Maserati Grecale Modena review – an SUV with a supercar engine to replace your Porsche Macan
The MCPura supercar engine with 240bhp less in a Macan-sized SUV from £85k sounds pretty appealing. Is it?
Aren’t SUVs supposed to be big-selling cash cows, for anyone willing to build one? It’s rare that they’re not but if anyone can manage to struggle to sell one, it’s Maserati. In the three years since the introduction of its Grecale SUV, a direct competitor for the titanic seller that is the Porsche Macan, Maserati has managed to sell a grand total of around 2000 cars in the UK. Note, not 2000s Grecales. 2000 cars, inclusive of the latest GranTurismo and GranCabrio and the MC20 supercars. Ouch.
The reasons for this aren’t hugely complex. Brand awareness for Maserati in the UK is pretty woeful and truthfully, if you weren’t buying a Nettuno V6-engined Trofeo model, the Grecale wasn’t very, well, Maserati at all. Now with a facelift, Maserati wants to change that, with added visual attitude to peak the interests of an increasingly expressive and extroverted car buying public and a new version of its flagship engine that’s more accessible and affordable. The new Grecale Modena couldn’t have arrived at a better time too. With Porsche finally retiring the aging combustion Macan, leaving only the soft-selling Macan EV to defend the segment, Maserati could just capitalise with rival supercar-engined SUV at a competitive price. The question though, is whether it’s any good.
Maserati Grecale Modena – engine and performance
- Nettuno engine detuned to 385bhp
- But it loses none of its rabid character
- Performance is enough most of the time
More reviews
The Grecale Modena, like the Grecale Trofeo (and indeed the entire GranTurismo and GranCabrio range) uses a version of the Nettuno twin-turbo V6, including its much-celebrated pre-chamber combustion tech. The main difference here is that it is significantly detuned compared to any previous iteration yet seen. In the GranTurismo power figures start with a 4 and a 5, in the MC20 and MCPura, a 6.
The Grecale Modena has a relatively modest 385bhp arriving at 6500rpm and 369lb ft, some 100lb ft down on the GranTurismo Modena and almost 200lb ft down on the MCPura. That torque figure, however, arrives 500rpm sooner than in the higher-powered versions, from 2000rpm all the way up to 4500rpm. The transmission remains the eight-speed ZF automatic sending power to all four wheels.
You might be worried that in having its muscles deflated, the Nettuno might have lost some of its punchy personality. Not a bit of it. It sounds more or less indistinguishable from the more potent variants we’ve become used to. Performance is obviously not as strong as the Trofeo, its acceleration capability not as frantic. Indeed, 0-62mph rises to 4.9sec in the Modena from 3.8sec in the Trofeo.
The reality though is that in everyday driving, you’re never wanting for the higher ceiling of performance. If you need to get a move on, you simply dig your right foot deeper into the throttle pedal to get the right amount of performance that, yes, more powerful versions deliver more willingly, but that the Modena is perfectly capable of. It might be over 30 per cent down on the Trofeo, but you’ll only miss the extra five per cent of the time. What you’ll appreciate all the time is the character of the Nettuno engine, pulling well in the mid-range then singing all the way up past 6500rpm. You’ll also appreciate that this engine is now accessible in the Modena from £85,395, to buyers that might have otherwise been in the market for a Macan GTS that can no longer place an order.
Maserati Grecale Modena – Ride and handling
- No air suspension as standard for the Modena
- Springs and adaptive dampers do the job
- Steering feels good but whole car isn't as precise as a Macan
What the Grecale Modena also loses compared to the Trofeo is the flagship’s air suspension. The Modena instead has coil springs paired with its adaptive dampers. The result could well have been a family SUV that’s lacking in that extra bit of refinement that air springs can often afford high-riders. What I actually found, at least during a relatively limited drive, was a car that didn’t really suffer from this ‘downgrade’. Yes, there’s a bit more fidget over small bumps as you trundle around, but the Modena soaks up the sturdier punches that urban throughways can throw at it.
Find yourself on a faster, twistier country road and exploration of the Modena’s driving modes also reveals that it loses ‘Corsa’ mode, the most aggressive setting in the Trofeo. No great loss, as ‘Sport’ tautens the Grecale Modena no less than you’d hope for a car of this type. It’s not the last word in control, balance and tactility, but the steering and damping feel well-developed and expensive. It’s not as tightly controlled, or crisp a product as a combustion Macan. The steering’s not as responsive, but there’s a more pleasant texture to the Maserati.
Maserati Grecale Modena – Interior and tech
Maserati is as proud of the interior changes to the Grecale Modena as it is those to the exterior, though it has to be said, I’m not enormously impressed. First off, the gear selector, which instead of being a row of buttons, is now a row of physical toggles. Or at least, that’s what it looks like. The reality is the toggles are just plastic protrusions attached to a panel, the whole thing flexing when each is used. The clock is now digital too and can display a compass or your current speed if you wish. The bezel is now an octagonal, almost Patek-esque metallic item, only it’s a bit cheap.
The steering wheel in the Grecale has been revised for the facelift with a new octagonal rim, though the controls go largely unchanged. It neither worsens nor improves the Grecale experience. Always a delight, the huge column-mounted shift paddles, familiar from Ferrari, Alfa Romeo and other Maserati models. The cabin itself is spacious and of reasonable quality, though the materials vary more and the fit and finish is not as drum-tight as Porsche.
Price and rivals
The Maserati Grecale arrived as a direct competitor to Porsche’s combustion Macan. That car is now off-sale, leaving Maserati to hoover up the increasing demand Porsche isn’t catering to with its Macan EV.
The Grecale Modena joins the range at £85,395 starting, priced just over £10k and £25k above the four-cylinder mild hybrid models, but £21k cheaper than the £106,045 Trofeo.
The Macan might be the obvious rival but we’d also look carefully to Alfa Romeo and the Stelvio Quadrifoglio. For only £10,000 more, here is a more focussed, genuine performance SUV that uses a more powerful (but not pre-chamber tech-equipped) version of the same V6 and a version of the same underpinnings, just with an (arguably) less exotic badge. Want a less exotic, less extreme alternative? The BMW X3 M50 is available from £73,795, with its 392bhp B58 straight-six – yes, more powerful than the Maserati.
