Maserati Coupé (01-06) - Review

Although outward appearances suggest the Coupé is merely a mildly facelifted version of the older 3200GT, it is quite different beneath the skin. That car, produced between 1998 and 2001 and distinguished by its pretty boomerang rear lights, was powered by a twin turbo V8 and had its gearbox mounted at the front with the engine. The car that followed, called simply Maserati Coupé, used a naturally aspirated V8 built by Ferrari and had its gearbox mounted over the rear wheels for better handling. A convertible Spyder version which came without the solid-roofed cars' useful rear seats was also available which Maserati replaced with a more performance-biased Gran Sport Spyder in 2005. Two years later Maserati phased out both coupé and roadster, replacing them with the larger, more refined Granturismo. Other cars to consider are the luxury biased Jaguar XK and more perfromance oriented Porsche 911.