Engine: 3.8-liter V8, 523 hp and 524 lb-ft of torque / Transmission: eight-speed automatic / Fuel economy: 15 mpg city, 22 mpg highway / Base curb weight: 4,189 pounds / 0-60: 4.6 seconds / Top Speed: 190 mph / Base price: $138,980
If you want to sell a big baller sedan these days, you need a 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8 that makes between 500 and 600 horsepower.
Mercedes-Benz AMG S 63: 4.0-liter, 603 horsepower. Audi S8: 4.0-liter, 563 horsepower. Cadillac CT6-V: 4.2-liter, 550 horsepower. BMW 750i xDrive: 4.4 liters, 523 horsepower (and yes, there's also a 600-horsepower Alpina version).
It's like everybody peeked at everybody else's homework, and Maserati is now different with the Quattroporte GTS, which uses a 3.8-liter turbo V8 that spits out 523 horsepower. In fairness to the GTS, it's not really supposed to be an AMG-type muscle sedan—presumably that role would go to the Trofeo iteration if they ever build one—but as the most powerful Quattroporte, it's filling that role for now. A 190 mph top speed should be sufficient to prevent embarrassment on the autobahn.
On specs and price, the Quattroporte fits with its peers—more expensive than the Cadillac, less pricey than the AMG. But in the details, the Maserati is wonderfully eccentric. Yeah, it sounds like every other car in its competitive set (brawny cold-start idle, reserved burble under way) but check out those dual trident-logo ashtrays. Peep the Vredestein Space Master spare tire, which comes with its own inflator. Look at the fuzzy unholstered wheel wells, which are presumably designed to quell noise. What does that tiny on/off switch inside the center console do? It's a mystery.
This is what you want in a Maserati: a little bit of weirdness and confusion. I love that the press kit for the 2019 model notes, just a bit grudgingly, that the Quattroporte "is also available now with two American size cup holders."
They shouldn't have capitulated on that. If you need caffeine, you should pull over and sip an espresso for half an hour like a civilized human being.
I even dig the Dodge Charger window switches. For one thing, there's a long history of exotic cars borrowing switchgear from mass-market models—there was an era where there was a pretty solid chance that your Ferrari ignition key would start any number of Fiats. But also, looking to the long term, the Quattroporte's various switchgear appropriations from the FCA empire will help keep it on the road once it enters the classic-car phase of its existence. If your Quattroporte window switch dies 20 years from now, a new one will be cheap and easy to find. Whereas when the same thing happens on a 30-year-old S-Class, it'll be totaled. (Take it from the owner of a 30-year-old S-Class.)
Two final points: the FCA electronic gear looks pretty good, and anyone buying a $150,000 Maserati probably doesn't know what the inside of a Charger looks like any more than they know what the inside of a Waffle House looks like.
The Quattroporte is one of those cars that elicits entirely different reactions from car enthusiasts and casual observers. Counterintuitively, it's the gearheads who aren't so impressed. Zero to 60 in 4.6 seconds? Lots of cars do that. Portholes on the fenders? That's a styling trope that can be imitated with stick-on parts from Auto Zone. When you argue that you'd probably trade some torque in return for the Gran Turismo's naturally aspirated howl, you're speaking in terms that most people don't grasp—or care about.
But when I drove past my niece and a bunch of teenage friends, she immediately called me and asked the horsepower. I guess she had me on speakerphone, because when I replied, "523," I heard a lot of gobsmacked impressed whoas. And it was good for me to hear that, too, to snap out of my jaded Hellcat horsepower fugue.
Ok, yeah, there are quicker sedans. That's not really the point here.
The point is that this is a car you'll see in Rome, parked in piazzas where nobody should be able to park, because if you have one of these you're probably someone who shouldn't get towed.
It's a sedan for people who have an affinity for Italy, and so I feel like Maserati should go all in and make this car as absolutely Italian as possible. Like, I don't know, offer an Ermenegildo Zegna silk interior or something. Oh, they already do that. All right, good. Now let's talk about borrowing that Gran Turismo engine.
Ezra Dyer is a Car and Driver senior editor and columnist. He's now based in North Carolina but still remembers how to turn right. He owns a 2009 GEM e4 and once drove 206 mph. Those facts are mutually exclusive.
