Maserati Grecale Review & Prices

The Maserati Grecale is the sort of posh, high-performance SUV you might buy if the likes of the Porsche Macan or BMW X4 were a bit too straight-laced and predictable for your tastes.

Think of it this way: if those cars were all professional chefs, the Porsche and the BMW might be Marco Pierre White, while the Maserati is a bit more like Gino D’Acampo. They’re all essentially the same thing, it’s just that the Grecale is supposed to be a bit more, erm, flamboyant and distinctive.

You might think it’s a bit of a pity that Maserati hasn’t really pushed the boat out with regards to the Grecale’s styling. Sure, it’s handsome, but it maybe doesn’t have as much flair as you might expect, although it borrows various styling cues from the larger Levante SUV. 

Still, there are some nice performance touches, such as the prominent quad tailpipes and those sporty alloy wheels that go up to 21 inches in size. The three iconic Maserati slats above the front wheel arches are pretty cool, too.

Inside, things look a lot more convincing. You get a load of plush-feeling leather upholstery; comfortable, figure-hugging seats; and an impressively wizzy touchscreen infotainment system with smooth graphics and impressive response times. It is a shame though that the climate controls are now on a second screen below the main infotainment. It looks great, but is a pain to use on the move as you have to take your eyes off the road for too long when adjusting the temperature. 

Still, there’s loads of room in the second row for a pair of adult passengers, and three younger teenagers should find the back seats comfy enough.

Boot space is also pretty good, and compares well to the likes of the Macan and X4 to outpoint its main sporty SUV alternatives. That’s especially true for the top-spec Trofeo that is the only one not encumbered by extra batteries for a hybrid system, which eats into boot space for the more mainstream GT and Modena trim levels. 

You get a choice of three different petrol engines. The range kicks off with a 300hp four-cylinder unit, called GT, which is the one you’d go for if you didn’t want massive fuel bills to accompany your performance SUV purchase.

Then, at the other end of the spectrum sits the 530hp twin-turbo V6 Trofeo model, which is the one you’d have if you don’t worry so much about trips to the petrol station. In the middle sits the 330hp Modena, which also comes with a four-cylinder turbocharged engine.

All of these cars are impressively fast in a straight line, but if it’s outright performance you’re chasing then the twin-turbo V6 Grecale Trofeo is the one you want. It’ll accelerate from 0-60mph in just 3.8 seconds, and feels every bit as fast as that on the road. Its engine note can sound a bit hard-edged and coarse when you floor it though – which might disappoint if you were hoping for a properly tuneful Italian performance engine.

Still, thanks to adjustable air-suspension the Grecale is comfortable and relaxing out on a motorway run. You’ll notice it bristle and fidget a bit over ruts and bumps around town, but for the most part it’s pleasant to drive here as well. 

The Grecale is pretty good fun on a twistier road too. Its steering feels accurate and direct, and with its suspension in its sportiest, firmest setting it doesn’t roll too badly either. That said, a Porsche Macan or Alfa Romeo Stelvio Quadrifoglio feel even more exciting and accomplished when you really put your foot down, and the Grecale has an annoying lag between hitting the throttle and the power being dispatched

Still, the Maserati Grecale will make for an interesting alternative choice if you’re after a fast, sporty family SUV. And if you like to be a bit different, there’s plenty to be impressed with here.

Have a look at our latest lease prices for Maserati’s smaller SUV, or head on over to our Maserati page to see how much you can save when you lease the Italian brand’s other models. We’ve also got a good choice of used Maseratis to browse, and when you find your perfect new car, sell your current car through carwow too.

Kicking off at over £60,000, the Grecale is straight into some serious territory. BMW’s X4 starts from around £10,000 less, although that is with significantly less powerful engines, and Porsche’s entry Macan also manages to go under the Maserati. 

There are three trim levels, each coming with a different engine option. The entry point is the 300hp GT, which gets 19-inch alloys, keyless entry, two-zone climate control and the three screens - 12.3-inch instrument cluster, 12.3-inch infotainment touchscreen and a third 8.8-inch screen that manages the climate, lighting and other comfort functions. 

Step up to the 330hp Modena and your wheels go up by a size to 20 inches, and a number of extra bits of equipment help justify the increase of more than £6,000 over the GT. These include a head-up display, adaptive suspension, and three-zone climate control. 

Then at the top of the chain is the 530hp Trofeo, the high-performance range topper that costs well over £20,00 more than the Modena. As well as huge performance, the Trofeo gains uprated brakes, panoramic sunroof, laminated glass and uprated adaptive suspension. 

It’s also worth keeping an eye on equipment levels, because Maserati has made a couple of strange decisions regarding what’s standard or an optional extra. For example, adaptive cruise control and blind-spot alert are part of a pricey driver assistance pack, rather than standard on even the top car that’s around the £100,000 mark. Plus, privacy glass and hands-free tailgate opening are only standard on the Trofeo. 

For the top-end, the Grecale Trofeo is more powerful and considerably more expensive than the likes of the BMW X4M Competition and Macan GTS, managing a 0-62mph acceleration time that’s over half a second better than either of those cars. In fact, Jaguar’s F-Pace SVR is the closest at 4.0 seconds against the Maserati’s 3.8, and that car is both more powerful and around £15,000 cheaper than the Italian super-SUV.

Decent performance no matter which engine you chose, but the Grecale doesn’t soak up bumps as well as other more cosseting SUVs

In town

The Grecale is on the sportier end of the premium SUV scale, so it’s not as comfortable around town as the likes of the Audi Q5 Sportback or Mercedes GLC Coupe, but that doesn’t mean it’s unpleasant. The Grecale just likes to let you know the bumps are there, and those other cars aren't as much fun to drive when you do get out of town. The big door mirrors help to claw back some of the visibility lost to the chunky rear pillar and narrow rear window, and the front pillar is pleasingly narrow, so doesn’t impinge visibility ahead. 

Front and rear parking sensors and a parking camera are all standard across the Grecale range.

There’s also one oddity in that the Grecale comes with huge race-car style paddles for changing gears manually, rather than letting the automatic do its thing if you want to take over. But they’re so big that it’s a bit of a reach around them to get to the indicators and wipers, especially if you don’t have big hands. And the indicators also seem to have been set up with the most irritating clicking noise you’ll find. 

On the motorway

At higher speeds, Maserati’s smaller SUV, sitting below the Levante in the Italian brand’s range, is impressive. It settles down with little fuss; just a touch of wind noise enters the cabin but it’s nothing that will annoy, and there’s very little road or engine noise. Once you’ve finished accelerating that is. If you’re hot-footing down a slip road, there’s a pleasant growl that gets more pleasant the more powerful a Grecale you’ve chosen. 

Less pleasant is that you don’t get adaptive cruise control, blind-spot warning, auto-dimming mirrors or various other safety systems as standard, even on the top £100,000 Trofeo. There are two levels of option pack for driver assistance systems, so Maserati is relying on you being willing to shell out the extra. 

Better news is that the seats are pretty comfortable, and should help make the Grecale a good long-distance companion. 

On a twisty road

The Grecale is one of the more fun SUVs when the road goes twisty. It has to defer to the Porsche Macan and run BMW’s X4 close, but to be in that conversation should be deemed a success. Maserati’s mid-sized SUV is composed when cornering, and feels lighter and more nimble than its bulk and height would have you believe. 

Obviously the super-quick Trofeo version is the most amusing, proving incredibly rapid across country, as you’d expect of a car claiming to out-muscle any of its performance SUV brethren. But the more modest regular Grecale engines still pack plenty of punch, although the 30hp difference in power between the pair of four-cylinder models does feel like it’s a more significant difference. 

One complaint, which can also be an issue to a lesser extent around town, is the delay between hitting the throttle and the power being delivered. It’s fairly slight, but enough to certainly be noticeable and just cause a slight frustration while you wait for the power you’ve requested. But otherwise it’s a decent all-rounder that can provide smiles for a solo run down a quiet country road while also being sure-footed and stable when the family are on board. 

That’s helped by the various drive modes, with the comfort setting desensitising the throttle and gear changes to keep things smooth, while the GT and Sport settings increase that sensitivity so smaller throttle inputs are required to coax the engine into life, as well as tweaking the gearbox for a faster response and sportier behaviour. There’s also a Corsa mode on the top Trofeo performance version, ramping the various inputs up to the sportiest and most responsive setting. 

There’s a good amount of interior and boot space, although the stowage is a mixed bag in terms of size and practicality

Starting with the commendable in the front of the very pleasant Grecale cabin, there are a pair of decent-sized cupholders and reasonable under-armrest storage, which is countered by a small glovebox and below-average door bins, the latter hampered by the hefty speakers in the doors. 

The seats are comfortable and have a good amount of adjustment – 10-way powered adjustment on the entry GT and 14-way adjustable sports seats on the higher two models – and on the highest trim level there’s a wireless charging pad as well as a covered spot that holds USB and USB-C chargers. 

The central area of the car is uncluttered, with the gear selector replaced by a sequence of buttons between the two screens, and it feels cosy in a good, welcoming way, rather than cramped. 

Space in the back seats

The rear space is certainly good enough for two adults to travel in comfort, and they will find a USB and a USB-C socket to share between them, as well as a vent each, with a separate rear climate control setting on the Modena and Trofeo cars. Those rear passengers will find they can easily slide their feet under the front seats, and headroom is decent. 

What they won’t want is another person sat between them, and the person in the middle will certainly be the least happy of the three. The transmission tunnel is pretty wide, so their feet will be straddling it, but at least there’s no lump in the middle so they’ll be on a flat bench seat. Stick with two rear occupants and they can drop the central armrest, which reveals a pair of cupholders, as well as a through-load hatch. The rear door bins are, like the ones in the front, smaller than many other similar cars, again thanks to the hefty speaker embedded into the door.

If you’re putting child seats in the back, there’s enough space once they’re in, but the rear doors don’t open particularly wide and the ISOFIX fixings aren’t the most accessible, so it’s a bit of a faff if you’re moving seats in and out of the car. 

Boot space

The Grecale stacks up pretty well for boot space. The top-spec Trofeo has an extra 35 litres of space thanks to it being the only car that doesn’t have additional batteries for a hybrid system, but the GT and Modena still boast 535 litres, which beats the BMW X4’s 525 litres and the 500 of the Porsche Macan. 

It’s a big square shape. There’s no under-floor stowage or moveable boot floor, but a 12-volt power socket, a pair of bag hooks, four tie-down points and an elasticated belt for securing small items are all present. 

Drop the rear seats, which fold at the touch of a button in the boot, and it’s an easy slide of lengthy items through the luggage area, as the seats fold flat to the boot floor. 

The Grecale’s cabin is a big jump forward in quality and design terms for Maserati, but the dual-touchscreen layout for the majority of the car’s controls isn’t the easiest to use on the move

The Grecale’s stylish cabin is a rather pleasant place to slide into, with plenty of good-quality materials to back up the design. In some ways it’s more characterful than the exterior looks, and the high line of vents flanked by a variety of soft-touch features make for a thoroughly nice environment. 

The two screens stacked one on top of the other look a little busy at first, but the division of labour is soon obvious, with the lower 8.8-inch screen controlling the climate settings among other minor features, and the infotainment, navigation and other car settings on the main 12.3-inch touchscreen. Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are standard on all cars.

It works will in simplifying the dashboard design by removing all the buttons from the dash, but a touchscreen is never the simplest thing to use when driving, and you have to take your eyes off the road for longer when looking to change the temperature or hit the demist button than you would do reaching for a knob.

The main infotainment is clear and slick, which aren’t words you’d have previously used to describe Maserati’s far-from-cutting-edge systems. It’s easy to find your way around the various menus, and responds well to the touch. 

The steering wheel also has a lot going on, with 30 separate buttons and controls coming off it, which is a bit much.The useful head-up display is an optional extra.

Clearly anyone even notionally concerned about fuel efficiency should sidestep the 530hp 3.0-litre Trofeo, with its 3.8-second 0-62mph acceleration time significantly more impressive than the 21.0mpg official fuel economy figure and 254g/km CO2 emissions that just sneak under the maximum first-year Vehicle Excise Duty figure by a solitary gramme per kilometre. 

The middle engine – not that 330hp is very near the middle when the extremities are 530hp at one end and 300hp at the other – is a 2.0-litre engine that, despite being helped by mild hybrid power, can’t do better than an official 26.7mpg and up to 210g/km of emissions, and the 0-62mph dash rises to 5.3 seconds. 

But that’s not a world away from the efficiency of the entry 300hp 2.0-litre engine, which also gets mild hybrid assistance. That car boasts a best of 27.0mpg on the official test and emissions of 208g/km, while the 0-62mph time only suffers by 0.3 seconds against the 330hp Grecale, although the more powerful engine has a perceptible edge in responsiveness from behind the wheel.

As all cars tip the scales at well over £40,000, they’ll attract an extra VED cost for years two-to-five of their lives.

The Grecale hasn’t been tested by safety body Euro NCAP, so there isn’t a star rating as yet, but it’s worth noting that a frustrating amount of clever tech is optional in one of two Driver Assistance packs – even on the top-spec £100,000 Trofeo.

The basic driver assistance pack adds adaptive cruise control, lane keeping and blind spot assist systems, full LED matrix headlights , driver drowsiness protection and auto-dimming rear view mirrors, much of which it’s disappointing isn’t standard. 

The Advanced Driver Assistance Plus Pack adds traffic sign recognition, intelligent speed assist, intersection collision assistant and active driving assistant safety systems, although it costs in the region of £5,000, almost double the basic package. And given the reluctance of buyers to part with their own cash for optional safety systems, it’s unfortunate that so few cars are likely to be fitted with the latest crash avoidance and driver assistance tech.

Good news is that every Grecale comes, at the time of writing at least, with a three-year service plan as standard, which can be transferred to another owner if you sell the car. 

The Grecale comes with a standard three-year or 50,000-mile warranty, which can be extended to a fourth and/or fifth year without mileage restrictions. At time of writing the Grecale is too new to reveal any reliability issues, although maintenance and repair work will attract a larger bill thanks to the brand’s premium credentials.