Maserati Quattroporte

Both eminently lovable and deeply flawed, the last Quattroporte behaved like an Italian sports car tormented by its four-door body. Ferrari’s bastard child with its Maser­ati subsidiary, it was a thrilling and capable machine destined never to wear the black-equine seal because it was born with the defect every pur-sang sports-car showroom shuns: quattro porte. A personality crisis on wheels, at least it had a personality in a segment full of luxury sedans often short on it.

However, Maserati is changing. Ambitious plans are afoot to grow the trident brand from a small-batch carmaker into a full-line luxury-car manufacturer. In the next three years, Maserati will add to its GranTurismo and GranCabrio lineup the redesigned Quattroporte, a new mid-size sedan, and an SUV. Maserati sold fewer than 6300 cars worldwide last year. With a new Turin factory churning out a more complete catalog, it hopes to move 50,000 cars in 2015. To accomplish that, the reborn Maserati must be seen not as merely ­Ferrari’s dollar menu, but as a viable alternative to the German competition.

This particular Italian renaissance begins this summer with the sixth-generation Quattroporte. Larger than its predecessor, the 2014 Quattroporte measures up in size to the current Audi A8, BMW 7-series, and Mercedes-Benz S-class. The 124.8-inch wheelbase is more than four inches longer than before, and overall length is up to 207.2 inches. Rear-seat ­riders benefit the most, although all occupants will appreciate the 2.5-inch wider body. Despite the supersizing, the Italians claim a 4190-pound base curb weight, which is slightly lighter than the old car. A steel unibody still lies underneath the skin, but the front suspension towers, doors, front fenders, trunklid, and hood are all aluminum. Most of the control-arm front suspension and multilink rear suspension components are also aluminum to shave even more mass.

 Sculpted in-house, the new Quattroporte evolves the design of its Pininfarina-penned predecessor. It is obviously a ­Maserati, and obviously a handsome sedan. But gone are the graceful curves and the tense athletic profile of the last car. Doors with frameless glass, a unique touch among big sedans, open to an interior that also doesn’t measure up to the idiosyncratic craftsmanship of the old model. The clean and tasteful design is foiled by downgraded materials and execution. In the preproduction versions we were shown, different types of leather were used throughout. Some seem as good as before, and some do not. The impression that you’re in Ferrari’s sedan, or Bentley’s nemesis, is gone. Commodification has snuck into the Quattroporte’s cabin, and it’s not just the alarming abundance of Chrysler-sourced switchgear

One benefit of Chrysler part sharing is the huge 8.4-inch touch-screen infotainment system that replaces the old Quattroporte’s obsolete-the-day-it-arrived unit. Responsive to finger taps and easy to use, it only seems like an upgrade until you consider that this same system, Garmin-based navigation and all, is available in a Dodge Dart. Garmin’s plain maps look cheap next to the sophisticated and detailed cartography we’ve come to expect from other upper-crust sedans. Those same sedans also offer electronic watchdogs such as lane-departure warning, collision warning, and blind-spot monitoring. If you need such devices in your sports sedan, note that the Quattroporte does not have them. It does, however, offer an optional 15-speaker, 1280-watt Bowers & Wilkins audio system, worthy of the class.

Priview Maserati Quattroporte revealed

Crushing car sales in Europe are no barrier to Maserati, which this year opens a new $1.5 billion factory and shoots its three new models straight at the heart of Porsche. 

To Maserati Australia boss Glen Sealey, the new Quattroporte - announced this week - and the mid-size Ghibli and SUV Levante, represent a new dimension for the 98-year old car maker. 

"Everything, everything, about the new Quattroporte is new," he says. "We are forecasting up to 1500 sales a year in Australia by 2015/16 - that's enormous growth but it still leaves us as an exclusive marque.'' Maserati in Australia sold 140 cars last year.

Mr Sealey says the new Quattroporte - here in September 2013 - moves more upmarket, while the mid-size Ghibli is expected in Australia early 2014 and then, in 2015, the Levante SUV.

"If you look at Porsche's line-up, then that's a good example of how Maserati is going to market its models,'' he says. The Quattroporte will come first with a high-performance V8 engine that in price and performance would compete around the level of the Porsche Panamera and Panamera Turbo.

"Like the Panamera, we will have a V6 petrol and a diesel.'' He says that while rumours of the Ghibli being a car to take on the BMW 5-Series, the new Maserati is more upmarket. "It will be a performance saloon.There will not be a Ghibli model like the (entry-level) BMW 520i. All will be upmarket models," he says.

The Ghibli will be powered by a V6 petrol and a diesel and, like the new Quattroporte, drive the rear wheels through a Maserati-spec ZF eight-speed automatic transmission. Maserati has no V6 or diesel on its shelves but Mr Sealey insists these engines will be made by the company - and not sourced from elsewhere - by he time the models are ready for production.

"Maserati will not have an outside engine in its cars - it doesn't expect it and the customers certainly don't expect it. So that means Maserati is making its V6 petrol and a diesel.'' Pricing for the new Quattroporte is expected to be similar to the existing model. The Quattroporte - which is bigger than the current model and sits on a new platform - and the Ghibli will be built in Maserati's new factory that was previously owned by Bertone. The factory cost $1.5 billion to buy and refit.

"What other company in Europe is doing that?'' asks Mr Sealey. "That's an indication of the confidence that Maserati has in its future.'' Maserati in Italy goes further. Its CEO, Harald Webster, says it is claiming it is standing "at the edge of an unparalleled strategic and industrial growth that will see our presence in the world rise to 50,000 units a year by 2015.''

Maserati 3200GT Review

Although outward appearances suggest the Coupé is merely a mildly facelifted version of the older 3200GT, it is quite different beneath the skin. That car, produced between 1998 and 2001 and distinguished by its pretty boomerang rear lights, was powered by a twin turbo V8 and had its gearbox mounted at the front with the engine. The car that followed, called simply Maserati Coupé, used a naturally aspirated V8 built by Ferrari and had its gearbox mounted over the rear wheels for better handling. A convertible Spyder version which came without the solid-roofed cars' useful rear seats was also available which Maserati replaced with a more performance-biased Gran Sport Spyder in 2005. Two years later Maserati phased out both coupé and roadster, replacing them with the larger, more refined Granturismo. Other cars to consider are the luxury biased Jaguar XK and more perfromance oriented Porsche 911.