That’s how I would characterize anyone’s ownership of a Chrysler TC by Maserati. If you’re unfamiliar with it, skip down to the next paragraph. On today’s drive north on 101 from Paso Robles, south of King City (central California), I saw two together on the freeway–apparently the two gentlemen are TC “collectors” and take their shitboxes out for Sunday drives together. Then, as I was driving into Carmel, I saw another, with a very attractive hardtop on the vehicle. I like that last touch: you’re driving a garbage car whose only real appealing element is that it is a convertible, so on an absolutely perfect day, 80 degrees and no clouds, you cruise around with the hardtop on.
The back story on the TC: Chrysler worked with the Italian car company Maserati in the ’80s to glitz up a K-car based convertible with some surface touches and then charge way too much money for it. The vehicle was built partly in Europe and included a Maserati trident badge on the front grill. For additional detail, this web site has a very good history of it, including some hilarious photos. Maserati currently makes two appealing vehicles, but prior to Ferrari/FIAT’s purchase of the company, it was chronically underfunded and plagued by quality problems.
Back to the headline for this post: why would you buy this car and make it your special vehicle for weekend drives? It’s slow, drives poorly, bland in appearance, unreliable, has no history to make it interesting and is not a vehicle that you would buy as an investment. I’d rather get a used Miata. I wonder if there are TC owners’ clubs…yes!! Here’s a link. I’d like to go to a gathering and just make fun of all the stooges with their “special vehicles,” as the owners’ club page describes the TC. And it turns out that this year’s national meet is being held May 6 through 9 in Carmel, California…which is where I am right now. (That explains seeing them around.) I may be taking part of Monday’s workday off to go find these guys and mock them.
As a post script, Cadillac’s Allante convertible had a history that, on the surface, is similar to the TC. Cadillac worked with the noted Italian designer and coachbuilder Pininfarina, Ferrari’s designer of choice, on a convertible with bodies built in Italy and then air-freighted to the U.S. Cadillac then performed final assembly. The end result was a bland design with some initial quality problems and a very high price. What distinguishes the Allante from the TC is that the fundamental engineering on the Allante was much better from the start, as it was designed from the ground up on a new platform, and Cadillac continued to devote engineering resources to improving the vehicle and addressing its flaws. The final iteration, with a Northstar V8, was a solid vehicle. However, as GM has done before (see: Fiero), it killed off the Allante shortly thereafter.