21/11/2008

Maserati Gran Turismo

Recommended. Glamorous, elegant, fast, sophisticated and rare, the Gran Turismo is everything an Italian super coupe should be - and without the rough edges. Heavy performance-and-economy denting weight and an odd driving position are the only drawbacks.

This is the most exotic performance car you can buy short of a Ferrari, competing with slightly less aristocratic models from BMW, Jaguar, Porsche and Mercedes. The previous Maserati Coupe was a characterful but flawed device, but this new Gran Turismo is at least as beautiful and far less rough-edged. It's major advantage over almost all the opposition - the genuine capacity to seat four adults - remains, but this time there's a conventional, jerk-free automatic transmission rather than the troubled Cambio Corsa paddle-shift system, eliminating a major problem of the old model, while its road manners, driveability and general convenience are all improved. Not as polished as Jaguar's XKR, nor as fast, but more desirable.

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