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2024 Maserati GranTurismo First Drive Review: Striking balance

ROME — ItÂ’s easy to argue that the coupe is dead — especially big coupes with four seats. Never a huge segment to begin with, this slice of the market has shrunk in recent years as buyers flock to SUVs and carmakers allocate their development budget accordingly. In 2023, it makes more sense from a business point of view to slap the “coupe” label on a four-door crossover than to put it on a real coupe with two doors. Maserati isnÂ’t giving up. ItÂ’s not just business; itÂ’s also personal. ThereÂ’s a big chunk of its heritage built on four-seater coupes, so it completely reinvented the GranTurismo instead of throwing the nameplate into the darkest locker of automotive history. ItÂ’s still a coupe, and it still has four seats, but significant changes to the powertrain (including a smaller engine and all-wheel drive) aim to broaden its appeal. Maserati planted its flag on this turf in 1947 when it released its first road car, the Pininfarina-designed A6 1500 Gran Turismo, and it has never strayed far from it since. Its designers channeled this heritage into the second-generation GranTurismo without veering into retro territory or using a Xerox machine. “People often ask me, ‘Are you inspired by the past?Â’ WeÂ’re not copying elements, weÂ’re not copying styles necessarily, but we do allow ourselves to be inspired by the way we were constructing our cars back then,” Klaus Busse, the head of MaseratiÂ’s design department, told me. He cited the proportions as an example: sitting low to the ground, the GranTurismo features a long hood and a short trunk lid, which are shapes that have characterized dozens of cars positioned in the gran turismo segment for decades. Beyond the basic shape, the GranTurismo shares little with its predecessor — it illustrates what Busse meant in 2020 when he told me that the then-new MC20 would influence the rest of the range. ItÂ’s recognizable as a Maserati thanks in part to vertical headlights mounted above an oval grille, and of course it features the three fender-mounted vents that have become the Italian carmakerÂ’s signature. The coupe features a pure, fluid design with one exception: the fin-like protrusion on the roof. It houses a camera, and itÂ’s only fitted to GranTurismo models ordered with the digital rear-view mirror. I learned that integrating it into the trunk lid, like a rear-view camera, wouldnÂ’t have provided sufficient visibility.

Fiat set to invest $12B on new models, stop Euro losses in 3 years

Naturally, you'd expect a massive automaker like Fiat to have an in-depth plan to exit the current European-market doldrums, and you'd expect that plan to include plenty of new vehicles to attract those precious buyers that still remain despite the financial downturn. And you'd be right, though Fiat does seem to have a few unexpected twists up its corporate sleeve.
Perhaps the biggest shocker is a report that Fiat will completely drop the Punto, a car with mass-market appeal aimed at small-car buyers cross-shopping the popular Volkswagen Polo. Its replacement will be a five-door Fiat 500 aimed at upmarket buyers (sounds awfully similar to the 500L) that will be built in Poland. Lower-end customers will reportedly be served by variants of the Fiat Panda.
Borrowing a page from the BMW, Daimler and Volkswagen playbook, reports Automotive News, Fiat is said to have plans to reignite production at its Italian factories by retooling them to build high-end vehicles from Maserati and Alfa Romeo. These will be marketed as premium products, built by skilled Italian workers (who are paid wages that are 75-percent higher than those building Fiats in Poland), and will be sold around the world.

Maserati dubs new SUV Levante, new sedan to resurrect Ghibli moniker

Building on the introduction of the GranCabrio MC that debuted at the Paris Motor Show, Maserati is planning three new models over the next couple of year in an attempt to raise sales to 50,000 units annually by 2015. While we think that that is a pretty lofty goal for a boutique automaker, redesigning its flagship sedan and adding two all-new models in popular segments sounds like a great plan of attack
The first new car we'll see from the Italian automaker is the next generation of the Quattroporte which will be a fitting way to celebrate the car's golden anniversary. We've already seen spy pictures of the new Quattroporte testing as well as a series of patent drawings that reportedly show the car's basic lines. Expect the new Quattroporte out sometime next year with a possible launch at the Detroit Auto Show.
Following the new Quattroporte, we'll finally get to climb behind the wheel of a Maserati SUV... just not the Kubang. Maserati confirmed that its new utility vehicle, based on the Jeep Grand Cherokee, will in fact be named the Levante. We already knew that Maserati would definitely not be using the odd Kubang name after this year, but if the Levante name sounds familiar, it's because we previously reported that this name would be used on a sedan slotting in below the Quattroporte.