I cross shopped the Maserati QP GTS and the Panamera GTS. For the money I expect things to be put together properly. There is a funny thread on the Maserati-Life forum where a guy who took delivery of his NEW Maserati is embarking on fixing himself the 6 defects he can see from sitting in the driver's seat alone. I tried to like Maserati, but never got past the cheap feel of their fully loaded flagship QP GTS.

 

Hmmm, that's real tempting and I get the "we are not 17 anymore" statement but the Panamera keeps trying to push you to test it out. I did race a 2014 Bentley coupe 2 weeks ago and I have to be honest with the launch control I had a head start but that bad boy blew me away.

Maybe if I had a Turbo or GTS, it would have been a different story. I would have been tempted to race her but being that it is Chicago, I would take a pass on that. Those cops enjoy giving tickets over there.

 

How do you have fun in Chicago without getting tickets? I'm in the same boat. Got the radar ticket cameras all over the city now. Anywhere nearby that you like?

 

I am a big fan of the Panamera. On the spur of the moment, I traded in my Panamera Turbo for a Maserati Quattroporte. The Panamera was a speed demon, especially with the launch control. That being said I am having a blast with the Maserati. The exhaust noise is intoxicating. I have set off a number of car alarms at work because of the exhaust. It is surprisingly quick. It is not as quick as the Panamera Turbo, but I'm pretty sure that it wouldn't embarrass me against a Panamera S. The Maserati also gets a lot of positive comments. I even got a thumbs up from a Subaru driver who followed me for 10 miles listening to the exhaust sound in stop and go traffic on the Interstate. In contrast, I spent $5k to have the Porsche dealer add the sport exhaust to the Panamera and it barely made a difference in the sound. In all likelihood I will get another Porsche when they bring out something new, but for now the Maserati is a positive change of scenery.

 

Women seem to love the Panny.
I drove my nephew's Maserati GT in SoCal.

Have to tell you I wasn't impressed. The radio and temp digits are antiquated and boring and so is the car overall as compared to my P4S...
as for the tease by that babe, I would've taken her up on it I don't think she would've been a cop...

 

I can tell you first hand that the Panamera is a better car. I went from a Pan4s to a fully loaded 2014 QP GTS, it has 530 hp, but it feels as fast as my 4S with 400 HP. The overall feel and finish is inferior to the panamera. I just tuned my car with novitec ECU to 605hp with 600+ torque, I hope its now as fast as the Pan GTS.

The only thing that is comparable is braking, MAS has very powerful brakes. In terms of aesthetics, it is debatable.

 

I might have told her I would let her win anyway, so no race.
Just can't warm up to anything about any model of the Mas. Exhaust note is a bit too much. The PGTS exhaust note is very easy to live with, although the bark at startup gets a few unpleasant looks occasionally.

 

The exhaust note from the QP GTS is very tame from the inside. At idle the car is almost dead silent. Inside the cabin with sport mode on, I can barely hear anything unless its at full throttle.

On the outside its pretty loud if you floor it, but cruising speed its very quiet.