Why the Maserati Biturbo's attempt to take on the BMW 3 Series was an epic fail

In the late 1970s, Maserati hit upon a radical, borderline blasphemous idea. What if it hit pause on building very interesting sports cars and grand tourers that many people admired but no one bought... and instead tried making some money?

This brave ‘stop going bankrupt’ strategy would see Maserati take BMW on at its own game, with a compact slice of rear drive goodness priced to rival the 3 Series. And when, to great acclaim in 1981, Maserati unveiled the Biturbo, with its pin sharp, wedgy profile, smart interior and world first twin turbo engine, it looked like Maser’s groundbreaking ‘don’t set fire to piles of cash’ venture might actually work.

Only problem was, it didn’t work. The Biturbo, that is. Turns out when you ask a small volume car company to suddenly build tens of thousands of highly complex cars every year, you get what manufacturing experts call ‘quality control issues’ and the rest of us call ‘a whole lot of Biturbo shaped bricks’.

Many owners complained their early carburettor fed Biturbos had an issue with hot starting – restarting after running for a while – but frankly they should have been thankful, as at least this meant their car must have done some running in the first place. And engine issues were just the start: the Biturbo also served up rust and electrical issues with equal enthusiasm.

Revisionist historians point out the Biturbo could be credited with saving Maserati: that it brought in just enough cash to keep the company limping along until Fiat arrived in the early 1990s. All of which may be true, but ignores the fact that Maserati could have been a whole lot more saved had the Biturbo not boasted homeopathic quantities of reliability.

Luckily Maserati learned its lesson, and would never again try and fail to muscle into the exec German market. Nope. One and done. Absolutely didn’t become a recurring theme.