Maserati GranTurismo at death's door

So it’s finally happened. Maserati’s final, final, final fling for the gloriously anachronistic GranTurismo and GranCabrio will come to a close at the end of the year.

Maserati has sent a note to its suppliers that production of the relatively ancient two-door machines, codenamed M145, will “end in December 2019” to kill off the oldest “new” car on sale today.

It plans to build just 500 of the big, naturally aspirated V8 machines between now and then, with 60 percent of them being softtop versions, though the Australian arm expects to retain stocks to see it through to the middle of next year.

The Australian market received the M145’s final upgrade only earlier this year, and the combination of the sweetest-sounding V8 out there and its user-friendly manners charmed even then.

It won’t have a direct successor, with the Alfieri coupe set to be a dedicated two-seater, with active aerodynamics, an electric powertrain, a 0-100km/h sprint of around two seconds and four-wheel torque vectoring.

It will be all-aluminium, where the GranTurismo was almost all steel, though it will also host a convertible.

The Alfieri was first seen in 2014, was touted as a twin-turbo V6 in 2016, then changed to a full BEV and now it’s planned to be offered with both powertrains.

The gestation of the Alfieri couldn’t be any more indecisive, especially when compared to the GranTurismo, which set a car industry record for its hurried development when it debuted at the Geneva motor show in 2007.

The small team at Modena was forced to rush a back up machine for the Quattroporte when a divorce from then-masters Ferrari saw the replacement’s blueprints taken to Maranello (and turned in to the California).

The GranTurismo was effectively a short-wheelbase, fifth-generation M139 Quattroporte (it had 12cm cut out of it) with a Jason Castriota-penned Pininfarina body on it, and it went from initial meetings to production in just nine months.

Time stood still for the GranTurismo and GranCabrio. It was the Johnny Cash of its age, staying acoustic while the world went electric. It helped that first the 4.2-litre V8, then the 4.7-litre version, had their exhaust notes tuned by a composer from Milan’s La Scala opera house.

While it divorced from Ferrari (and moved to Fiat operation) in 2006, the GranTurismo and GranCabrio continued to use Ferrari-built engines, first with the F136 U V8 with 298kW of power, then the 324kW F136Y, from engines derived from the Ferrari F360 Modena (though with a totally new crankshaft).

It even shared its 4.7-litre engine (and a cut-down version of its chassis) with the carbon-bodied Alfa Romeo 8C, which was also built on the Maserati production lines.

Maserati kept the 4.88-metre machines as fresh as they could, with S, MC and MC Sport Line versions, before the GranTurismo MC Stradale arrived in 2011 and the Sport in 2012.

The GranCabrio went on sale in 2010, with a Sport version arriving a year later.

But its prolonged success came from its combination of class, design flair, that enchanting engine burble and a surprising amount of practicality.

Its long, 2942mm wheelbase gave it a surprisingly comfortable ride and easy handling at the limit, but the real bonus it gave over German rivals was that it was actually comfortable in the rear for adults. Even the GranCabrio version could carry four adults in comfort, with plenty of legroom.

Nothing lasts forever, but it was starting to feel as if the GranTurismo would. It predates the first iPhone, it still runs a six-speed automatic transmission (and the early cars used the horrid six-speed Cambiocorsa self-shifting manual gearbox) and you can touch any screen you like and expect to get only smudges.