It’s all too common for an automotive journalist to proclaim that something is “insane”. Simply put, it’s often a go-to, all-filler buzzword that jazzes up a headline. However, this Maserati Quattroporte GTS fits the insanity bill quite nicely, and here’s why.
This 2009 Maserati Quattroporte GTS is a car that shouldn’t exist. Maserati makes cars for the not-quite-Ferrari level rich (not counting the MC12) and shouldn’t make its money making borderline sensible luxury sedans that have a depreciation curve that’s steeper than Kingda Ka (look it up!)
It’s a truly insane car in the way that for Maserati, it’s awfully normal. Yes, it has a 4.7 liter Ferrari engine, but it’s damn near silent when you’re sitting in traffic and the transmission, instead of some weird DuoSelect Corsa single automated manual with 12 discontinued ECUs, it has a regular automatic transmission - like a freaking minivan. It has four doors and can seat five adults comfortably and has things like a radio, cooled seats and headroom for the headiest of heads.
This example is one of the cleanest I’ve seen on the market and with a sub-40k price tag, it’s one of the most affordable semi-exotic cars you can buy today and a full 10 grand less than a more-or-less comparable Chevy SS.
While the interior layout isn’t what I would call timeless, it is functional, styled adequately, and is in great shape for the car’s 73,000 miles.
Huge blue gauges take up precious space in front of you and enormous paddles rest just under your fingertips. By the way, these are the ones that move with the wheel, which I tend to enjoy more than the static steering column-mounted ones. If you’re another exotic car owner who takes offense to that statement, fight me. This way is just better.
While the maintenance and parts can be more hard to come by than, say, your garden-variety Geo, it’s absolutely reasonable when you take into account it’s a hand-made Italian supercar with four doors and absolutely astonishing road manners. It’s ridiculously comfortable and actually isn’t horrible with fuel consumption if you keep it in a mode that doesn’t make the exhaust sound like it’s propositioning you for a quick and dirty nooner.
It’s a stellar daily driver. Don’t let anyone else tell you otherwise.
Tavarish is the founder of APiDA Online and writes and makes videosaboutbuying and selling cool cars on the internet. He owns the world’s cheapestMercedes S-Class, a graffiti-bombed Lexus, and he’s the only Jalopnik author that has never driven a Miata. He also has a real name that he didn’t feel was journalist-y enough so he used a pen name and this was the best he could do.
You can also follow him on Twitter and Facebook. He won’t mind.