First details on next Maserati Quattroporte emerge through the company’s boss Harald Wester interview with Automotive News. And we’re afraid they are not exciting news at all. This beautiful and outstanding Italian super saloon is going to have to compromise on its sporty features to keep the green party happy.

Obviously to show they’re in tune with the time, Maserati must cut down its CO2 emissions, and they are going to do that mainly by downsizing the engines. They’re talking about V6 and turbocharged V8s, and start/stop system. The new model will also get ZF 8-speed automatic transmission as standard.

One other new thing for the Quattroporte will be the All-Wheel-Drive option, which doesn’t make sense at all! Apparently they are following the German recipe for making a hot sports saloon, and that’s just wrong. Quattroporte has a special character, it is basically a supercar with four-doors, and fiddling with it can very well ruin it.

via: Straightline