Maserati announced the start of Maserati Classiche Tuesday, creating a division that matches similar ones at other European automakers, including Mercedes-Benz and Jaguar Land Rover.
The department’s purpose is to preserve the originality and heritage of the brand’s cars by assisting customers and collectors. The department can also certify a vehicle’s authenticity, a service that helps maintain a collector car’s value.
Service is already operational
The first car to be certified by the program is a silver Maserati Mistral 3700 built in March 1969. The vehicle was certified after undergoing 300 checks and matched to Maserati’s corporate records.
The program includes minor repairs, routine maintenance and detailing. To qualify for the service, the Maserati must be more than 20 years old or be a special series such as a Quattroporte special edition or the MC12. The program also includes restoration support for those restoring a Maserati to ensure every detail matches the original car. Owners of older Maseratis can go online and request a Maserati Certification of Authenticity.
Maserati Classiche is only beginning to ramp up. The operation will expand the service in 2022 to include restoration support, as well as replication of spare parts for those no longer available using the original designs. However, the new parts will be built using up-to-date technology for improved reliability, rather than as originally built. For some collectors and restorers, this will be a non-starter; others won’t care.
The company stopped short of saying it will offer full factory restorations, which some other Classic Centers do.
But wait, there’s more
The Maserati Classiche site also includes a new clothing collection, with t-shirts, polos, sweatshirts, jackets and hoodies. The collection mostly centers around menswear, but there are clothing options for women and children as well among its 27 items.
The new collection arrives just in time for the holidays.
Other automakers offer restoration services
No doubt Maserati is modeling its program on Ferrari Classiche, which can authenticate vehicles more than 20 years old as well as all Ferrari F1, Sportscars and Sport-Prototypes, and issue a certificate of authenticity available only from Maranello. The center also provides maintenance and spare parts assistance.
In operation since 2006 in Irvine, California, the Mercedes-Benz Classic Center can inspect your classic Mercedes and generate a report documenting the condition and originality of a vehicle. They can also repair any problem your classic Mercedes may be experiencing, or do a full factory restoration. The center also sells restored vehicles, but expect to pay top dollar — and with good reason.
Similarly, the BMW Group Classic Center, based in Munich, does much the same thing, able to authenticate, service or restore a vehicle, whether it’s a BMW motorbike or car. It sells vehicles as well. Uniquely, you can ask the center to locate a specific classic BMW for you.
With 54 bays and space for 480 vehicles, the Jaguar Land Rover Classic Center based in Coventry, England has specialist teams that create and supply parts for classic Jaguars and Land Rovers, and builds limited edition New Originals of the Jaguar E-Type and XKSS, and the Land Rover Defender Works V8.
In 2017, Mazda established its MX-5 restoration service for first-generation “NA” models. It’s based in Hiroshima. Each car requires two months to restore. First, the roadster is completely stripped, the body is taken back to bare metal and resprayed by hand. Chassis components are refurbished or replaced and the interior re-trimmed, while the engine is rebuilt.
Finally, Nissan’s NISMO motorsports division launched a factory restoration program for Skyline GT-R in 2020. Like the Mazda program, your Skyline will be stripped to its base metal and remanufactured from there. The engine is completely rebuilt and blueprinted to original specification, but it can also be upgraded by NISMO if you prefer. But the process takes far more time than at Mazda, requiring anywhere from six months to a year to complete.
More than a profit center
Classic centers volumes are small, but their value goes beyond mere dollars and cents. The centers not only keep the company connected to some of their most diehard customers, serving as a marketing tool that ensures its heritage is properly represented at classic car shows and concours. These outlets serve as an indirect marketing tool, one that automakers have long exploited. Maserati is smart enough to get into the act.
The question remains, when will domestic automakers realize what they’re passing up.
