everybody's buying SUVs these days even people shopping expensive luxury brands
like Maserati whose Levante behind me enters its third model year for 2019 now
we've had a chance to drive the all-new v8 version which comes in two separate
guises here at Road America in Elkhart Lake Wisconsin at the 2019 Midwest
automotive media Association's spring rally it's a great car as you'd expect
with an Italian Ferrari assembled v8 twin turbo engine under the hood lots
and lots of power and performance but that's actually not the only reason to
Levante this thing so the Levante came out for the 2017
model year with a pair of turbocharged v6 engines now those carried over for 18
and now for 19 they're joined by two more engines for a total of four the
last two being all-new turbocharged v8 engines in the Maserati Levante GTS the
vehicle you see here and the Levante Trofeo that's really kind of the top dog
those engines are actually the same engines they're sort of adapted engines
Maserati says from the Quattroporte that's Maseratis kind of flagship luxury
sedan they've been adapted here for an all-wheel drive system all-wheel drive
obviously is standard across all versions of the Levante so as an 8-speed
automatic transmission so we've driven three versions of the Levante before
we've driven the highest turbo v6 we've also now driven both v8s that's the GTS
and the Trofeo we even drove the Trofeo on-road America itself so how are those
extra two cylinders well they're just really a sublime experience you get a
lot of power going all the way up to redline the vehicle never seems to run
out of steam it's definitely a different character than you get from some of
these larger displacement v8 engines and a lot of other SUVs with only 3.8 liters
and two turbochargers you really got to get to the higher echelons of the
tachometer to experience the real joy of this engine although there is still
plenty of torque down low which is a key point versus the v6 engines which seem a
little bit peaky er in terms of kind of their power spread now the 8-speed
automatic transmissions still a little bit hesitant to kick down to lower gears
when you need it to but with all that extra torque from the twin-turbo v8 you
don't really mind so much because top gear acceleration is really just fine
now in terms of the GTS versus the Trofeo very similarly
explosive power the Trofeo as you'd expect has a little bit more
top-end but you're really not going to be lacking for power even in the GTS
there's still plenty of explosiveness especially as the TAC needle kinda moves
past 3000 4000 rpm and a really really nice exhaust note as well you go into
the sport mode Maserati says it opens up a few more baffles for even throw to
your exhaust note and it's all genuine maserati really really emphasizes that
what you're hearing is the actual exhaust you're not hearing any kind of
augmentation of it so that's a pretty cool thing even just to know is you're
driving along now in terms of steering and handling a fairly limited body roll
once you get kind of the adaptive shock absorbers hunker down to their sporty or
setting now the Levante steers with a light touch but some enthusiasts might
decry because they wish that it had a little bit less power steering boost but
honestly it's kind of right up most SUV drivers alleys especially at low speeds
when you really need to make a lot of 3-point turns and such and feedback for
what this is is okay so there's plenty of sport in this SUV but how much
utility is there well actually more than you might expect
now Maserati owned by Fiat Chrysler automobiles and so there are some FCA
bits inside things like the headlight switches and the heated seat buttons in
back and some of those do seem honestly a little bit cheap but there's a lot of
just kind of old-school practicality and utility going on here things like the
multimedia system very easy to use a big old touchscreen with a knob controller
if you want to go either way you can there's storage space on the center
console there's nice big side mirrors relatively easy to see out the front of
the vehicle comfortable seats and a somewhat usable back seat so I know what
you're thinking why do I care so inordinately about utility and
practicality in a 6-figure performance SUV well because a lot of performance
luxury SUVs just don't have a lot of practicality and utility somewhere along
the way it kind of got lost in the shuffle and the fact that the Levante is
a lot of fun to drive and still is a half-decent SUV well that's a feat for
Maserati if you have enough coin maybe something worth checking out