Maserati Quattroporte S Q4 2013 Review - International

What we liked?:
>> Tremendous mid-range strength
?>> Quiet, comfortable, spacious interior?
>> Unmatched mix of agility and assurance

Not so much:
?>> Much thirstier than most rivals
?>> Lacks radar cruise, start-stop niceties?
>> Slow sat-nav mapping?

Maserati delivered the Quattroporte with a twin-turbo 3.8-litre V8, and it remains the flagship. The new Quattroporte S V6 arrives, then, as both a more affordable Quattroporte option and a more flexible one, thanks to the first all-wheel drive system in Maserati’s production car history.

When this generation of Quattroporte comes into full bloom, it will have a flagship rear-drive V8 BiTurbo, an all-wheel drive V6 BiTurbo, a rear-drive V6 BiTurbo and a V6 turbo-diesel.

But we’ve snaffled the S Q4 because it’s the most technically interesting, even if the Quattroporte will be launched in Australia in October initially only in rear-drive V6 and V8 guises.

Maserati also hopes will give it an entry ticket into the lucrative snow-belt states in the US, along with China’s colder areas and many of Europe’s wealthier ski bunnies.

What we suspect is this: the old Quattroporte ran from $250,000-300,000 and we expect the V6 models to begin life towards the bottom of that range and the V8 to extend beyond it, with this S Q4 somewhere closer to $300,000.

It is, after all, just as quick as the old range-topping V8…

Inside Maserati has minimized the number of knobs and switches and has delivered a simple touchscreen system to help it get there. It is intuitive to operate and covers everything from vehicle systems to entertainment, air conditioning and, of course, navigation.

While three seats are standard in the back, there is a more luxurious two-seat setup that boasts electrically reclining seats, the ability to move the front passenger seat forward remotely and has its own entertainment setup as an option. All Quattroportes can also be turned into rolling WLAN Wi-Fi hotspots.

There is a standard two-zone climate control setup, though a four-zone system is optional, as is a 15-speaker Bowers & Wilkins audio system (that is frankly awesome) atop the stock 11-speaker system.

MECHANICAL

The bore is the same (86.5mm for the nerdy), though the V6 has a longer stroke that lends it a character that is stronger on torque and lower revving than its big brother.

It runs essentially the same variable valve timing system, the same design for the combustion chamber, the same valves and almost the same exhaust manifold system (the V8 has two twin scroll units, the V6 doesn’t).

The result is 301kW at 5500rpm and 550Nm from 1750-5000rpm. Maserati has clearly let the V8 have flagship honours, though, and it has 89kW more power and another 100Nm.

The devil is in the detail, though, because the V6 delivers everything earlier and is geared up around flexibility as much as outright performance.

Its power peak arrives 1300rpm earlier than the V8’s, its torque peak hits 500 revs sooner and plateaus for 3250rpm -- 2000rpm more than the V8’s torque curve.

Maserati attaches this V6 to the same ZF-sourced eight-speed automatic transmission, which was pre-engineered to be either rear or all-wheel drive.

The engine isn’t, though, and it needs a hole in the sump to allow the driveshafts to poke through. The all-paw system only sends torque up to the front diff when it’s needed, which helps it to save fuel (it’s only 0.1L/100km thirstier than the rear driver, despite being 60kg heavier) and to react to the throttle like a rear-driver, too.

When it needs to pump some torque to the front end, it gets there in less than 150 milliseconds and, critically, it disappears again just as quickly when it’s no longer wanted.

It’s capable of taking 100 per cent of the torque to either end, technically, but the torque capacity of the front diff limits it to around 50 per cent most of the time --though it actually varies as the engine speed (and, thus, the torque delivery) changes.

Still, the standard multi-link rear end delivers so much grip that it’s only sending around 30 per cent of the torque to the front, even as it’s sprinting to 100km/h in 4.9 seconds. (The torque split to the front reduces as speeds rise and at around 150km/h it shrinks to around zero).

The rear-drive V6 is 0.2 seconds slower, though it compensates by stretching its stop speed by another 2km/h to 285km/h. Yes, a big difference to about two customers.

The Quattroporte S Q4 runs the same braking system as the V8, so 360mm x 32mm front discs with six-piston fixed calipers and 350mm x 28mm rear calipers with four-piston calipers.

Oddly, for a car that prides itself on its ride quality for its rear occupants, there are very low profile tyres all round, including 245/45 R19 front tyres and 275/40 R19 rears.

It’s 165mm longer than the old QP (as it’s affectionately known) and it comfortably mixes knee flexes with the likes of the long-wheelbase versions of the Germans.

It gained width when it picked up length, so it’s 63mm wider than the old car, at 1948mm (that’s not counting the mirrors – if you do that, your garage door will need to be more than 2100mm wide) and it’s 58mm taller, at 1481mm.

But it’s in the wheelbase that the Quattroporte got big, with 107mm added to the wheelbase. That takes it out to 3171mm and all except 2mm of that extra is dedicated to the rear seats.

For all the extra length, it turns half a metre inside the old car (now at 11.8 metres) and its boot is up to 530 litres.

You don’t get the Quattroporte’s proportions in the standard versions of any of its rivals (more of which later), and you have to turn to their LWB models, which tend to look more disjointed than the standard models.

The rear seat space is overtly generous and it’s also a very easy car to climb in and out of in either the front or rear seats.

The front doors open generously and not only is the steering wheel height and reach adjustable, but the pedals adjust fore and aft as well, via a button at the front of the driver’s seat.

There are generous bins aplenty throughout the Quattroporte and the standard auto shift gate and the manual shift system operate in the same plane (you just push the M button for manual operation), which saves around 5cm of console width.

Both the centre console and the glovebox are air conditioned, and while the boot is usefully flat, though not a patch on an Audi boot. It also comes with a cargo net and side hooks and with the three-seat rear bench fitted, there is 60:40 split folding on offer, too.

SAFETY

The Quattroporte offers six airbags, including full-length curtain side bags, two-stage front airbags and further front airbags tucked beneath the seat leather.

There is also a development of the Maserati Stability Program to keep the car on the straight and narrow, but there are some glaring technical omissions, especially in an era of German domination. For example, the Quattroporte has no radar cruise control, it has no lane-change or blind-spot or drowsy-driver warning systems. Systems of this nature take time to develop, Maserati admitted. It will get to them -- just not yet.

While it doesn’t have a lot of the electronic safety gizmos of some of its rivals, it does have a forward-facing camera in front of the rear-view mirror, which allows it to automatically dim its LED/bi-Xenon front light combination, while the rears are all LEDs and take their design cues from the GranTurismo, rather than the outgoing Quattroporte.

It also has a rear view parking camera, which shows in its 8.4-inch central screen.

Alphabetical? Well, we can start with Audi’s A7 and A8, especially in their S guises. The Quattroporte just flat-out out-sizes the A6.

Then you head to BMW, where you find the Quattroporte matching up with the 7 Series and the 6 Series GranCoupe, but being far too big for a stock 5.

Jaguar makes an effort with the hotter versions of the XJ (with a design that is aging fabulously, it must be said), though they offer neither an all-wheel drive variant nor a V6 with this level of oomph.

Lexus and Infiniti counter with… Ha, you nearly fell for that, didn’t you?

Mercedes-Benz does offer all-wheel drive, as does its AMG offshoot, though the mega-quick E63 AMG is considerably smaller inside than the Quattroporte (but no thirstier).

Still in Germany, there is Porsche’s unattractive, but overwhelmingly good Panamera. You can buy it powered by V6s, V8s, V8 Turbos, Hybrids and Diesels and everything bar hamsters running in wheels and they have all-paw grip too.

At the far end of the alphabet, only Volvo’s S60 Polestar runs close to the Quattroporte S Q4 philosophy (and, it must be said, taut, agile, considered chassis feel, too), but it’s far too small and sits well beneath Maserati money.

Then it’s so quiet and comfortable that you might want to call it a cruiser… And then you find some mountain roads and it delivers a handling balance and assurance that is so astonishing that you might be driving something 500kg lighter and a metre shorter, so you’re tempted to call it a thoroughbred sports sedan.

The reality is that the big Maserati delivers ample slices of just about everything you could want in a large limo. Or sports sedan.

For starters, it’s incredibly comfortable and it’s easy for people of widely varying sizes to adjust to it. Its tight turning circle (for a car this big) makes it easy to park (even if it doesn’t have German-style self-parking).

It’s also a doddle to drive, so rich is the V6 in torque. It doesn’t carry the same sound as the old V8 (or the new one, for that matter), but even in its standard mode, it delivers a deep, rich, muscular note from very low rpm, but it does it without sending wobbulations through the cabin.

It’s quick, too. It’s never that high-revving quick, rather, it’s more like big diesel quick without the noise and bad response. The engine is a relatively low revver, but the transmission slips in and out of gears so sweetly that you never really notice the speed gathering until it’s at naughty levels.

You can plant the throttle and hammer, and the S Q4 will oblige, with a little front-to-rear torque graphic between the speedo and the tacho showing you exactly where all your torque is going at all times.

Its character is very different to the V8, largely due to the wave of torque that arrives early and stays late, combined with the lower rev limit.

It sounds even richer in the sport mode and it all works even better with Maserati’s magnificent solid alloy shift paddles in its manual mode, changing swiftly and cleanly, with a tremendously emotive crackling and popping on the overrun.

Then there is the handling. You can forget about the skid control system because it’s difficult to imagine (outside Scandinavia) when it would ever be needed. The all-wheel drive system has astonishing levels of grip but, more than that, it communicates and reassures all the time.

The road might surprise you, but the car’s reaction to it won’t. It will tell you precisely what’s possible and how, then it will faithfully get you where you need to be. Indeed, even when it’s being hurled about in extremis (and it can hang there with the best of AMG or M) you’re still overwhelmed with the feeling that the car has it all so under control that it is dedicating at least half of its efforts to making you comfortable.

It’s quiet when you want it to be, fast when you need it to be, brilliant in corners, luxurious on the highway and if you want it to be quicker, you can always buy the V8.

But for most people, this one, with its astonishing breadth of abilities, will be enough.

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