Maserati GranTurismo MC

Refreshed with a new face, the elderly mainstay of Maserati’s range remains a tempting left-field choice

 

- Colin Goodwin

IT IS QUITE A DROP FROM the upper hall at the Geneva motor show. Not big enough to kill you, but enough to break a few bones as you crash onto the roof of a Nissan below. So it was worth putting up a struggle to not be pushed over the railings by an irate PR man from Maserati. I’d just been on the launch of the 1994 Quattroporte and our friend had taken offence at one of my criticisms (the car had conked out at the side of the road).

Fortunately this chap, for whom anger-management classes had no effect, has left the industry. He’d not be pleased by my observation that the face lifted, 2018MY GranTurismo is very much like the current Ford Mustang. He’d have flown off the handle before I could explain that this is, in fact, a compliment.

Before I explain why, a quick rundown on the new GranTurismo and GranCabrio. Maserati told us a few years ago that both models (the coupe is ten years old now, the cabrio seven) would be replaced by the end of 2014. That didn’t happen and the word now is that they’ll be here in the next few years. To fill the gap, the existing models have been face lifted and given updated infotainment systems (including a new 8.4-inch touchscreen).