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2019 Maserati Levante Trofeo / GTS First Drive Review | Yes, you want the Ferrari V8

CARMEL-BY-THE-SEA, Calif. — The wine glasses are rapidly draining. It's getting late, and Maserati design chief Klaus Busse appears to be fighting a cold. Yet he can't resist sketching something on a menu to illustrate his point. The A6GCS quickly takes shape. One of the most celebrated Maseratis ever, Busse uses this beacon to reconcile the Italian marque's transition to crossovers. It's how he explains and rationalizes the Levante, a stylish SUV aimed directly at the Porsche Cayenne, BMW X6 and Mercedes GLE Coupe. The A6GCS, a rare, Pininfarina-built sports car, lives on in today's Maseratis, he argues. This includes the Levante, a handsome crossover aimed at suburban cruisers bored with the notion of German luxury. Can a brand with rich sporting heritage reconcile with evolving market trends? It must, even if the connection to a mythical 1950s racer is a bit tenuous. But a pair of Ferrari-powered V8 twins, the Levante GTS and Levante Trofeo, make that progression easier. Prodigious outputs of 550 and 590 horsepower help. They are the top-shelf Levantes. You buy them when the powerful twin-turbo V6 Levante and Levante S simply won't do. You're talking six-figure prices, decadent interiors and more than a bit of bling. Well-heeled professionals drive the Levante, which starts at $75,980 and packs 345 hp, or pony up $11,000 for the Levante S and its 424 horses. The V8 starts at $119,980 for the GTS, and the Trofeo comes in at a lofty $169,980. These buyers haven't just made it, they're likely set for life. "We're not in the boy racer clientele," Busse says. "There's a certain level of accomplishment that you feel in driving a Maserati." That's probably true. But should the Trofeo be associated with generational wealth? I'm pondering this as I pull a hard right, kick up some dirt and pull onto the Pacific Coast Highway. The ocean laps to my left as the eight cylinders unlimber and I find myself reaching 60 miles per hour with little effort. The quoted time is 3.7 seconds, which feels dead on. I cue up Corsa, the sportiest of the Levante's drive modes, one that's only available on the Trofeo. The road is winding. I fall into a rhythm as I make my way up the coast toward Big Sur. The car's selling point is the engine, but the Skyhook suspension with electronically controlled damping keeps this 4,784-pound SUV reasonably tied down and poised. The cabin is quiet, as expected for the segment, allowing for easy conversation.

2023 Maserati Grecale revealed with 523-hp twin-turbo V6

After months of releasing preview images and several delays, Maserati has introduced the Grecale, its long-awaited entry-level SUV. The sub-Levante model is aimed directly at the Porsche Macan, and it will likely become the firm's best-selling nameplate in the coming years. The latest addition to the Maserati range stretches 191 inches long and 66 inches tall, dimensions that make it about six inches shorter and nearly the same height as the Levante. Visually, it illustrates what Maserati design boss Klaus Busse meant when he told us that future Maserati models would borrow styling cues from the MC20: its front end is defined by a wide grille positioned below a pair of elongated headlights. Viewed from the side, the Grecale leans more toward sportiness than utility, while the back end wears horizontal lights connected by a strip of bright trim. Vents chiseled into the fenders and trident-shaped logos on the C-pillars link the SUV to the rest of the Maserati range. It's a design that works, in our opinion: The Grecale is recognizable as a Maserati but not a copy of an existing model. Busse told us that the idea wasn't merely to Xerox the MC20's front end onto the body of an SUV. "The design philosophy that I laid out in the beginning was actually done before we designed [the MC20 and the Grecale]. We really had to sit down and get our ahead around what we want to do with the next chapter of the brand. The reality is that 70% of the design process is understanding the message that you want to create, and the car then designs itself and the remaining 30% is just putting it on paper. We didn't want to design the car purely for Instagram; end up with a car loaded with real or fake features, lines, and creases. We're very much about purity. Maserati is a very strong performing car, so it doesn't need to shout, "Hey, look at me!" Quite the opposite; it wants to be a rolling structure, a car that adds almost visual value to its environment. That's the overreaching philosophy," Busse told Autoblog. Inside, Maserati integrated a relatively long list of tech features without making the dashboard look like the automotive equivalent of an iPhone. The driver faces up to four screens: a 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster, a 12.3-inch touchscreen for the Maserati Intelligent Assistant (MIA) digital instrument cluster, an 8.8-inch touchscreen positioned right below, and a digital clock — yes, that seemingly counts as a screen.

FCA is setting a five-year strategy: Here's how the last one played out

We're slightly more than four years removed from Sergio Marchionne last five-year plan for FCA, a tell-all where the Italian-American automaker divulged its plans for the 2014 through 2018 model years. It was a grand affair, where Sergio told FCA investors that all was right in Auburn Hills, Alfa Romeo and Maserati were making comebacks, and the fifth-gen Dodge Viper received a mid-cycle refresh. You can read every last one of those past predictions right here. We're on our way to Europe to see Sergio's sequel, coming out Friday straight from FCA's Italian headquarters. (Bloomberg reports a plan to expand Jeep and Ram globally, combine Alfa Romeo and Maserati into a single division for an eventual spinoff, and downsizing Fiat and Chrysler. Also, EVs.) But before we arrive in Italy and find out exactly what Marchionne has planned for 2019 through 2023 as his last act as CEO, let's take a minute to tally up the results of his last term based on the same scoresheet we used in 2014. Now, we're only five months into 2018, so much of this — including vehicles like the Ram HD and Jeep Grand Wagoneer — could still debut this year. For those, we'll mark things TBD. We're not going to draw any conclusions or make any objectionable remarks. We're simply going to let the stats speak for themselves.