My experience with driving new Maseratis has only been in short bursts. I drove the Quattroporte, Ghibli and Levante for about an hour each back in February and I had a Levante today for about four hours. And because I got to spend slightly more time with it, I discovered that its interior uses dials in the best way possible.
Dials are important. Dials are good. Dials are the best for connecting you to any car function that requires moderating or navigating a menu. Buttons are fine, but you can scroll with a dial much faster than you can tap a button.
The Levante (and the Ghibli and Quattroporte, for that matter) also relies on dials for volume control and navigating the infotainment screen. But rather than have the two dials spaced far apart, its interior designers simply stacked them. The top one is for volume, the bottom one is for navigating. It’s genius!
That way, you can keep your hand in one place when you’re fiddling with stuff on the screen. Change music stations and adjust the volume with just a mere height adjustment of your fingers. The solution was so simple and so obvious once I saw it. Why isn’t it this way in all the cars?
Expect a full first drive review on the 2019 Levante GTS and Trofeo to come, but for now, I’m extremely happy with the dial situation. A good dial is always appreciated.