2016 Maserati Ghibli S Q4 on 2040-cars

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Maserati Levante is Italy's answer to the Porsche Cayenne

When Maserati released the first images of the new Levante – and said little else about it – we wondered what it would be under the hood. Crossover or not, it is still a Maserati, after all. The full details are now here. Globally speaking, Maserati will offer the Levante with three engine options. All of them are turbocharged 3.0-liter V6s, but they vary widely in output and even burn different types of fuel. The base model packs 350 horsepower and 368 pound-feet of torque for a 0-62 time of 6.0 seconds flat – the same as the base Ghibli, but four tenths slower with a bigger form to move. The Levante S offers a rather impressive 430 hp and 427 lb-ft (more than the Ghibli S) for a 5.2-second sprint. And while the diesel model has the least power, it also offers the most torque, at 275 hp and 442 lb-ft (slightly more than the oil-burning sedan) for a 6.9-second time. Whichever engine is chosen, it comes mated to an eight-speed automatic transmission, all-wheel drive, and a limited-slip differential. Those output figures compare rather favorably to the Porsche Cayenne with which the Levante will invariably be compared. But Porsche and Maserati aren't the only high-end, old-world automakers that have now broken into the crossover game. So have Bentley and Jaguar, and soon so will Aston Martin, Lamborghini, Lotus, and Rolls-Royce. It's all part of an onslaught of crossovers coming from some of Europe's most vaunted marques. And while Maserati hasn't gotten there first, it hasn't gotten there last, either. With two sedans already out and a new sports car on the way, the Levante puts the Modenese automaker in prime position to grow, and grow big. View 21 Photos View 4 Photos Related Video: MASERATI LEVANTE DEBUTS AT THE GENEVA MOTOR SHOW Maserati's first SUV receives its eagerly-anticipated world unveiling at the Geneva International Motor Show Modena, 01 March 2016 – Maserati has chosen the 86th Geneva International Motor Show to introduce the first SUV in its hundred-year history: the Levante. As with many Maseratis from the past, the new car's name is inspired by a wind: the Levante is a warm Mediterranean wind that can change from a light breeze to an irresistible natural force in an instant, mirroring the character of the first Maserati SUV. The Levante is the ideal complement to the Maserati range. Combined with the Quattroporte, Ghibli, GranTurismo and GranCabrio, the range now covers the entirety of the global luxury automotive market.

2014 Maserati Ghibli Diesel

It used to be easier to make sense of the auto industry. There were mainstream manufacturers, and there were niche sports car manufacturers. That was before Porsche starting selling more crossovers than it does sports cars, Lamborghini began preparing to go down the same road, and Ferrari introduced an all-wheel-drive hatchback. But long before the arrival of the Cayenne, the unveiling of the Urus and the advent of the FF, the storied marque that is Maserati was already bolstering its sports car offerings with four-door sedans.
In fact, it's now been half a century and six generations since the launch of the original Quattroporte. So the idea of a four-door Maserati shouldn't come as any surprise by now, but the vehicle you see here has the Modenese automaker breaking new ground in another way entirely. And it's not the size, either: although the new Ghibli is smaller than the current QP, it's roughly the same size as the aforementioned original - not to mention the Dodge Charger, a corporate stablemate which similarly revived a coupe nameplate for a four-door sedan. No, what makes this Ghibli 'special' is what resides under the hood, because the model you're looking at packs the very first diesel Maserati has ever offered in its hundred-year history.
Sacrilege, you say? Maybe, but as so-called performance brands have turned their attention to four-door sedans and crossovers, they've also begun to embrace diesel propulsion. In Europe these days, even Porsche, Jaguar, the BMW M division and Audi Quattro GmbH are burning the midnight oil. So while it may be new territory for Maserati, the Ghibli is far from the first high-end, performance-oriented diesel on the Old World's market. It's also a vital addition to the brand's portfolio, particularly in Europe where the advantageous price of diesel fuel over gasoline (and the smaller volumes of fuel a diesel engine typically consumes) makes offering a model so equipped vital to the Trident marque's ambitious growth plans. The question, then, is whether it delivers.

A car writer's year in new vehicles [w/video]

Christmas is only a week away. The New Year is just around the corner. As 2014 draws to a close, I'm not the only one taking stock of the year that's we're almost shut of. Depending on who you are or what you do, the end of the year can bring to mind tax bills, school semesters or scheduling dental appointments. For me, for the last eight or nine years, at least a small part of this transitory time is occupied with recalling the cars I've driven over the preceding 12 months. Since I started writing about and reviewing cars in 2006, I've done an uneven job of tracking every vehicle I've been in, each year. Last year I made a resolution to be better about it, and the result is a spreadsheet with model names, dates, notes and some basic facts and figures. Armed with this basic data and a yen for year-end stories, I figured it would be interesting to parse the figures and quantify my year in cars in a way I'd never done before. The results are, well, they're a little bizarre, honestly. And I think they'll affect how I approach this gig in 2015. {C} My tally for the year is 68 cars, as of this writing. Before the calendar flips to 2015 it'll be as high as 73. Let me give you a tiny bit of background about how automotive journalists typically get cars to test. There are basically two pools of vehicles I drive on a regular basis: media fleet vehicles and those available on "first drive" programs. The latter group is pretty self-explanatory. Journalists are gathered in one location (sometimes local, sometimes far-flung) with a new model(s), there's usually a day of driving, then we report back to you with our impressions. Media fleet vehicles are different. These are distributed to publications and individual journalists far and wide, and the test period goes from a few days to a week or more. Whereas first drives almost always result in a piece of review content, fleet loans only sometimes do. Other times they serve to give context about brands, segments, technology and the like, to editors and writers. So, adding up the loans I've had out of the press fleet and things I've driven at events, my tally for the year is 68 cars, as of this writing. Before the calendar flips to 2015, it'll be as high as 73. At one of the buff books like Car and Driver or Motor Trend, reviewers might rotate through five cars a week, or more. I know that number sounds high, but as best I can tell, it's pretty average for the full-time professionals in this business.