2010 Maserati GranTurismo: Easily the best-looking Maserati in, well, a lifetime, the GranTurismo is true to its name: It is one fine, stylish grand touring automobile. The big coupe, built off of the Quattroporte platform, comes in three flavors with two engine variations. There's the standard GranTurismo with the 4.2-liter, 400-horsepower V8 that model debuted with. It's nice. But its performance doesn't really pay off the looks. Better to go for the S or S Automatic model. Both are powered by a 433-hp, 4.7-liter V8. The S uses a six-speed paddle-shifted automated manual; the S Automatic uses, well, a six-speed automatic. Our choice is the newest model, the S Automatic, since even a well-calibrated automated manual can be tiresome on the road. The automatic better suits the GranTurismo's elegant personality.
2010 Maserati GranTurismo Convertible: For 2010 Maserati has chopped the top off of its big-but-elegant coupe and made, improbably a big-but-elegant convertible. It's been awhile since a carmaker went the elegant route. Even the paragon of good taste in grand touring convertibles, the Mercedes-Benz SL, has gone all edgy and racy-looking. The GranTurismo convertible, called the GranCabrio in other markets, uses a cloth top that raises or lowers in 20 seconds and at speeds of up to 20 mph. The convertible shares its powertrain with the coupe, which means a stirring 433-hp, 4.7-liter V8 mated to a six-speed automatic.
2010 Maserati Quattroporte: The big four-door from Maserati is starting to get a little long in the tooth, having been on the market for about five years now. Yet this model, which started Maserati's current renaissance, remains the nonconformist's choice in sporting sedans. After a subtle reworking for 2009, not much changes for the new year. For 2010, the Quattroporte comes in three familiar flavors: the standard car, with its 400 hp 4.2-liter V8, which is nice; the S model, which is motivated by a 425-hp 4.7-liter V8; and the top-of-the-line GT S model, in which the 4.7-liter gets a little bump up to 433 hp. Once the company dropped the herky-jerky automated manual in favor of a conventional six-speed automatic, every Quattroporte model became an acceptable purchase.
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