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Luxury cars and manual transmissions rarely go together these days. Apart from a few lingering entries in the sport sedan segment, there aren’t really any stick-shift cars out there with highfalutin aspirations. But over at Maserati, the executive team believes the manual gearbox will help attract buyers to its boutique offerings.
Maserati Chief Marketing Officer Cristiano Fiorio told the media this week that the manufacturer would keep the manual gearbox around for buyers who take advantage of Bottega Fuoriserie—a modern coach-building program the brand introduced in partnership with corporate sibling Alfa Romeo last year. Its mission is to produce “timeless custom cars, historically precise restorations, sensory experiences, innovative material research, and a center focused on advancing the highest levels of performance.”
In other words, really expensive toys for folks with really expansive bank accounts—think custom Stradales and restomods, not certified pre-owned Quattroportes.
Bottega Fuoriserie is Fiorio’s baby, so he’s well aware of what its customers want—overwhelmingly, that means gasoline engines. The bigger, the better. And, go figure, folks who are looking for traditional cylinder counts are also interested in manual gearboxes.
Sure, this is good news for the enthusiast elite, but it’s kind of a dud for the rest of us. Fiorio gave no indication that the manual gearbox has any hope of filtering down through Maserati’s production lineup. After all, Maserati hasn’t offered a manual gearbox in its showrooms for nearly 20 years; that one also came with a Ferrari V8.
Alfa Romeo, meanwhile, sold the Giulia Quadrifoglio overseas with a stick until pretty recently. How about it, Alfa? Wanna throw us a fresh bone here?
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Byron is an editor at The Drive with a keen eye for infrastructure, sales and regulatory stories.
