The Maserati Quattroporte competes with heavyweights, like the Audi A8, BMW 7 Series, Mercedes-Benz S-Class, but it attempts to stand out from those rivals with its stunning design and fun-inducing powertrains. Does the Quattroporte have what it needs to take on its German rivals?
The current generation Quattroporte has been around for almost a decade, but that doesn’t matter, since the Quattroporte is still a great looking full size luxury sedan. It’s look stands out compared to the more generic looking A8. Over the years Maserati has given the Quattroporte some small styling changes, but it hasn’t needed to do anything major. A new Quattroporte is coming, which will be a bit smaller, since Maserati plans to slim its sedan lineup to only one, which means the Ghibli will be discontinued around 2024.
Under the hood is where all the fun is. The top dog Quattroporte Trofeo is powered by a Ferrari-sourced twin-turbocharged 3.8-liter V8 with a nice 580 horsepower and 538 pound-feet of torque. If that’s too much for you, the GT and Modena trims get a 3.0-liter V6 with either 345 hp or 424 hp.
The Quattroporte Trofeo can accelerate from 0-60 mph in a quick 4.2 seconds and has a top speed of 203 mph. The Trofeo packs a nice punch, but it’s not as thrilling as the V8-powered Audi S8 or Mercedes-AMG S63. But it does respond with the slightest tap of your right foot. The engine is also silky smooth and keeps the poewr coming all the way to its 7,200 rpm redline.
All that power is sent to the rear wheels via an 8-speed automatic transmission. As you can imagine, with all that power it’s easy to break the rear wheels free, which can be fun on dry roads, but once they’re wet, you’ll be wishing it had all-wheel drive.
We can’t ignore one other amazing thing, the V8’s soundtrack. In the Sport or Corsa drive modes, the exhaust valves are open, letting the Quattroporte belt out a sound that its German rivals can’t match.
Moving past the excellent powertrain, the Quattroporte Trofeo’s chassis and suspension could be improved. The suspension features an adaptive damping system that can tighten up the suspension, but even with the firmest setting selected, there’s still more body roll than we’d like. Once you encounter some bumps in the road, the suspension isn’t soft enough to keep you from feeling every imperfection.
The steering also lacks the amount of feedback we’d expect from a sport sedan. The Quattroporte Trofeo loves to pick up speed fast, but once the road gets a bit twisty, the big sedan lets you know that it’s more of a comfortable cruiser.
Inside the Quattroporte’s interior is a spacious and nice place to be. The interior is wrapped in high quality materials and if you like carbon fiber, there’s plenty of it. There are a few missteps though, some of the Quattroporte’s parts have been sourced from the Stellantis parts bin. The window switches and turn signal stalk are basically pulled right out of a Dodge. That may sound like a small detail, but it kinda ruins the rest of the interior.
At the center of the dash, there’s an infotainment system that is also the same Unconnected 5 system that you can get in a Chrysler or a Dodge, but it’s a major improvement over the previous system. It reacts quickly and is easy to navigate, although it does look slightly less modern than the systems you’ll find in its rivals.
The pricing for the 2022 Maserati Quattroporte Trofeo starts at $148,895, which is quite a big jump from the base GT that starts at $97,995. The mid level Modena starts at $107,795.
At the end of the day, the Maserati Quattroporte Trofeo has a droll worthy V8 and a pleasing soundtrack, but its chassis and suspension could use some work. But if carving up a back country road isn’t your thing, then the Quattroporte could be up your alley, especially when you consider how great it looks.
