A midsize crossover with a 500+ horsepower turbocharged V6 and all-wheel drive sounds like the stuff performance cars are made of. You’d be right about that with the Maserati Grecale Trofeo. It’s a damn good performer. When that performance comes attached with a six-figure price tag though, you start to question certain things.
Seeing as my colleague Kyle Haytt got a chance to drive the Grecale earlier this year, I won’t get into too much minutiae with this review. It’s always great to approach vehicles from different perspectives.
Full Disclosure: The good people at Maserati were kind enough to lend me a Grecale Trofeo over the Thanksgiving holiday. It got me and my family to our families houses in quick, Italian-tailored style.
What It Is And How Much It Costs
The Grecale was introduced in 2022 and is the brand’s second SUV after the Levante. It rides on Stellantis’ Giorgio platform that it shares with the recently redesigned GranTurismo, Alfa Romeo Stelvio and Giulia and randomly, the WL Jeep Grand Cherokee.
Pricing for the Grecale starts at just under $64,000. Of course, you have to pay to play. The Grecale Trofeo sits at the top of the lineup and starts at $105,500. With options like a $3,100 driver assistance package, a $4,200 premium package and $1,200 LED headlights, my Grecale Trofeo tester costs $118,260.
How It Drives
Maserati did something with the Grecale that more automakers need to do, they threw a big performance engine in a vehicle you wouldn’t expect it to be in. In this case, that engine is the heart of the MC20 supercar. While the 3.0-liter turbocharged V6 makes 621 horsepower in the MC20, in the Grecale Trofeo it’s been detuned to a still not bad 523 hp and 457 lb-ft of torque. Paired with all-wheel drive and an eight-speed automatic transmission, it’s enough to hustle the Grecale Trofeo to 60 mph in 3.6 seconds before it tops out at 177 mph.
This thing is fast. What makes it even better is that people around you in traffic almost don’t expect it to be sports car fast. The engine pulls hard and strong all the way to redline and sounds fantastic while doing it. Turn is good for a nearly 4,500-pound crossover. An auto-adjusting air suspension helps with keeping its center of gravity low so that you don’t get a not-so-gentle reminder that it’s still a crossover in the curves.
The Trofeo comes with five drive modes: off-road — a strange mode in an offering like this — Comfort, GT (the default mode), Sport, and Corsa. These can be selected by a dial on the steering wheel. Within that dial is a button that puts the suspension in and out of a sport setting. You’re going to want to stay in Sport mode. It’s the best setting as you get the right performance out of the engine while still being comfortable enough for everyday driving. Corsa mode is almost too much. The suspension becomes so stiff it borders on unbearable and the Grecale almost feels unsettled.
What’s Not So Great
That unsettling feeling was always there while I drove the Grecale. I’m not sure if it was this particular car or what, but really getting into its performance is when you notice it, be it from a stop light, to pass or even getting into the brakes when coming down from speed. I’d have to get it on a track under some hard use to see if it that feeling lasts. Around town though it was almost like trying to keep an excited dog on a leash under control.
The Grecale has a well crafted interior, but some parts of it just weren’t good to me, namely the push button gear selector and the huge paddle shifters. The paddle shifters are beautifully made out of real metal. However, they’re huge — I’d guess at least eight-ten inches long — and don’t move with the wheel. I know that’s how they’re supposed to be, but they tend to get in the way, and sometimes it seemed like if I wasn’t careful the bottom of the paddle would hit the top of my knee.
The push-button gear selector is also one of the worst I’ve used in any vehicle. I know automakers are getting out of putting gear levers in cars to create more space, but if you’re going to go that route you need to get it right. And Maserati doesn’t get it right here. You almost have to long press the button to get the car in gear; quick presses will result in nothing happening and can be potentially hazardous. For instance, say you’re parked in your driveway and need to reverse. Someone still on a learning curve with this thing will quickly hit “D” to start driving after reversing but still be in reverse, potentially resulting in you plowing into something.
There were also a few quality issues I encountered that I hope were just an issue on the vehicle I had:
- The front passenger seat didn’t seem to be bolted down properly and would slightly move and wobble with certain body movements.
- I didn’t get a chance to really experience the 3D surround sound coming from the 21-speaker Sonus Faber sound system because the speaker in the driver-side door was completely out. Once it randomly came back in, the sound from it wasn’t as loud as the rest of the speakers.
- Lastly, that 3.0-liter V6’s performance comes with a price you pay at the pump. This thing has a V8-like thirst for premium fuel. While the government says the Grecale Trofeo should get 18 mpg city/25 mpg highway/20 mpg combined, I averaged between 14.8-15 mpg. And that’s not with a lot of spirited driving.
The worst problem though was the CEL (check engine light) that randomly illuminated on me one morning as I went to get coffee. This resulted in the car sitting in my driveway untouched for the last four days it was with me. A weird thing to happen in a car with just over 4,000 miles on it.
Verdict
The Grecale Trofeo has incredible performance in a segment where that can be pretty rare. While some of those quality issues I encountered gave me pause, what would really make me think twice about considering the Grecale Trofeo is its price. Sure you can pick up more basic versions for under $70,000, but it’s six-figure price puts it on another level. A Porsche Macan GTS would probably cost similar (or more with options), but it’s the benchmark for the segment. A BMW X3 M will perform nearly the same for way less money. Even Stellantis’ own Alfa Romeo will sell you a Stelvio Quadrifoglio that performs the same for less. Or you could go make your money make sense and buy an actual sports car with that $118,000+. However, if you do end up going for the Grecale Trofeo, you won’t be disappointed, but you might end up rethinking if it’s worth it.