Despite the dire state of most of the industry, there have been a few consistent bright spots, and Maserati is now set to join them. The builder of luxury sports cars has already sold 40% more vehicles than it did last year, and that figure could still be going up.

Through August, Maserati has sold over 8,000 cars, an increase of 40% over last year's number of 5,900, reports Auto Motor & Sport. That figure has been driven primarily by the Quattroporte's sales, of which the company plans to build over 7,300 copies by the year's end.

The future at Maserati looks bright as well, with an updated 2009 model-year lineup and new high-performance 'S' models of both the GranTurismo and Quattroporte on deck. Future developments at the company, including a possible new smaller coupe/sedan pair below the current duo, could see the company climb to even greater volumes - despite industry predictions that sales in 2009 will be no better than 2008.

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