COMPARING Luxury Curious about Maserati’s Levante? Be sure to check out other top-end SUVS as well
Ferrari may not build an SUV (yet), but its engines are featured in some mondo rapid sport brutes.
Brutes such as Maserati’s Levante. I’m pretty sure having a power plant designed, engineered and built by Ferrari — be it a 3.0-litre V6 or a 3.8-L V8 — figures largely in the Levante’s popularity.
That 3.8-L V8 is the subject of this test, and it’s at least a kissing cousin to the engine that powers the Ferrari 488, albeit sans the supercar’s flat-plane crankshaft, depending on how much money you’ve forked over — $142,090 for base V8 GTS, or $187,500 for the Trofeo. The 3.8L pumps out 550 horsepower in the former, or 590 in the latter.
The Trofeo certainly won’t shy away from making an aural entrance. You have to flip the drive mode selector to Sport to get the full dolce vita, but as turbocharged V8-powered SUVS go, this is the most sonorous.
The Levante also makes a pretty good daily driver, that Ferrari engine not at all reluctant to creep through traffic jams or crawl through suburban sprawl. The fuel economy — rated by Transport Canada at 17.9 L/100 km in town
— isn’t going to challenge a Toyota RAV4 Hybrid, but in all other regards, the Levante makes a mean urban warrior. Plus, its AWD system provides the best of all possible worlds for a performance SUV; 100 per cent of the twin turbocharged V8’s kick makes its way rearward during normal use for the handling one expects of something wearing the famed Trident badge, but it can distribute up to half the engine’s power to the front, should the road get slippery.
Inside, it’s a little more of a mixed bag. There’s lots of room, and the seats are both comfortable and luxurious, covered as they are by Pieno Fiore leather. On the other hand, while most of the trim bits are of similar quality, the Levante’s Touch Control Plus infotainment system is so obviously FCA’S Uconnect. It works fine, but the graphics are not state of the art. And there’s barely more than 20 cubic feet of cargo space available in the Levante when the seats are up, and a middling 57.4 when the back seats are folded.
Meanwhile, if you’re addicted to Porsches, you’re going to want the Cayenne Turbo. In terms of performance, the Levante’s 3.8-L V8 generates a few more horses, while the Porsche’s larger 4.0-L V8 twists out a few more poundfeet of torque. Both accelerate to 100 km/h in around four seconds. If you care about the sounds an engine makes, though, the Maserati wins hands down.
Inside, the Porsche is more consistent. The leather might not be as overtly epicurean, but neither does the Cayenne have any obvious leftovers from Volkswagen. Oh, and the Porsche has a significantly larger cargo area than the Levante.
The Cayenne Turbo is the SUV rich auto enthusiasts buy for their spouses, just in case they have to drive it one day. The Maserati, meanwhile, is a luxury SUV an enthusiast might buy for themselves.
If you want to keep it Italian, the only way to upgrade is moving up to the Urus, the 641-hp desert sled that Lamborghini bills as a “super sport utility vehicle.” The Urus is also pretty darned adept off-road (don’t be so surprised). And, naturally, it features as indulgent an interior as you can find in any SUV this side of a Rolls-royce Cullinan.
Indeed, the main reasons for not buying a Urus over a Levante is the price — the Urus starts at $240,569.
Finally, if you are, for some reason, determined to stick with Fiat Chrysler, there’s the Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk. I know for some it may be difficult to think of Jeep in the same category, but the Trackhawk we tested a few months ago cost $133,795. So in terms of price, at least, this Jeep does belong in the segment.
Certainly, its performance places the Trackhawk at the top of the heap. The 6.2-L pushrod V8 may be a tad archaic compared with the state-of-the-art, double-overhead-cam units in the Cayenne, Urus and Levante, but at least in the horsepower sweepstakes, one giant supercharger trumps hightech. There’s 707 hp under the hood, and the Trackhawk is plenty quick, the 3.5-second sprint from rest to 96 km/h making it the superstar of the segment.
Although some trim bits feel out of place at this price point, the Trackhawk surprises with its abilities and comportment. And of these overpowered beasts, it is most assuredly the Jeep that is most comfortable getting muddy.