Published:
2 January 2024Putting the Levante's interior under the microscope is an undertaking that’s as exasperating as it is delightful. On the face of things, Maserati seems to have worked hard to create a space that looks and feels not just upmarket but alternatively so, to imbue a distinct sense of identity, richness, luxury and flair next to the more serious, purposeful interiors of rivals from Porsche or Audi.
There's real character here, and those of us with even a few droplets of petrol in our veins will whoop with delight at a car hanging tenaciously onto gorgeous analogue dials. Not least if you’ve opted for the V8 and thus have a real enthusiasm for chasing the 7000rpm redline to fully utilise them.
We also liked the long, fixed metal paddle shifters, which lift the ambience successfully in both Maseratis and Alfa Romeos and make you wonder why most other brands make do with smaller, often plastic alternatives. You’re far more likely to manually shift in here than in its foes.
But these almost romantic initial impressions begin to erode under closer inspection. For all the flashes of character and quality in some places, there are frustratingly cheap and unergonomic controls elsewhere, the oddly flaccid feeling gear selector among those.
Their abundant presence doesn’t make for an endearing juxtaposition against the more tasteful elements of the cabin. The plasticky controls on the centre console look particularly jarring against the wood veneer, while the hard grey moulding that surrounds the infotainment screen is similarly unattractive.
