The Worst Car I've Ever Driven?

Some time ago, I was in the market for a new daily driver. I didn't feel comfortable riding around in such an expensive M3 so it got me thinking, what would a reasonably fast, comfortable and relatively long range car be? Maserati ... c'mon just saying Maserati makes most people drool but is it up to the hype?

Maserati is generally met with oohs and ahhs from the masses. People think of it as an exotic / luxury brand only available for the super rich. The Italian styling and contours makes it something that most people would think are unattainable. However, used 2014 Maserati Ghibli's are quite cheap, going for anywhere from 30-40k. Alot of lease returns are coming back so the value has gone down significantly due to the large influx or Ghibli's. I initially wanted a BMW 335i or Audi A4 but just for a bit more I could get a Maserati. It sure sounds good and looks incredible. I would get alot more attention and honestly who wouldn't want to say they drive a Maserati. 

Now fast forward and I'm at the used car dealership. The car looks exquisite from the outside. It rides about as high as the M3 so it will clear most bumps in the road no problem. I looked for used because I know I would sell the car in about 2 years. I knew I wouldn't want to keep the car as it definitely wasn't what I was looking for. I would prefer to have the M3 as my daily but that fuel guzzling expensive car just didn't make sense. When I get my supercar in a few years, I will probably switch the M to be a daily, but that's a whole new discussion for another time. The Maserati hopefully wouldn't cost too much to maintain for a few years and besides the depreciation hit was mostly taken by the previous owner. That was my thought.

Obviously some Maserati's are better equipped than others, but it bothered me that for a luxury car like this, there was so much plastic. Yes, the dash could be lined in leather but so many cars I looked at had plastic. Paddle shifters were also hard to come by on the Maserati as well because it was an option. The car interior carries a sense of luxury, not sportiness to it. The ride quality is average. It's not particularly soft and the interior cabin noise is slightly quieter than the standard 3 series. There's nothing to gawk at. The exhaust sounds quite good from the outside especially in sport mode but inside the car I couldn't hear the exhaust very well, even in full throttle. When I switched from normal to sport mode, I honestly couldn't hear much of a difference inside the car. When I got back in my BMW after the test drive, I noticed instantly that the BMW was louder during full throttle. 

I drove the SQ4 model, which means the sportier all wheel drive model. The S is for sport I guess and the 4 represents AWD. Under full throttle it's noticeably slower than the M. That was expected as the 0-60mph sprint is quoted to be 4.7-4.8s. It's not slow and yet it's not fast, great for a daily. The car's blindspot was hard for me to look out of. The car seemed big like a 5 series sedan and didn't turn very well. The 5 series seemed much better in this case. There were almost no tech features in the Maserati besides the backup camera and parking sensors. The touch screen display was a nice feature. However, my biggest gripe was that when driving a car equipped with the paddles, I couldn't reach the indicator stalk comfortably. I pretty much had to reach around the paddle to access them. I feel like it really is a design flaw. Yes, I am aware that BMW drivers don't signal but to me that was an issue. Especially when driving through heavy traffic, the signal would be quite important.  

Overall, I was not impressed at all with the Maserati Ghibli. I went on to search for another car that same day ... that's gonna be in an another article. The Maserati is not something that can keep up with supercars. It's in a completely different league. A lot of performance sedans fair far better than it. I think the Maserati has it's place which is a great entry level into an exotic luxury brand for people with deeper pockets but not yet able to afford a supercar. It was a serious consideration as my new daily but unfortunately I wasn't as impressed after getting up close and personal with the car. Just as a sidenote, I do not have anything against the used car dealership. They were quite nice but the car simply wasn't for me.