Maserati’s growth plan to sell 50,000 cars per year by 2015, begins with the 2014 Maserati Ghibli; pictures of which you can see. It is poised to make its official debut at the Shanghai Motor Show and if and when it goes on sale, it will take on formidable rivals, namely the Mercedes-Benz E-Class, the Audi A6, the BMW 5-Series and the Lexus GS.
A lot of the styling has been borrowed from the new-gen Quattroporte, albeit, put together in a tighter, sportier way. You have a black painted 12-bar grille and 5-point LED DRLs upfront; 3 side vents on the front-side fender, low profile tyres, possibly 225-section upfront and 265-section at the rear, both wrapping 19-inch rims on the profile and finally LED-lit tail lamps and quad-tail pipes at the rear. The interior as seen in the pictures, gets ribbed leather upholstery, carbon-fibre trim and a capacitive screen, meaning it will be touch-sensitive screen just like the air-conditioner controls.
The Ghibli customers will have a choice of two powertrains, either a petrol supercharged 3.0-litre V6 engine or a diesel variant of that, making it’s the first Maserati production car in history to be powered by a diesel engine. Both are matched to an 8-speed automatic transmissions and rear-wheel-drive configuration will be the standard configuration, although Maserati will be offering a Q4 all-wheel-drive system as well.
Our estimates say that the petrol 6-pot will make nearly 300 horses and the diesel a close, 250 horses. Expect 0 to 100 km/h times to be in the low 5-second range for the former.
