DESIGN & ENGINEERING

THE Levante shares much of its make-up with the firm’s Ghibli and Quattroporte saloons, both of which made their debuts in 2013. As a result, the platform is fairly fresh and employs a blend of steel and aluminium for strength and to save weight where possible, including the bonnet, doors and bootlid.

This also has big implications for safety, so there’s a large amount of strengthening to reinforce the body, but Maserati has still managed to keep the Levante’s weight distribution at a perfect 50:50 split. There are aluminium suspension components for better control, too, so on paper it’s got what it takes to match the Cayenne for on-road ability.

As you climb up into the cabin, the design follows the underpinnings by echoing Maserati’s saloons, with a centrally mounted 8.4-inch touchscreen infotainment system flanked by a pair of air vents.

There’s an analogue clock above this, while the wide transmission tunnel in our test car was covered in glossy Ebano wood trim, costing £1,000, although the rest of the cabin is lined with soft leather.

The extended wood trim isn’t the only extra; our test model also featured the £7,130 Luxury Package, which adds heated seats, four-zone climate control, larger wheels, better leather and an easy entry/exit system for the electric seats and steering wheel.

Heated seats aren’t standard and cost £370 on their own, so with the options, including a fairly steep £245 for shift paddles, the total price came to £68,930.