Last year was not kind to the Maserati Levante.
Worse still, that probably came as a surprise to the management at Maserati’s parent firm, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles. In the 15 months following the model’s introduction in 2016, some 25,000 examples found owners; compared with Maserati’s 32,000 sales across all of its models the previous year, such volume was an encouraging bellwether for this new SUV. It seemed the high-riding Levante would do for the Bolognese brand what the Jaguar F-Pace did for Jaguar, the Porsche Cayenne has done for Porsche and the Bentley Bentayga now seems to be doing for Bentley – usher in a period of prosperity and provide the financial basis for the continued development of traditional sports cars.
However, reports suggest Levante production at FCA’s Mirafiori plant was down more than 40% in 2018, with staff temporarily ‘idled’ to better align the number of cars rolling off the line with demand, most of which comes from China, with the US an easy second before the big European markets. The drop is dramatic, and made all the more painful because the SUV segment continues to grow with global enthusiasm. How has such a strikingly good-looking newcomer from arguably the most storied brand in the business failed to capitalise on this trend?
The answers are hinted at in the Levante’s original Autocar road test. It scored just three stars from five, and we called it out on the grounds of its tepid turbodiesel performance, ordinary handling, questionable cabin specification and perceived quality. Simply, Range Rover and the German brands did it better, even if the Maserati’s all-round ambience and aggressive pricing made it worthy of consideration.
