Another GranTurismo recall

MASERATI has issued its third Australian safety recall notice for the GranTurismo in six months, this time to repair faulty tail-lights.

The Italian super-luxury brand, which last year sold a total of 140 cars in Australia, yesterday recalled 131 examples of its $290,000 GranTurismo coupe and $328,000 GranCabrio convertible models because “failure of the rear lights to operate may pose a crash hazard”.

According to this week’s official Australian Competition and Consumer Commission recall notice: “The rear lights may not be in conformance and therefore not function properly”.

Maserati is currently contacting the owners of all affected vehicles, some of whom are also likely to have been inconvenienced by two previous GranTurismo recalls in recent months.

Last September Maserati called back 35 GranTurismo and Quattroporte vehicles to replace incorrectly machined rear tie-rods, which could be damaged with continued driving in certain conditions.

A further two GranTurismos were recalled in December to fix a ‘non-conforming’ gearbox that could become damaged, potentially causing the rear wheels to lock up while driving.

Both the two-door GranTurismo and four-door Quattroporte were affected by two further recalls announced in 2009, one to remedy a seatbelt warning problem and the other to apply the correct torque to suspension-arm ball-joint nuts on both models.