GranCabrio Review...
Discussion
It’s been a fun few days, but I’ve stopped grinning like an idiot for long enough to tell get out the driving seat and tell you all about my experiences of the Maserati GranCabrio.
Between Friday morning and now, my ass has been firmly stuck in the drivers seat of the beautiful Maserati. I’ve done about 400 miles in three days, and as a driving experience, they’ve been magic.
Those words, as a ‘driving experience’ sets it up nicely; as a car to sit in, it’s wonderful. The seats are perfectly comfortable in Leather and Alcantara, and feel very luxurious. I’m not very tall at 5ft9 but I need my drivers seat all the way back to get in comfortably. The metal pedals are perfectly spaced and can be pushed hard with confidence but (and here it comes) irritation number 1; my drivers side floor mat keeps overriding the bottom of the accelerator.
Leaving the floor mat aside, the cockpit is a nice place to be, the layout of the display is logical - despite my fears that the Italians just threw buttons randomly on the dash, it actually is all very well laid out, although the cruise control is hardly intuitive when compared to my M5.
Roof opening feels a little slow, and closing is even more laboured - you have to hold the button down all the way, then once the cycle is complete, the car pings to say job done, then it seems to remember that it forgot to wind the windows up and after a pause, gets on with doing that too!
One nice bit of the interior has to be looking in my rear view mirror and seeing the Maserati trident stitched into the rear head rest. My least favourite bit... (irritation number 2) are the two bits of plastic trim that have already fallen off after 3 days and 400 miles and the ‘pot’ which might be an ash tray that fits in the front cup holder, or it may be a small double espresso takeaway cup. Anyway, that’s already been put away never to be seen again.
Driving it on the open road is superb, I love the noise, I love the handling - this car points where you push it. You can be pretty aggressive with it, but it always turns in, and actually you’ve got to be pretty wild to push the back end wide - yes I’ve made the tyres squeal a few times, but on a public road, you can’t make it drift - which I guess is good, with it being a public road!
In terms of putting a foot down, the power comes on quickly and with lots of drama - it goes along with crackle, pops and satisfying roars. Now, not an irritation but in auto sometimes it sits there wondering what gear you want to be in - it sometimes feels like it needs to change up but won’t. In manual the box is ‘proficient’ but not as quick as the M5 that I’m used to driving. Putting the other foot down, it stops well - the brakes are still I little smelly but they stop it well, heading into a bend I push hard to stop and it’s brings the speed down, and lets me push on if I want to bring it to ‘dead slow’ which I’ve done a few times as it’s a big car and it can be a bit off putting with another big car coming towards you.
Oh yeah, size... it’s massive. It’s wider than it looks, it’s longer than it looks. I’ve already kerbed both passenger side alloys when parking and it’s only been 3 days! The rear parking camera helps as does the front audio parking aid, but it’s a hard car to move slowly and carefully. You can’t see the end of the bonnet - in fact the drivers view ends where the headlights start - and you’ve got 18 inches of nose ahead of that. That nice carbon fibre chin spoiler is going to get dinged!
A few other points of practical advice... the boot is tiny, they’ve took the boot of a grand tourer and then filled it with folding roof. I can get my briefcase and one overnight bag in there and that’s it. The Mrs has taken to throwing our stuff on the back seats because it’s not a weekend away kind of car!
Leaving the practical aside, I do love it - the noise, the handling, the sheer look of the thing. We’ve had three days of people telling us it’s beautiful and I can’t disagree - it’s stunningly beautiful. It might have a few minor irritations but I can put them to one side because at the end of the day, buying a car is a decision that should be made with the heart, with only a slight consultation of the head!
Between Friday morning and now, my ass has been firmly stuck in the drivers seat of the beautiful Maserati. I’ve done about 400 miles in three days, and as a driving experience, they’ve been magic.
Those words, as a ‘driving experience’ sets it up nicely; as a car to sit in, it’s wonderful. The seats are perfectly comfortable in Leather and Alcantara, and feel very luxurious. I’m not very tall at 5ft9 but I need my drivers seat all the way back to get in comfortably. The metal pedals are perfectly spaced and can be pushed hard with confidence but (and here it comes) irritation number 1; my drivers side floor mat keeps overriding the bottom of the accelerator.
Leaving the floor mat aside, the cockpit is a nice place to be, the layout of the display is logical - despite my fears that the Italians just threw buttons randomly on the dash, it actually is all very well laid out, although the cruise control is hardly intuitive when compared to my M5.
Roof opening feels a little slow, and closing is even more laboured - you have to hold the button down all the way, then once the cycle is complete, the car pings to say job done, then it seems to remember that it forgot to wind the windows up and after a pause, gets on with doing that too!
One nice bit of the interior has to be looking in my rear view mirror and seeing the Maserati trident stitched into the rear head rest. My least favourite bit... (irritation number 2) are the two bits of plastic trim that have already fallen off after 3 days and 400 miles and the ‘pot’ which might be an ash tray that fits in the front cup holder, or it may be a small double espresso takeaway cup. Anyway, that’s already been put away never to be seen again.
Driving it on the open road is superb, I love the noise, I love the handling - this car points where you push it. You can be pretty aggressive with it, but it always turns in, and actually you’ve got to be pretty wild to push the back end wide - yes I’ve made the tyres squeal a few times, but on a public road, you can’t make it drift - which I guess is good, with it being a public road!
In terms of putting a foot down, the power comes on quickly and with lots of drama - it goes along with crackle, pops and satisfying roars. Now, not an irritation but in auto sometimes it sits there wondering what gear you want to be in - it sometimes feels like it needs to change up but won’t. In manual the box is ‘proficient’ but not as quick as the M5 that I’m used to driving. Putting the other foot down, it stops well - the brakes are still I little smelly but they stop it well, heading into a bend I push hard to stop and it’s brings the speed down, and lets me push on if I want to bring it to ‘dead slow’ which I’ve done a few times as it’s a big car and it can be a bit off putting with another big car coming towards you.
Oh yeah, size... it’s massive. It’s wider than it looks, it’s longer than it looks. I’ve already kerbed both passenger side alloys when parking and it’s only been 3 days! The rear parking camera helps as does the front audio parking aid, but it’s a hard car to move slowly and carefully. You can’t see the end of the bonnet - in fact the drivers view ends where the headlights start - and you’ve got 18 inches of nose ahead of that. That nice carbon fibre chin spoiler is going to get dinged!
A few other points of practical advice... the boot is tiny, they’ve took the boot of a grand tourer and then filled it with folding roof. I can get my briefcase and one overnight bag in there and that’s it. The Mrs has taken to throwing our stuff on the back seats because it’s not a weekend away kind of car!
Leaving the practical aside, I do love it - the noise, the handling, the sheer look of the thing. We’ve had three days of people telling us it’s beautiful and I can’t disagree - it’s stunningly beautiful. It might have a few minor irritations but I can put them to one side because at the end of the day, buying a car is a decision that should be made with the heart, with only a slight consultation of the head!
Edited by RichRichBaboon on Monday 27th May 20:47
Irritation no. 1 - put the seat all the way back and if you stick your hand under the front of it (you will graze your knuckles) you will find that there are the normal sort of 'popper' attachments for the mats. They're hidden, they're a pain and difficult to get at, but they're there = it's a Maserati
Irritation no. 2 - roof - lots of folding soft tops require you to hold the button until they're fully closed
Irritation no. 3 - that thing in the cup holder is an ash tray. I've got one on my desk for holding pens :-)
Irritation no. 2 - roof - lots of folding soft tops require you to hold the button until they're fully closed
Irritation no. 3 - that thing in the cup holder is an ash tray. I've got one on my desk for holding pens :-)
- The above may not be in the right order!
That ash tray would be a perfect reusable takeaway cup for a double espresso....
And I'm definitely enjoying it!
And I'm definitely enjoying it!
BigR said:
Irritation no. 1 - put the seat all the way back and if you stick your hand under the front of it (you will graze your knuckles) you will find that there are the normal sort of 'popper' attachments for the mats. They're hidden, they're a pain and difficult to get at, but they're there = it's a Maserati
Irritation no. 2 - roof - lots of folding soft tops require you to hold the button until they're fully closed
Irritation no. 3 - that thing in the cup holder is an ash tray. I've got one on my desk for holding pens :-)
Irritation no. 2 - roof - lots of folding soft tops require you to hold the button until they're fully closed
Irritation no. 3 - that thing in the cup holder is an ash tray. I've got one on my desk for holding pens :-)
- The above may not be in the right order!
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