2024 Maserati Granturismo Trofeo review. This or Ferrari Roma or maybe Aston Vantage?

Well, welcome to a new Harry's Garage video, and today's car is this, the Maserati Gran Turismo, and in Trofeo form, which is the 550 horsepower version with the V6. Now, I ought to confess now, I have past history with Maserati. I have owned six Maseratis, not many people can say that, and I actually bought two Gran Turismos in its previous life, and the first one I bought when it was launched at the Geneva Motor Show, I was there on press day, and I thought, wow, that is a good looking car, phoned up Maserati dealer in the UK and booked one. So, I do know Gran Turismo quite well, and I always liked its four-seater format, etc., but what I didn't ever expect is when they came out with the revised new Gran Turismo, it looks very like the previous version, but there's a whole load of new tech under the skin, including four-wheel drive, and this is Maserati's future in this coupe model. There was a real advantage to having this car because it's a bigger volume than perhaps other rivals in its sector. Anyway, let's go and have a closer look. Now, I think part of the reason they haven't really changed the design, because it was so spot on when it first arrived. This is a truly handsome car when you look at it, especially in that nose, so distinctive, so Maserati. I can't get over this badge that's sort of enamelled and proud, it almost looks like a historic badge on it. The Trident, very distinctive at the front, and this one has the technology within it. There are intercoolers either side, that's what these grilles are here, and this flash of carbon fibre here, and I've changed the bonnet from the original version. Grilles here, just a slightly different look, and the sort of clamshell bonnet, when we open it up, you'll see it actually comes down to here. Very distinctive when we get under the bonnet, and it's amazing how far they've pushed the engine back into the chassis. But come around the side, Tofeo, this is where the badging is, and of the three vents that Maserati is almost a signature. Now, these wheels are an option. I am going to talk about the options on this car because, yeah, they're quite eye-opening when you look through. £2,880 option, and the other thing I noticed, I went on the configurator, there's only one set of brakes on it, there's no sort of carbon ceramic brake option on this car, even though it's a flipping quick car. This is a near 200 mile an hour car now. Very distinctive down the side, beautifully done, and there is space in the back, which we'll get to in a moment. This has privacy glass on it, you don't have to have it, that's a bit of an option. What is the big option, though, on this car is the colour. This red, Rosso Gran Turismo Red, is a £29,160 option. I gobsmacked how much that colour is. Metallic colours aren't as nearly as expensive, but there is a whole range, and whether they're triple layer paint or something, I mean, it looks fantastic, but £29,000 over the actual list price of this car, well, £163,000, as you see it here, £212,000. But I'm going to mention the price when I go further into the test and get to the conclusion because there's something you need to know about the pricing because there are other options and you don't have to spend nearly as much of that if you wanted this car. Anyway, come around the back, quad exhaust diffuser down here, and then a reasonable sized boot. For some reason, they've made it electric. It really doesn't need to be electric, but a big black hole in there. You can hardly see, there is a ski hatch as well at the back, and this hides nothing, just a bit of goo and your thing, so there's no sort of secret compartment there. I'll close that up. Then inside, very different from the previous version. We'll have a look at it outside, there's a big black hole as you can see, but thoroughly modern compared to the Gran Turismo that limped on with really old tech behind the dash. Have a quick look at the engine. This is the V6 engine that is right across Maserati range, and also with the Alfa Romeo, the Quattrofolio has this engine, but the MC20 has this engine in 630 horsepower form. Here, it's 550 horsepower and the slight change is, it's actually wet sumped rather than dry sumped as it is in the MC20. But look how far back that has been tucked, and the weirdness, when I was running this engine earlier, it has the diff for the front axle, this four-wheel drive system, almost within the engine, and you can see it spinning. If I started the engine there, you see this thing spinning at the front, which is the end of the flywheel, very peculiar because you don't normally see that on a modern engine. You can see the twin turbos, the turbos are breathing in here, cold air cleaner from here down to the turbo, and then it goes to an intercooler either side, and then this is the air coming from the intercooler and going into the engine intake here, and this trick combustion system on this particular engine. So, yeah, very different sort of Maserati, brought bang up to date, the Gran Turismo. Let's take it outside, take it for a drive. Huge doors, yeah, it's quite a reach to open them, but so you can get access to the back, I suppose, is why they do that. And yeah, when you get in the seats, having driven so many nine hours in that Aston Martin Vantage with those carbon seat stuff, these are just sort of conventional seats, GT-type seats, rather than full-on sports seats, bucket seats or whatever, and all lots of electrical adjustment on it. Yeah, everything's very electric in here, it has to be said, but there is this substantial space behind. My son Charlie got in just to try it out, no issues at all sitting behind me, and when we had them, that was the thing with Gran Turismo, it was a very definite four-seater when needed. I mean, it's not going to do the school run and stuff, because it's a pain waiting for the electric seat to go backwards and forwards, but it's just useful for those times. It's a proper two plus two. You can actually get adults in the back. Yeah, what else have we got? Well, wheel, I'm going to light everything up. I started on the button. I like the blue start button on the wheel there, and I've got drive modes on the right here, and then I've got sort of the regular things you see on the steering wheel for cruise control, when I can change the dash layout and things, and it's one thing I'm just going to mention right from the start. I'm really not sure about this infotainment screen here. It's basically split into two. I can just about cope with that, but I just don't like these gear controls on here, these push buttons here. They're not natural, and in daylight it's quite easy to miss them sometimes because you can't see the reflection. They just do not feel as though they have any place in a sort of £200,000 car like this, and everything is controlled through here, even the lights. You have to control if you want to put headlights on or whatever, but then they've got fun things controlled in here, and that's obviously the clock, and you can do sport or design, which just takes everything out, or you can do compass pedals, so if I press the brake, there we go, it goes bright red, so you can scale your passengers and g-meter and that sort of thing. Yeah, it's just that bit's okay, but I'm afraid everything is through this thing. I have to accept this. Yes, I'm fine. You don't have to ask me every time I get in, but it seems to. This screen will go through in a bit more detail consumption is probably flipping awful because I've been mucking about with it. MPG has got some over, I looked at it and it was on about 21 MPG sort of overall, and torque management is interesting. We'll have that going when we drive because I was very surprised how it's always just bleeding some power to the front wheels, and this four-wheel drive system is quite special. A final bit on layout in here. I haven't turned off, this is a 24 car, and I haven't had to faff around doing it. I set to sort of least interfering mode, and I haven't touched it since, and I quite like that. I could just drive off in this car without having to do that bit, but as I say, everything is controlled through here. Even this, I was wondering what this button does. I'll tell you what it does, opens a glove box. Of course, that has to be through the screen, doesn't it? Nice controls for the vents though, they all seem to work really well. Here, I've got a strange thing, you know, the track I've got, while it's charged my phone there, and under here I've got the usual plugs, not a very deep glove box, and I've got two sort of cup holders here that's holding up the key and some other stuff in there. Just going through some of the extras on this car I didn't mention, and we've got in here the sports design package. I was looking, where's the sports design package? It's actually the aluminium pedals in the footwell, and they're £1,130, and then it's got frameless digital readout. I don't know why it's got this, it's got a conventional mirror, or I've got a camera system, which is the one on the roof. No idea why, I've got a big rear screen, I can see out of it perfectly all right, so I don't understand that one, and that's £2,400. And then it's got this ADAS package, which is all the traffic light recognition etc, £3,480. Yeah, all quite chunky. Ventilated seats £840, and then this serious sound system is Sonos premium sound system, 19 speakers no less, £3,360, and rear privacy glass £480. One thing that me when I was looking through the options, it's actually got self-levelling hubcaps like you find in a Rolls Royce. Bit mad, I've never seen them listed before. Oh yeah, it's a right old reach to the seatbelt as you can see there. It's a long way away, it doesn't hand it to you. Now to get going, I have to press drive. I cannot flick on a paddle, which I would like to do, and it sets off in GT mode. So let's head out of here, go find some better roads. You've got these modes, I'm in GT at the moment, you've got a choice if I just go through those here. Sport, Corsa is the top one, that firms up suspension. The setup on this car is very clever actually, it's air sprung and the dampers are also adjustable, and each setting has a different level of damping. But let's go out of here. There is a V6 sound there, there's a slight gruffness to it, but it's very different to Maseratis of before. It's not unpleasant, but it's just not what you expect a Maserati to sound like really. But there is absolutely no mistake in the amount of go in it, it does get a move on and with a four-wheel drive it just delivers that horsepower to the road. And I did measure it and it actually is very hushed in here, for the type of car it is, way quieter than a 911, around 72 decibels sort of as an average. But it's got double glazed windows as I noticed and it's just very, it's a GT, that's what it's there to do and it's quite different in character to some of the more extreme cars I've been testing recently. There's quite a lot of settings you can play with in here, torque management is one I've got at the moment, technical gauges, you can put those up to the boost pressure, the amount of torque, oil pressure. Settings is where you do the traffic sign recognition and how aggressive you want all the safety systems. So I've calmed it down and it seems to stay there which is really good. And I'm just going to go up to the squirt up the hill, I'm just going to go to the first setting, the sport setting. It just makes it a little bit more aggressive, slightly stiffer on dampers but I can knock the dampers back if I want with a button on here, a bit like Bumpy Road in a Ferrari. I'm in auto mode or here, so let's just see what it does up the hill. Here we go. Really bangs those gears in, very quick. The overriding impression of this car, it's much quicker than I was expecting and it's the way that performance is always accessible and it makes it feel effortless because it seems to have an incredible amount of torque low down. So if I put it back to GT it's changing up at 1800 revs or 22,000 rpm things and there is proper grunt and it's just, yeah, it just feels light and easy and when you poke it, you're off. And what I was going to show you is actually, if I go back to performance, I just did my normal sort of standing start out of there and you've got something called drag race and it records it and I was very, I mean we're not trying at all, it did a 3.8 seconds away from a bit of a gravelly T-junction up here. And I have weighed this car and it was 1800 kilos. It's quite a lot, it was 100 kilos heavier than Aston Martin Vantage and the Ferrari Roma is 1570 kilos, although I have not weighed it on my weighbridge, so let's call it 1600 kilos. So at 1900 kilos, 550 horsepower, so 110 down on the Aston, I would not expect it to have an easy posting of three and a half seconds to 60, but it does. Right, what am I in now? I'm going to go back into sport, just where we go into my favourite bit of road and just see what it's like down there. And then here, that's M3, I could drive to eight second, that might be a bit low, let's have a look, add power. Yeah, impressive that bit. Now, back to GT mode because this is my testing bit of road, I just want to see how it performs down here. And it doesn't glide, there's a slight tightness to control, but really does round off the bumps. I can sense them, but there's no way are they interfering with the ride comfort in here. I've got one more setting if I want to go, I actually have a comfort setting, even softer. For a 200 mile an hour car, it's really good down here, exceptionally so. Put it back to auto, get it completely relaxed. Yeah, the revs drop down and you're just using that torque again. Now, let's have a look here, this is where I've got the sort of camber on the road, see if it reverses. It is completely unaffected by that, absolutely arrow straight, but it's quite sharp, the steering doesn't need much input for you to go, change direction. No, it's a very impressive chassis setup on this car and that is not what previous Gran Turismos were like at all. If I go back to my car, it's interesting looking at this because I expected to have a transaxle, but the gearbox is bolted to the engine on this diagram and that would mean it's slightly nose heavy, but very clever how they've controlled the mass and the ride down here. And always with previous Gran Turismos, they sort of got out of sorts, you wanted them to be better than they actually were when you were sort of skirting around, not discussing the chassis, but listen to it and look at it. Most of all, it's the small button, this other character. Gear change once you're over 4, 4,500 rpm. Let's try it down here, this bump, I can still feel it but it wasn't too bad round there. And then, as I say, it's just sharper on the steering than I was expecting. Not got aggressive tyres, but very impressive round there. Right, well, probably time to start going through the likes and dislikes, starting with the dislikes. Well, there is an elephant in the room and that is price when you come to discussing this car. So, £212,000 for the example I'm driving today. List, as I say, £163,000 thereabouts and this paint colour adds nearly £30,000 to the cost of this car. Just ridiculous numbers. £30,000 for paint, it's excessive on a car costing £300,000, let alone one at £160,000. So, yeah, it has to be raised because although Maserati want it to sort of compete in that area, it's not going to do it with the sort of fit and finish that I've got in this car. Just the brain doesn't allow you to say, well, that's all right then. And also, if you look, I looked on Autotrader, there was one that has been for sale at Maserati Manchester and I think it was £131,000 or £134,000. So, that's near the mark and it's been on sale for a year. You think, oh, that's just criminal. If you get one of a few miles, well, they start at about £112,000. The thing on price I will mention here is there's a modern version of this, which is 490 horsepower instead of 550 horsepower. That is a £133,000 list. I can't believe you'd notice that much difference and I would, if I was going in, I'd certainly look at downgrade from Trofeo to Modena, try one out because I have a suspicion that's the sweet spot in the range. Yeah, I haven't mentioned the interior. It's just this switch gear and it's this great mix and this wonderful name and fantastic design. A beautiful engineer when you lift the bonnet and then you get to this and it's just not good enough. It's from the Gacali. That's a £60,000 car. It's just about all right in there but not in this car. But there are some likes for this car and I'll get to that now. So, I'm going to go up to sport, just flip through the gears, come up here and round here, it's just exceptional around here and just pulls out there, full power out there, never gets flustered. Vantage was all over the place coming out. There's a slight hump as you come out of that dip and it just didn't like it at all. This just smothers it and just deploys the power and wow, you come out of there. Yes, it's four-wheel drive but it's more than that. It's the absorption, it's the damping, it's absolutely bang on for road use and I love that about this car. I love the looks about it as well. It's exceptional. You look at outside your house. We had Aston Martin Vantage, that's a hell of a looker. This is pretty close to it, especially in this annoyingly expensive colour. And then it's got the practicality of actually having the real space in the back, which is very usable and above the rest of the class. If you think Roma to me, hasn't got the space and obviously Vantage is the other car I think this car competes with now. So overall, I think it's exceptional. It is a much better chassis setup than I was expecting. Where that Aston Martin Vantage, I never found its sweet spot. With this car, I haven't found anywhere where it feels a bit awkward. It will eat miles all day long. You could really do big miles on this car. It's super relaxing on motorways and dual carriageways if you've got something like that to do. And then it's just nice day to day. It all works. Connectivity is terrific. And then you put it on a testy bit of road like this and it performs again. I mean, it's a very rounded product. I'm just so disappointed that it's sky high price that is more than you want to pay for it. And the thing is, though, would I buy one? Which I always ask myself when I test a car. Well, this one I would definitely shortlist. I would be visiting if I was in that arena. I would be visiting a Maserati dealer and going out for a test drive and just seeing what sort of deal I might be able to do with a dealer. You never know. There must be a deal to be done on this car. Roma is mighty tempting. It's feistier, it's lighter, it's Ferrari, but it's got those annoying controls on the wheel and it can get a bit overpowered. It's very definitely rear drive. And if it's wet outside, well, you know all about it. This is just rounded and more polished. Weird. I would not expect to be saying that about the Maserati Gran Turismo, but I've really enjoyed my time with it. I hope you've enjoyed this road test as well. If you have, well, keep watching, keep striving. I'll be doing more videos very soon.