Maserati tried to go mass-market with the Biturbo — and it nearly killed the brand

Alejandro de Tomaso acquired Maserati in 1976 and decided to transform it from a low-volume exotic car maker into a mass-market brand. The Biturbo, launched in December 1981, was the centerpiece of this strategy. It was the first production car with a twin-turbocharged V6 engine and was priced to compete with the BMW 3 Series. De Tomaso believed that Italian prestige at an affordable price would be an unstoppable combination.

The Biturbo sold well at first — almost 40,000 units over its production run. But the car had been rushed to market. The complex twin-turbo system overheated constantly. Body panels, stamped by Innocenti (another De Tomaso company), were rust-prone. Electrical failures were common. By 1984 Time magazine had named it the worst car of the year, and the BBC book Crap Cars ranked it number 28. Instead of democratizing Italian luxury, the Biturbo turned Maserati into a punchline.

The damage to Maserati's reputation was severe. Sales collapsed as word of the reliability problems spread. In the United States — the world's most important car market — the Biturbo sold from 1984 to 1990, then Maserati withdrew entirely. It would not return to America for 12 years. The brand that had built hand-crafted grand tourers for royalty was now associated with overheating engines and unreliable electronics.

Maserati tried to bury the Biturbo. The name was dropped in 1988 in favor of alphanumeric codes: 222, 430, 422. Marcello Gandini was hired for two facelifts, but the platform remained the same. De Tomaso sold Maserati to Fiat in 1993 after heavy losses. The Biturbo was quietly erased from official history. Maserati did not recover its cachet until the Ferrari-led revival with the 3200 GT in 1998, and the brand mentions the Biturbo era only in passing.