Maserati Grecale Review (2023-)

What is the Maserati Grecale?

The Maserati Grecale is a large family SUV that’s built at the company’s Cassino plant in Italy, and majors on style and performance to set itself apart from the competition.

At 4.85 metre long, the Grecale roughly splits the difference in size between the Porsche Macan and Porsche Cayenne, and sits below the bigger Maserati Levante in the Italian manufacturer’s SUV line-up.

The entry-level engine is a four cylinder turbocharged 2.0-litre petrol unit with 48V mild hybrid function (which means that it has a very small battery and electric motor to help boost efficiency but can’t be plugged in, and never runs on electric power alone).

It produces 296bhp in the Maserati Grecale GT, which is the more affordable of the three models. The same engine produces 325bhp in the Grecale Modena, which also gets a 34mm wider rear track and a limited slip differential for better handling, as well as a greater choice of exterior and interior finishes. A PrimaSerie Launch Edition is also available on a limited number of cars.

The Maserati Grecale Trofeo tops the range with its 523bhp 3.0-litre V6 twin-turbo engine, which is based on the Nettuno engine in the Maserati MC20 supercar.

A pure electric version – the Maserati Grecale Folgore – will join the range in a year or so, complete with a 105kWh battery. No range figures have been confirmed, but with such a big battery it should have a long enough range to compete with rivals like the Audi Q8 e-tron and Mercedes EQE SUV.

Named after a Mediterranean wind phenomenon, the Grecale follows in a long history established by the Italian car maker of naming cars after particular winds. Also see Mistral, Bora, Merak, Ghibli, Levante.

The styling of the Maserati Grecale is unmistakably one of its big selling points, with the sleek lines harking back to the same design cues that you’ll find on its rarefied and aspirational GranTurismo coupés and Ghibli and Quattroporte saloons.

How practical is it?

The Grecale is a practical family SUV. There’s masses of legroom and headroom in the rear seats – usefully more than in the Alfa Romeo Stelvio that shares the Grecale’s platform, for instance. So, you’ll sit two tall adults comfortably. While the seats don’t slide, they do split and fold flat in a 40/20/40 split via a button in the boot.

It's really comfortable up front, and the optional 14-way electric seat adjustment (10-way electric adjustment is standard on the GT) means that it’s easy to get comfortable. The dash has been designed to be fairly minimalist, with most features controlled through dual touchscreens; there’s a 12.3-inch touchscreen on top for the majority of your needs, and an additional 8.8-inch screen below for cabin comfort and other general settings.

With 535 litres of boot space – or 570 litres in the Trofeo – the Maserati Grecale has a very decent boot space; better than a Range Rover Sport, in fact, and with a flush load lip and some underfloor storage. It’ll be more than good enough for most family motorists, although it’s worth pointing out that the Porsche Cayenne and BMW X5 both offer well over 600 litres of boot space with similar rear passenger space.

What’s it like to drive?

The Maserati Grecale is great fun to drive. Even in the entry level GT variant, it feels responsive and playful, with more than enough gusto to feel like a proper sports SUV when you want it to. After all, even this ‘entry’ Grecale does 0-61mph in 5.6 seconds, which is hardly to be sniffed at, and the eight-speed automatic gearbox is smooth enough – albeit with a slightly hesitant response if you ask for a downshift via gearshift paddles that are huge and lovely to use. Nobody does steering wheels and shift paddles like Maserati, it must be said.

If you can find room to really extend the Grecale GT then it is also surprisingly playful in the way it handles, despite also being comfortable, with tightly controlled suspension that takes the sting out of most bumps while keeping the body from rolling too much. We’d add that our GT test car had the optional Handling Pack, which adds adaptive air suspension and a limited-slip differential; we haven’t tried a Grecale without the adaptive suspension.

We also tried the Grecale Trofeo, which really does feel very different – as you’d expect, given the huge power provided by the V6 engine, not to mention the wider rear track and various tweaks that make the Trofeo model the most dynamically focussed model in the Grecale range. At 3.8 seconds to 62mph, it is hilariously fast. Almost a second faster than the Porsche Cayenne S, in fact, and a fraction faster than the BMW X6 M. The engine sounds riotous when in Sport mode, and while the ride is a touch firmer than in GT models, it’s not so busy that it’ll be a deal breaker for anyone after a seriously focussed super-sports SUV.

There’s loads of grip, yet also a willingness to let the rear of the car move about a touch if you provoke it, for a sense of tippy-toe handling adjustability that’s not common in SUVs. It even feels quite alert and enjoyable at normal road speeds, but – as with just about every high powered SUV - you don’t get a great sense of what speed you’re carrying thanks to good refinement and a high seating position, so it is alarmingly easy to find yourself going faster than expected in the Grecale Trofeo.

Still, even by the high standards of today’s top notch sports SUVs, the Maserati Grecale handles with real dexterity while also being easy to live with when you just want to get the school run done.

Technology, equipment & infotainment

The Maserati Grecale has all of the equipment on offer that you’d expect in a modern SUV, from head-up displays and fancy ambient interior lighting, through to adaptive cruise control and various drive modes. It really can have everything that you expect, but unfortunately it’ll cost you as a lot of it is optional.

On the GT, for instance, you’ll want the Driver Assistance Pack in order to get adaptive cruise control and fully adaptive LED headlights, and probably the Tech Assistance Pack as well, for the head-up display and wireless phone charger. Those two packs alone will add over £4,000 to the price, and that’s before you’ve considered the Handling Pack, the gorgeous array of bright metallic paints and classy leather interior finishes, upgrades to the seat adjustability, a surround camera, glass roof and much more. For some context, our Maserati Grecale GT test car had over £15,000 of options on it. The Grecale Modena has more generous levels of style equipment, but you’ll still have to pay a lot extra for most of those features we’ve mentioned, including adaptive cruise control and a panoramic glass roof.

The Trofeo does have most of the equipment that you’d expect as standard, so you won’t have to go to town with options quite so much. However, you will still be paying thousands to get adaptive cruise control, which is pretty shocking given that this is a safety feature included as standard on plenty of much more everyday, affordable cars.

Still, you do get Maserati’s new infotainment system as standard on every Grecale, with the main 12.3-inch display being sharp and clear to see, with all of the features that you expect including satnav, and wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.

Climate control and a few other settings can be adjusted via the lower screen, which is better than having them in the same screen as your main infotainment features, but still isn’t as intuitive as simple, physical air-con buttons.

If you add the Winter Pack with its rear heated seats and three-zone climate control, there’s also a screen in the back seats for controlling the rear air-con and seats.

Ultimately, the Maserati Grecale has all of the tech that you expect, but it’s a shame that so much of it is optional on the models that most buyers will be considering.

Maserati Grecale running costs

The Maserati Grecale is clearly not cheap, but nor is it outrageously priced by the standards of the performance and brand lustre that it offers. It undercuts the Porsche Cayenne Coupe that’s likely its closest rival, but costs a little more than the Porsche Macan – again, offering something of a happy medium between the two. By the standards of the BMW X6 M, the Maserati Grecale Trofeo is veritably good value at around £100,000 – some £25,000 less than the BMW X6 M. Mind you, the Alfa Romeo Stelvio Quadrifoglio and Jaguar F-Pace SVR are both some £20,000 cheaper, and have comparable performance and style flair.

The addition of the electric Grecale Folgore will also usefully broaden the appeal of the Maserati Grecale in terms of its potential running costs and company car tax perks, too. In the meantime, you can get over 30mpg from the four-cylinder mild hybrid engine, according to WLTP figures, which isn’t bad at all for a big, high-powered SUV.

However, there’s no getting away from the fact that the Grecale is a pricey SUV once you’ve added the options you’ll want, and it’s uncertain how quickly it might depreciate once you’ve bought it.

Maserati Grecale reliability

Maserati is rarely included in owner surveys as it’s a low volume producer, and the Maserati Grecale and the powertrains that it uses are too new for there to be any specific data on reliability.

However, a three-year, unlimited-mileage warranty is standard on every Maserati, and can be extended up to five years. The driveline components can even be warrantied up to ten years (also with no mileage limitation).