Maserati Ghibli vs Genesis G70

What's the difference?

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. 

I’m family testing the updated Genesis G70 this week, which has seen some tweaks to its technology and safety systems.

The G70’s release also sees the line-up trimmed to one highly-specified Sport Luxury grade, available as a four-cylinder Shooting Brake wagon or the V6 sedan on test here.

It competes with other mid-size sedans like the Audi A4, BMW 3 Series and Mercedes-Benz C-Class. So, how does the G70 handle life with a small family of three? Keep reading to find out!