Maserati Quattroporte

Continued from "Maserati Purchase" entry...

With a starting price of $112,500, the Quattroporte (which literally means "four doors") competes with the likes of BMW's 750iL, Audi's A8 and Mercedes' S-class. It's offered in three trim levels: the $112,500 Quattroporte, $122,400 Executive GT and $121,100 Sport GT, the last being the one I test drove.

Initial impressions: By the exterior alone, the Quattroporte is immediately set apart from it's more conventional competitors in styling alone. Having Ferrari roots (Maserati and Ferrari are one in the same company), its Pininfarina (the Italian automotive design firm hired by Ferrari to design most of its cars) styling queues are unmistakable. However, the most notable aspect about this car (to me) was the way it sounded; like a Ferrari with four doors, which is really what this car is. The note that comes out of the exhaust at open throttle is somewhat unexpected from such a large sedan, and will undoubtedly earn the hearts of overpaid automotive enthusiast-execs the world over.

Driving dynamics: The engine in the Quattroporte is a variation of the one used in the Ferrari F430; a 4.2L V8 mated with a 6-speed transmission (which was improved this year) good for 400 horsepower and a 0-60 time of 5.6 seconds. I obviously had some reservations in driving this car hard, as crashing it would have meant selling all of my possessions to cover its cost. However, I can say that it's nimble and very willing to execute on the wishes of your right foot. The shifts via the paddles were crisp and immediate, given the bias that I generally don't like paddle shifting.

Time for the $1M question: if I had $130,000 to drop on a luxury sedan, would I buy this car? One pro is that unlike A8s, 750s and S-classes, you don't see too many of these in the parking lot of your local Silicon Valley Starbucks. Other pros are its Ferrari lineage and again, the way it sounds. Cons are that there isn't much in-cabin tech (the sat-nav does the job and that's about it), which was most likely intentional, as the Italians want to focus more on the drive. At the end of the day, I think I would take an Audi S8 (lots of in-cabin tech, indisputable S-line performance) and pocket the remaining $30,000. Sorry BMW, the styling of the 7 series still turns me off.