Edmunds 2007 Maserati QP Automatic Review

Dino Martini · Feb 12, 2007

http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/Drives/FirstDrives/articleId=119515

An automatic transmission can't dull the Quattroporte's sporty qualities

We love the way Italians say "sporty."

We heard it a lot during the launch of the new 2007 Maserati Quattroporte Automatica in the appropriately sporty Principality of Monaco. Maserati CEO Roberto Ronchi used the word repeatedly at the press conference and then again over lunch at the appropriately swank Monte Carlo Bay Hotel.

"Above all," he insisted, "the Automatica must be sporty."

As pronounced by Signore Ronchi, the word takes on almost poetic dignity. It jumps from his pursed lips, is garnished with a Latinate tongue roll and an explosive brio, and then concludes with a tonal shrug that lends Italian its wonderfully musical cadence: Sporr-tee-uh.

The 2007 Quattroporte Automatica with its conventional six-speed automatic transmission is indeed sporty. Yet "sporty" turns out to be just one of several appropriate words to describe the Automatica Executive GT that we drove along the Côte d'Azur and into les Alpes Maritimes.

Automatically sporting
There are three Quattroporte trim levels, and now each one will come as both a DuoSelect model and an Automatica model. The Automatica models are $1,250 more than the DuoSelect models (not including gas-guzzler tax and destination fees): the $112,500 Quattroporte, $122,400 Executive GT and $121,100 Sport GT.

This automatic transmission is a key technology for Maserati, which wants to grow much larger in the U.S. to help fulfill the 10,000-car production capacity of its assembly plant in Modena, Italy.

Maserati's ZF-built automatic is built to the same design as the excellent transmission we've already experienced in the BMW 3 Series convertible, and its fast, smooth shifts and crisp throttle response might make it the world's best automatic.

The Quattroporte Automatica places the shift lever properly close to your right hand. In proper European style, you push the lever forward to downshift to a lower gear and pull it back to upshift to a higher gear. Shift paddles mounted on the steering column are optional.

It's true, the hydraulic torque converter of the Automatica's conventional six-speed automatic transmission makes this Quattroporte a little less sporty than with the DuoSelect's six-speed servo-actuated automated manual gearbox.

But the Automatica's more familiar gear-selection procedure and the crisp yet friendly predictability of its shifts are just right for the American luxury-car buyer, who considers an ultra-suave automatic to be a birthright, not a privilege.

(click the link for entire review).
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Mr. M · Feb 12, 2007

Their article had my same sentiments. It's a tamed QP that's easier to live with, but I guess just that little bit less fun to drive.

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