They’d have to spend hundreds of millions re-doing their own stuff for Maserati, and that cannot be really cost efficient.
I always pictured Ferrari as the sportier, 2-seat brand and Maserati as the grand touring, coupe and quattroporte. If Maserati cars had longevity to go with the gorgeous sounds and appearances, I would find them more exciting.
Wait! Don’t they have an SUV? Why aren’t those selling? Anyone driving a Range Rover would happily take a Maserati, wouldn’t they?
I’m glad to see Maserati is adding pleasant smells to their cars. Though I doubt it can overwhelm their crap.
Ford is now a tech software company. So “having a better idea” and “quality is job one” has turned into “we haven’t a clue” and quality is job three”.
Wasn’t Ford supposed to move into an old train station?
That’s “Ford Mobility” or whatever the division calls itself this week. Ford seems to have untold millions for building renovations but zero for fixing their myriad of recall problems. Maybe they should just become a real estate company and leave building cars to someone who’s actually focused on it.
It’s call Ford Land which is their commercial real estate division
Not to be confused with Fordlandia?
I’m actually a little surprised a few of their senior most execs didn’t move into Michigan Central so they could claim it as their headquarters even if the vast majority of staff stayed in Dearborn. Its by far the fanciest building Ford’s ever owned and was a major personal, pet project for Bill Ford
Maserati should say screw it and go all EV. Make a convertible EV and a EREV SUV and hope for the best. Nothing else they are doing is working.
It would be quicker and easier to just burn everything that go that route.
That’s not much of a plan, but better than what Maserati is currently doing.
I do think they might make some sales with an EV convertible. No one else is doing one, so it would instantly be the most recognizable product in their product lineup.
Last I looked their one EV gets like 190 miles of range and sucks.
This has been Maserati for most of my life. As a teenager in the 80s, I was aware of the Biturbo, but you rarely saw one on the road or even at the shop. I was more familiar with the brand via Joe Walsh than its actual cars.
And Ted Nugent: Masera-ti… Masera-ti…
Growing up a few years later, Maserati to me is:
I really don’t know what they can do to fix their brand image.
I like the looks of the Ghibli especially, but I can’t think of any use cases for most people to actually buy one.
The only hope for Maserati is to sell it back to Ferrari and have it go back to being Ferrari Lite.
What to do with Maserati? Sell it to Ferrari
Maserati’s always had a weird history. It feels like they’ve been on the brink of bankruptcy for literally their entire existence, and yet they’ve also managed to make some of the most gorgeous cars ever while shuffling between owners – that Ghibli convertible is at the absolute top of my “I just robbed the monopoly man” list.
Even under Stellantis they’ve been all over the place – by all measures the MCs and the new engine are very good, they’re the only ones putting out a genuine electric sports car (and convertible! also high on my “did some lucrative crimes” list), and they’re also selling a rebadged Alfa crossover.
I think this just IS Maserati – flashes of brilliance amidst a sea of crazy. It might be the most genuine Italian car company left.
Told ya they should have just stuck with the 2nd gen Leaf, gave it NACS, and work on keeping them cheap.
My Maserati does 185…
They have been on life support since the Chrysler T/C in all honesty. Maybe just pull the plug already.
Of the Detroit-3, Ford feels the only one to have cohesion in the area and intent on creating a statement to support the brand.
Restaurants, museum, an interesting “village”, schools, and all sorts centralized in Dearborn.
It does present the brand in a good light.
Maybe if they spent some time focusing on building cars that didn’t need to be constantly recalled instead of “supporting the brand” with “statements” they’d be better off.
FINALLY Ford can criticize others for the traits that they themselves posses!
New idiom for life: Maserati happens.
Ford must be getting ready to throw some stones.
Would you like to try some of my Apple Pie?
To be fair, it would be a lot easier to justify paying attention to Maserati if the brand had proven any ability to turn a profit at any point in its entire history
Aston Martin and Lotus have entered the chat.
I’m a fan of all three, but still.
Yeah, they sort of need to be treated like professional sports teams – a vanity purchase for someone who just wants the catchet of owning one and is already too rich to care how much they actually return on the investment, and can maybe get the government to subsidize them a bit on top of that
Yes, but someone at Lotus had the great idea to get rid of the Elise/Evora and thought the car to save the company would be a 6000 lb Electric SUV.
(I’ve seen a few and they are good looking cars! They just are not what anyone envisions as a Lotus)
Aston Martin is doing just fine and is building cars for the 1 and 5% and that is all Aston needs to do.
I read an intersting article that brought up a good point. 95% of the watches made are digital, 5% are analogue, but 90 per cent of the profits in industry come from the 5 per cent of analogue watches.
The british car companies need to focus on the 1% and the 5% of the market and leave the rest of the companies to fill the needs of the unwashed hordes. Jaguar in particular has to remember what they used to do well. With that said, I do like the looks of the new brutalist design. Yeah, I’m weird…
Aston Martin is not doing “fine”, they haven’t been profitable since 2017.
I agree with your confusion over what Lotus is doing, but when you accept that sweet Chinese cash, you kind of give up the ability to chart your own course anymore.
Good point on the Chinese angle. Sad to see.
Let’s see what Hallmark does this year and see if he can bring Aston around.
I’d make sure Joe Walsh’s “Life’s Been Good” is getting put on TV and movies, then use an ad campaign showing a Maserati doing 185. Instant sales, I assume.
But, yeah, getting it out from under Stellantis’s umbrella couldn’t hurt.
Save Maserati? Not without an infusion of class. Go back to Ferrari motors.
Margo Martindale? I looked her up, despite a prodigious body of work I’ve seen almost none of it.
Also, hey pretty Italian lady, you forgot to shut the door!
That’s still technically a transformation I guess.
I don’t understand why Maserati can’t be the Tudor to Ferrari’s Rolex. They have the history and the brand recognition and the MC20 seems to be pretty decent. With as much as Ferrari has jacked up their prices you’d think there’d be a significant market for a company that sells supercars with Ferrari engines/components at 2/3 the price or less.
I think that market doesn’t exist anymore. There’s a reason all the premium brands have pushed all their chips in on the “20 cars for $10M each” square – nobody’s only kind of rich anymore.