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A bigger, more mature experience than Aston’s V8 Vantage, yet sharper and more engaging than a DB9 or Bentley Conti GT, it manages to combine the edge and infectious enthusiasm of a sports car with the long-legged, refined and sophisticated demeanour of a great GT… disappointing is the steering’s lack of tactility and the Skyhook suspension’s fidgety damping, both of which could and should be better… as it stands there’s room for improvement. It’s a good car rather than a great one… – evo

[04.03.06] According to Automotive News, buyers of the Maserati Quattroporte will soon have the option of ZF’s excellent 6 speed automatic, fixing one of the car’s few flaws: a sequential manual gearbox that – like most – is too jerky in everyday driving…

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While it has all the ingredients to create a feeling of luxury, it’s hampered by being such a driver-focused car. That infamous paddle-shift gearbox is the biggest problem, making mooching about at low speeds a disaster thanks to a horrible pause between gears that would be masked by the torque converter in a proper auto. Although Maserati claims that its DuoSelect system is ‘one gearbox with two souls’, it’s obviously aware of its shortcomings. Word from the inside is that the QP will be available with a proper ZF automatic gearbox towards the end of the year, leaving the paddle-shifter for the more driver-orientated models. About time too, is all I can say. – evo’s Harry Metcalfe

We believe a car’s packaging determines its potential, so we’re inclined to look past power figures to where the engine is placed, how heavy it is, etc.

The new M5’s V10 is stuffed in the nose and requires oversized components elsewhere to reign in all that power and mass. The Maserati Quattroporte conversely uses a (Ferrari) V8 set back farther in the body, making it more of a front-mid-engine car. The result?

the Maserati satisfies on a multitude of levels. It flows with such grace and poise, steers with such precision, adjusts its attitude so finely to minute flexes of foot and hands, and accelerates with such clean, free-revving enthusiasm, you become totally absorbed in the act of driving. It sounds like a cliché, but it shrinks around you, quite something for a car weighing a couple of tons and stretching five metres in length. And then you climb out and fall in love with it all over again, those indulgent swoops and feminine curves melding to create what must surely be the most beautiful saloon car of the modern era. Beauty is something that never entered BMW’s equation with the M5, but once you’ve driven the Maserati you’ll also conclude that delicacy also passed the Bavarians by. The balls-out Beemer may define the supersaloon breed, but the real joy of the Maserati is that it transcends the quest for more power, cylinders, gears and revs… nobody told the boys at Maserati that they had to play by BMW’s rules, which is why the Quattroporte is such a breath of fresh air, beating them all at their own game without ever appearing to demean itself by actually competing against them. source: evo

UPDATE: Watch this video from 3:05 on…