The Crittenden Automotive Library

New Maserati Ghibli - can it compete?

Topics: Maserati Ghibli

New Maserati Ghibli - can it compete?

Geoff Maxted
DriveWrite
July 5, 2013

Maserati. The very name speaks of automotive history and an elegance that can only be Italian. How do they do it? Their leaders consort with dubious ladies, their workers are permanently on strike and yet they seem to design and build some of the most exquisite cars in the world. The cars don’t work very well, obviously, and they are assembled with a certain devil-may-care nonchalance but somehow it doesn’t seem to matter. Maserati seem to be having an all-out assault on the premium car market. They appear to be determined to take on the likes of the imperious BMW 5 Series and the like to make up some ground in that premium market. On looks alone they have already won that battle but will the car be up to high standard set by the Beemer? Time will tell.

There’s a 3.0L V6 diesel for the business market but anyone who loves driving will want the 3.0 V6 petrol engines which come in two flavours of 325 or 404bhp. The point being, Italian manufacturers like their cars to make fruity burbling noises and that’s not possible with a diesel.

The car comes with an eight speed ZF ‘box, full leather, a Bowers and Wilkins audio set-up to rival the acoustics in the Albert Hall and, it goes without saying, all the required bells and whistles. All that specification stuff is fine but Italian cars are not about lists, they are about emotions.

The pure joy at the sound of a finely tuned engine; the pure misery of watching the car go back to the dealer on the back of a breakdown truck. Just like the country itself, these things are all part of the heady mix that makes up the Latin auto experience. In a way, it doesn’t really matter what the car is like. It looks wonderful and, when anyone asks what it is you drive, there is only one word that needs to be said. That’s it at the top of the page.