Tuesday 6th November 2012

New Maserati Quattroporte revealed

New version of Maserati's slinky four-door for Detroit debut

---

The all-new Maserati Quattroporte has been revealed ahead of its official debut at the Detroit show early next year and it looks ... very much like the old one. Not that this is anything to moan about of course, the Quattroporte being about the sexiest way to transport four people about and still the benchmark for high performance saloons. Well, if your buying decisions are made by your heart and not your head.

What, you were going to buy a Panamera?

Now, if this were a conventional motoring website we'd now throw lots of stats and information (or in the absence of that, pure conjecture) at you concerning the new car, its increased size, no doubt much improved performance, reduced CO2, that kind of thing. OK, for the record and in very Maserati language <clears throat> it "reaches new heights in terms of performance and handling, driving enjoyment as well as respect of the world we live in." And that's as much as they're saying for now. Oh, other than revealing that it has a V8 in the pictures. We're guessing it's not a diesel.

PistonHeads clearly isn't a conventional motoring website of course and the natural reaction to the news that there's going to be an all-new Quattroporte released soon is to head straight off to the classifieds and see how cheaply you can get one of the old ones.

Or you could have this for just £20K

And the answer is that there seems to be plenty of choice in the sub-£20K bracket, though most of these will be early versions with the clunkier Duo Select robotised manual gearbox. A quirky choice for a luxury saloon, sporting or not, and replaced by a much smoother and more appropriate ZF auto in 2007. The cheapest with this option is still only a couple of grand more so not exactly out of reach. Saying that this Duo Select car in romantic sounding 'Bordeaux Pontevecchio' with just 31K on the clock and priced at a smidge over £20K looks pretty tasty.

More on the new car when we get it. In the meantime happy browsing...

[British Beef]

Overly fussy styling and an Audi Rear end, mark it as a step backwards from the clean lined outgoing model IMO.

[Skylinecrazy]

That looks ste.

Not that I'd ever buy one anyway, ever.

[em177]

No where near as pretty as the original.

Infiniti front end and Audi rear

[Davey S2]

The interior looks generic German fayre now as well

[appletonn]

Dare I say that I actually prefer the original car?

[GroundEffect]

A bit fussy but still lovely.

£20k for the original? WANT

[-crookedtail-]

Cannot say I like it, almost looks like an Infinty. Prefer the orignal one.

[Madmatt74]

I like it but cant afford it.

[JLJ11]

wow.. i didnt even realize till i read the comments.. Audi rear end beyond any doubt, so similar its just weird IMO

[P4ROT]

Oh dear... (MHO)

[mylesmcd]

Love it.

Still my choice of exec saloon!

[LotusOmega375D]

Looks like they handed an oval Maserati dash clock to the good folk at Audi and said "design a saloon around that for us"

[GilesGuthrie]

I prefer the new one. The old one was too pinched at the front and bulbous at the back. Like a concept car drawn by a 1950s Detroit design studio. The new car is much more flowing, the roof line much more organic, and the whole car just seems to be more cohesive as a design concept.

Good slug of rear legroom, but the lack of a middle seat kills it as family transportation for me. I'll stick with my XJL Supersport.

[crispyshark]

Italian styling?? That's about as Italian as a peking duck roll.

Not nice!

[PhantomPH]

Like everyone else has said, the arse says Audi. Not good.

Mas are slipping lately. The new GranTurismo Sport is offered with the worst wheel colours I've seen in a while...coupled with a dubious paint colour selection.

[trashbat]

The idea is that it competes with high end German cars, much more so than in the past.

I didn't like the previous gen QP; this looks better, but still not my cup of tea.

Maybe there will be an Alfa 166 replacement based off some of this though (more likely the baby QP in future) - that might be fun...

[Triumph Man]

Aren't they supposed to leave a few years between each generation?

[Big Fat Fatty]

appletonn said:

Dare I say that I actually prefer the original car?

Which one?






I like the mkII personally. This new version looks quite generic now, there's too much of the Gran Turismo in it that wasn't there in the out-going car and that's a bad thing imo. I do hate it when manufacturers apply the same styling across their whole range.

[Krikkit]

I like it for being a bit more modern, bringing it a bit more up to the Granturismo's styling etc.

Not as nice as the old one, in some ways, but it was time for it to be updated. Still my favourite big saloon. Saw a chap in one this morning, dark blue exterior with ivory leather and blue piping. Gorgeous.

ETA: Just like this one.

Edited by Krikkit on Tuesday 6th November 16:08

[anniesdad]

Just give us curves...