Audi A6 vs Maserati Ghibli

What's the difference?

The Subaru Outback has a lot to answer for. Way back in 1994 the Japanese brand created the high-riding wagon scene - and while the idea never really took off with most mainstream makers, European luxury brands seemingly loved the idea of a rugged estate. It’s another niche to fill, after all.

This led to the Volvo V70 Cross Country in 1997, and Audi followed suit with the A6-based Allroad quattro back in 1999. 

Other luxury brands have entered the fray since then, and obviously the market has proliferated with SUVs… but they’re not the same as a high-riding station wagon.

There has been evolution in the Audi Allroad line-up over time: in 2015 the company added the smaller A4 Allroad, while the original larger A6-based Allroad wagon continues to cop the rough-and-tumble treatment, as it has for decades now.

So, since the all-new Audi A6 Allroad has just arrived in Australia, we thought we’d see what it’s like. And perhaps more pertinently, maybe we’ll be able to answer the question that many of you probably have: Should you buy a high-riding wagon? Or is it smarter to just buy an SUV?

Maseratis make a certain amount of sense to a certain kind of person. As the folks who run the brand in Australia will tell you, its buyers are the kind of people who’ve driven German premium vehicles, but find themselves wanting something more. 

They are older, wiser and, most importantly, richer. 

While it’s easy to see the high-end lure of Maserati’s Italian sex appeal styling and luxuriously appointed interiors, they’ve always struck me as cruisers rather than bruisers. 

Again, they’re for the older, more generously padded buyer, which makes the Trofeo range something of an oddity. Maserati says its Trofeo badge - seen here on its mid-sized sedan, the Ghibli, which sits below the vast Quattroporte limousine (and side on to the other car in the range, the SUV Levante) - is all about the "Art of Fast". 

And it certainly is fast, with a whopping V8 driving the rear wheels. It’s also completely bonkers, a luxury car with the heart of a track-chomping monster. 

Which is why Maserati chose to launch it at the Sydney Motorsport Park complex, where we could see just how quick and crazy it is. 

The big question is, why? And perhaps who, because it’s hard to imagine who wants, or needs, a car with such severe schizophrenia.