Maserati Ghibli Diesel - A Diesel Car With A Maserati Sportscar Pedigree (Part 2)

This pace is not wasted when you happen on some bends. The Maserati feels secure and plunges into corners with encouraging zeal. And until you get used to it, it dives a bit too deeply into them should you tighten your line mid-corner, the speed of the rack making it easy to over-steer into an apex. Ah, over-steer. Turn the SP off, prod the M-for-manual button, pull yourself a lower gear via an aluminum paddle shift, deep-dip the throttle and the Ghibli’s tail will perform a satisfying, graceful arc through a curve. It straightens itself with admirable alacrity, too. There’s plenty of grip in the dry, in fact, although we suspect that in the wet, with the ESP neutered and all that torque, the Maser will swing like a church bell at midnight.

There's noticeably less rear space here than in a Quattroporte, but it feels luxurious

Steering feel? Well, the wheel feels more alive than almost all electric systems and it’s consistently weighted, if overly heavy in Sport mode at a cruise. And yes, you can sense something of what the fat front rubber is doing when you charge had, although the rim doesn’t brim with sensitivity.

The Ghibli’s weak link, though, is its ride, which is very variable, and not only because it can be tautened via a damper button on the center console. Sharp-edged ridges, shallow potholes, manhole covers… most cause audible agitation as the suspension patters with effort, and camber changes on hard-charged straights produce a slightly wayward feeling that sometimes demands correction. On sharply undulating roads, the Ghibli falls well short of mustering the body control of an XF or a 5-series. Yet at other times it feels stable, quietly pliant and as civilized as the ambience of its richly upholstered cabin.

This certainly is a quietly impressive cabin, and one with an allure that’s hard to resist. The dashboard is sculpted to provide a dual-cockpit feel to suit the Ghibli’s more sporting mission, and it’s surfaced with finely tooled leather that encases much of the cabin to produce a pleasingly rich ambience. Two-tone color schemes, subtly deployed aluminum and wood highlights, supportively sumptuous seats and excellent air conditioning make long journeys a pleasing prospect. The trademark elliptical Maserati analogue clock is there, too.

Steering feel? Well, the wheel feels more alive than almost all electric systems and it’s consistently weighted, if overly heavy in Sport mode at a cruise.

Better still, ergonomic flaws are few and fairly trifling. The driver faces a pair of Maserati’s classic blue dials, between which sit a color electronic information display and the neatly marked, virtual fuel and temperature gauges. The elegant wheel is electrically adjustable (you can order adjustable pedals, too), its column carrying a pair of large brushed aluminum paddle shifters that are a pleasure to finger. The appearance of Chrysler-sourced stalks is disappointing, even if they’re functionally fine. The Pentastar is also the origin of easily used sat-nav.

Less handy is the hard-to-read row of buttons flanking the gearlever. These select manual gearbox mode, ESP, Sport, damper setting and the car’s economy strategy (called ICE), their fiddliness making them hard to access in a hurry. The gearlever is even more fiddly until you’re familiar with it. Surprisingly, there is no blind-spot monitoring or any kind of radar-controlled cruise or safety systems.

There’s plenty of comfort in the sumptuously upholstered rear seat, although the reduced space compared with the Quattroporte is noticeable, yielding no more than adequate legroom for the class. The boot, however, is long and wide, if not so deep, and there’s plenty of storage space on board, much of it air conditioned. This is, then, a very usable and convenient Maserati, and one that makes a fair bit of rational sense besides being decidedly desirable in the face of the familiar and limited choices in the class.

The boot, however, is long and wide, if not so deep, and there’s plenty of storage space on board, much of it air conditioned.

However, it is a more expensive car than its opposition, and it’s a big ask to expect this Maserati to match the polished excellence of the 5-series, E-class and XF first time out. In a few areas, such as ride and high-speed body control, it doesn’t. But the Ghibli is not your traditional heart-over-head Italian car. Its muscularly alluring style, aristocratic bearing, classily sumptuous cabin and outright performance are all serious tempters. So is the simple fact that it’s fresh. But this time, there’s a difference because the compromises so often imposed by Italian cars are far less severe.

The numbers turned by its diesel (including its 158g/km of CO₂) are highly competitive. The Ghibli’s performance is engagingly and subtly thunderous, if sometimes languid in the delivery, and its handling is able and entertaining. And it has few practical flaws, while succeeding in its quest to be a sportier drive than the Quattroporte. Our one significant worry is its ride, which might prove a bit busy for Britain’s 3D roads. Otherwise, the Ghibli has to be the most stylish, desirable and exciting executive debut in years.

Maserati Ghibli Diesel back

Diesel gains Maser accent

The diesel engine beneath the Ghibli’s shapely bonnet is perhaps the car’s least blue-blooded element. Bought in form Italian diesel specialists VM Motori, it’s shared with the Chrysler 300C and Jeep Grand Cherokee, although Maserati has given it a classier voice by fitting an active sound symposer. Two sound actuators located close to the tailpipes accentuate the engine’s more appealing tones and modulate them to suit the way that the car is being driven, the soundtrack enhanced when the car is in Sport. The diesel itself is a single variable-geometry turbo 3.0 V6 featuring common-rail injection and sequential injection. And it comes with stop-start.