Winger Motors, one of the country's oldest car dealer groups, is to become Auckland's Maserati dealer, and will be responsible for the supercar brand in the North Island from this month.
The chief operating officer of Maserati Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, Glen Sealey, said Winger Motors had a long and unique history of providing excellent customer service.
"With the imminent arrival of Maserati’s first SUV, the Levante, building on the success of the new Quattroporte and the Ghibli, Winger Motors are clearly the company to make this investment in facilities and people that will ensure Maserati owners in Auckland and the North Island enjoy a level of exclusive customer service that fully matches everything expected of a Maserati,” he said.
A Maserati track day at Hampton Downs last year. File Picture.
Winger Motors was established in 1932 as Norman Winger and Lionel Squire in Hamilton before becoming Winger Motor Sales in 1935. The company built its reputation first on European brands and, from 1972, took on its first Japanese brand, followed by Korean and North American brands.
The company now operates dealerships in Hamilton, on the North Shore and Greenlane in Auckland, Pukekohe and in Queenstown and Cromwell on the South Island.
The managing director of Winger Motors, Wayne Leach, said Maserati meant the company would be working in an area of the car market it had not previously served.
"This presents us with a range of exciting new challenges, but ones for which we believe we are fully prepared with more than eight decades of building Winger Motors on the foundations of superb customer service, excellent facilities and a unique personal touch for all our customers."
The new Maserati Levante SUV. Picture/Supplied.
Winger Maserati would operate initially from existing premises of Maserati Auckland on Broadway in Newmarket, before moving into new premises on Great South Road, Newmarket.
The new facility will offer a showroom of more than 1500 square metres, fully capable of meeting the needs of displaying not just the existing Maserati range of Ghibli, Quattroporte, GranCabrio and GranTurismo, but also the all-new Maserati Levante which is expected to arrive before the end of the year.
The Levante will all but double Maserati sales in in New Zealand, as it will around the world. The new showroom will be matched by new, state of the art workshops and a dedicated pre-delivery area. In total the new dealership will employ 18 people.
Steve Hilson has been appointed General Manager of Winger Maserati, and brought a wealth of experience in luxury and performance cars through work in New Zealand and Europe.
Maserati has enjoyed a level of sales success unmatched in its 101 year history over the past three years. First the new Quattroporte and the new the Ghibli smashed sales records while maintaining Maserati’s unique reputation for performance, style, luxury and exclusivity. But the next 12 months would see Maserati enter a new area of the market with Levante, the company’s first SUV.