Overzealous ’90s Maserati Monstrosity: Weird Car of the Week

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Posted by Jeff Perez                                

 

Automotive styling in the 1990s was…questionable, to say the least. The edgy and angular approach of the ’80s took a backseat to the bubbly and dramatic styling of the ’90s. One company embraced that new styling head-on, but it wasn’t as successful as everyone had hoped.

What Is It?

 This is the Maserati Auge Concept from 1995. Yes, that Maserati. The same company responsible today for some of the most beautiful and bodacious sports cars on the market, once built a 90s sportback that was the very definition of design from the era.

The idea was to take the Quattroporte platform and make it both more efficient and more practical. In that sense, it was a success for Maserati. But in a very real sense, the project was a complete design failure from top to bottom.

It was designed and developed by the respected Gioacchino Acampora, and was created not only to be “a modern answer to the style for a possible new taste of our times, but a careful analysis of history and what represents the traditional style one would expect in a luxury coupe.” Whatever that means.

Shockingly, Maserati was so enthralled with the Auge, that they revived the idea in 2002—with a few minor design tweaks—and put it on display once again to gauge customer interest. Naturally, it never made it to market, and thankfully the entire idea was scrapped for good.

But at a point in time, Maserati nearly went full 90s and put the ghastly Auge into production.