Maserati makes first profit in 17 years

You can tell things are looking up for the Italian auto industry (also known as Fiat S.p.A.): not only did Fiat make a record profit in the second quarter of 2007, but Maserati had its first profitable quarter in 17 years.

Maserati became part of the Fiat Group in 1990 and it hasn't made a profit since. But the company announced today that it made a â,¬1 million trading profit, well up from the â,¬7 million loss in the second quarter of last year. Maserati broke even in the first quarter of '07, a massive change from its â,¬26 million loss in the same period.

Maserati expects to be even more profitable through the rest of the year. The new Granturismo coupe goes in sale later this month in Italy and Maserati has seen a 40 percent increase in sales of its Quattroporte sedan since the introduction of the Automatica automatic transmission model for this model year.