MILAN—Maserati was meant to provide the sizzle in Fiat Chrysler Automobiles’ vehicle lineup after the company spun off Ferrari in 2016. But weakening demand in the key market of China and a consumer shift away from sedans are denting the luxury brand’s performance.

Not so long ago, Maserati’s sporty cars represented a booming if small part of the Italian-American company. Sergio Marchionne, the long-serving Fiat Chrysler chief executive who died suddenly last year, wanted Maserati to showcase the engineering prowess of a group beset with slow-selling mass-market brands.

Volume and profit grew strongly as Maserati introduced new models, including its first sport-utility vehicle, and rode the booming American and Chinese car markets. Maserati sales hit a record 50,000 units in 2017, with a 14% profit margin that was twice the average across Fiat Chrysler.

That changed last year as the Chinese auto market, the world’s largest, began to soften; it has now logged eight consecutive monthly declines on a year-over-year basis.

Investment bank UBS said Maserati, and the Chinese market more generally, are “construction areas with high uncertainties” for Fiat Chrysler, adding that Maserati’s profitability could prove difficult to restore.

Stirling Moss in the Maserati 300S at the Grand Prix of Sebring, in Sebring, Florida, March 23, 1957. Photo: Bernard Cahier/Getty Images

Maserati has a limited lineup that includes a few sedans and its crossover SUV. The Levante crossover temporarily juiced sales after its introduction in 2016, but it glossed over a problem facing many car makers. Consumers are snubbing sedans, and indications are the shift is here to stay.


Maserati was late to the SUV market with the Levante, which took a decade to go from concept car to showroom presence. In that time, competitors including Porsche, Bentley and Jaguar came out with rival offerings. And while new versions of Maserati’s two main sedans initially sold well, volume quickly tapered off, with some auto critics saying the cars’ lackluster interiors—the result of Fiat Chrysler brands sharing parts to cut costs—offset their impressive road performance.

In China, Maserati dealers have almost doubled to 96 in the past four years. However, the country is no longer the brand’s largest market—the U.S. now is—as sales volume fell by more than half last year, compared with a 4.1% drop for passenger cars as a whole in China. Maserati sales also fell in the U.S. last year, despite an expansion of the North American dealer network to 153 from 106 five years ago.

Maserati declined to comment.

The business began more than a century ago in Bologna as a car-repair workshop, then transitioned to making race cars. Maserati, which built a loyal following with its racing wins, introduced its first road car immediately after World War II. When the company moved 30 miles north to Modena, it became the crosstown rival of Ferrari. And the two continued to duel on the racetrack and in showrooms, before finding themselves in the same family when Fiat bought Maserati in 1993.


The two luxury brands used to compete directly but there is now a wide divide in performance and price. A Ferrari can be had for roughly $250,000, whereas Maserati’s larger sedan, the Quattroporte, costs about $110,000.

The challenge for Mike Manley, who took over as Fiat Chrysler CEO last year, is restoring the shine that once made Maserati synonymous with sleek European design and attracted Americans looking for a pizazz they couldn’t find elsewhere.

Seymour Pond was one of those Americans. The New Jersey resident bought his first Maserati in 1988 after a trip to Sweden piqued his interest in European cars.

“It looked like a human actually had something to do with making the Maserati, as opposed to the Japanese and American cars at the time,” Mr. Pond, a 68-year-old importer of premium Italian cheese, said of an early visit to a Maserati showroom in Manhattan.

A Maserati 3500GT shown on the Via Emilia in the center of Modena, Italy circa 1960. Photo: Klemantaski Collection/Getty Images

He bought four Maseratis through the years, and remained an owner until 2010, when he sold off his black 1988 Spyder convertible. He is still a Maserati fan, but says the Northeastern chapter of the U.S. Maserati club where he long served as president has lost members and morphed into more of a social club in recent years.


In February, Mr. Manley called Maserati’s 2018 sales performance “frankly unacceptable” and said he expects the situation to get worse before it improves. He forecast that sales will fall again in the first half of this year before the Chinese market starts to recover. Mr. Manley blamed China for both Maserati’s woes and his recent cut to Fiat Chrysler’s financial targets.

He is also dealing with disappointing sales at the Alfa Romeo, Fiat and Chrysler brands, which have left the group dependent on selling evermore Jeep SUVs and Ram trucks in the U.S., where it generates more than 90% of profit.

To get Maserati back on track, Mr. Manley is promising a new crossover SUV, a Maserati sports car that can top 185 miles an hour, electric versions of its existing models, and bigger dealer networks in China and the U.S.

Write to Eric Sylvers at eric.sylvers@wsj.com