Our first experience with the Grecale was a few years ago when Maserati loaned us a then-new Grecale Trofeo. Like all things Trofeo, we loved it. If there was anything we didn’t like, it was easily smoothed over by the seamless and enormous power of the turbocharged Nettuno V6. But how good is the Grecale in lesser trims? Good question. It’s easy to fall for the damn-the-cost top-of-the-line model. How does the less expensive model fare? Quite well, it seems.
Like the Grecale Trofeo we drove, it’s a sharp looking car. Like all Maseratis, the Trident badge takes center stage in the front grille. It’s a historical design cue, after all. Just like the fender vents and the name “Modena” in script over them. The hood is lower, the wheel arches are more muscular, the roofline angles more aggressively. It’s a great looking little SUV. The Levante is no slouch either, but the Grecale looks a little more lithe. A little more agile. A little more sporting than the more upscale Levante. It’s a car I enjoyed looking at and that says something.
Inside, you’ll find just about every modern convenience in an interior swathed in luxurious materials. Rich leathers, quality plastics, beautiful metals. The dash is utterly gorgeous in black leather. The instrument screen, the sat-nav screen, and the climate control screens are all large, gorgeously rich in color, clarity, and style. Easy to read and understand, you quickly learn how everything works and that’s ideal in this world where many auto screens aren’t all that intuitive. The steering wheel is leather-wrapped and smallish but with a thick barrel. The aluminum paddle shifters behind the wheel are utterly gorgeous and almost sensuous to the touch. The front seats are soft, yet firm, with bolsters that both hold you in place while driving and yet easy to ingress/egress. They electrically adjust to fit just about anyone this side of Shaq himself. The back seats are equally comfortable and the back seats are configurable in order to increase storage area. We could have driven for hours in the Grecale Modena without getting tired.
Under the hood is something less than the amazing Nettuno engine. The Modena has a turbocharged four-cylinder engine instead. If you think that a turbocharged four-cylinder engine in a Maserati is some form of automotive blasphemy, know that it makes 320 hp and 450 Nm of torque to drive the rear wheels and that it’s an amazingly quick and tractable engine. It has power from idle to redline and is very eager to rev. But it also has a hybrid portion that helps even more.
The hybrid portion of the car is a battery pack that charges while driving and is used to power two electric motors driving the front wheels. WHAT?! A hybrid Maserati? Don’t fear. Maserati isn’t bending to the will of the fun-sucking environmentalists. The hybrid electric portion only comes into play when the car senses wheel slip and then powers the front wheels to make up for lost traction. Maserati did a hybrid the right way. It’s purely a performance-oriented hybrid system.
All that power is transmitted through an 8-speed DCT transmission that allows you to crack off near-instantaneous shifts using the paddle shifters or just by being lazy and letting the transmission do all the work for you. At least when you let the automatic transmission do the work you won’t be embarrassed when you’re utterly awestruck by the speed of the acceleration and you miss your shift and the engine bangs off the rev limiter in front of everyone else.
Ahem.
Not that that happened to us or anything. We’re just saying. It’s a darned quick machine. Be prepared.
Holding all that power in check are 4-piston Brembo brakes that do a fabulous job of slowing the car down in panic conditions or just because there’s a sharp hairpin turn approaching fast. Our car had the optional red calipers and they looked so sexy behind the silver and black wheels that we may have lusted over them. The brakes are solid and modulate easily and intuitively. They give you great confidence when driving in any conditions.
The Grecale Modena drive mode selector gives the driver the settings of Comfort, GT, and Sport. The Comfort setting tones down the exhaust and makes for a sedate driving experience. GT, the default setting, adds a little sporting flavor and quickens it’s reflexes. The Sport setting sets the reflexes to their maximum responsiveness and opens up the exhaust baffles.
The suspension is both sporting and competent. It carries the Grecale Modena around corners relatively flatly, inspiring confidence in the car, and encouraging you to push harder through the next corner. Yet it absorbs speed bumps at the mall with comfort and provides a nice, comfortable ride around town. Here in Michigan, our roads are pretty rough this time of year but the Grecale Modena skipped right over the rough stuff. We would have loved a “Corsa” setting for the suspension but Maserati reserve that for the Trofeo trim line.
The Grecale Modena is quiet on the road. There is little wind or tire noise until you get up over 80 mph. Then you hear a bit, but it doesn’t affect your ability to converse while driving.
The wheels are 20” Maserati-designed wheels and are very attractive. Wrapped around them are Continental all-season tires. The wide tires give plenty of grip but tend to tramline and follow the tire ruts in asphalt. It’s not enough to annoy you but you’ll notice it.
Fuel mileage is rated at 22 mpg in the city and 28 mpg on the highway, for a combined rating of 24 mpg. I’ve no idea if that’s accurate because I’m simply not disciplined enough to keep from pushing the throttle into the floor every chance I get. Sorry. Even though my heavy foot won out nearly every opportunity it had, fuel mileage didn’t seem to suffer too badly. I didn’t notice any irregular consumption.
Somewhat unusually for me, I used the stereo more than I typically would in a loaner car. The Sonus faber sound system was impressively clear and full for a factory car stereo system and we rocked out several times driving it.
The Grecale Modena was a fabulous car to drive. Maserati have a marketing tagline that they tout – “Everyday Exceptional.” It fits. The Grecale Modena is something you could easily use as a fantastic daily driver and still get your Walter Mitty thrills on a fun backroad when the mood strikes. It really IS everyday exceptional.
One of the best parts of the Grecale Modena is the smooth, rev-happy engine that makes every full-throttle acceleration run a moment to remember. For such a small engine, it really moves the Grecale.
But there were a few minor things that we didn’t like. First, the engine note. When you’re motoring around in automatic mode, the transmission wants to find the highest gear it can in order to save fuel. Unfortunately, the engine note is a typical four-cylinder engine note. It sounds like an economy car. The simple solution is to put it in Sport mode, which holds the gears a little longer and is slower to upshift. Or use the paddle shifters. This keeps the engine revving higher and when it revs higher, it sounds great. The other annoyance was the sound of the turn signals. Rather than a refined “tic-tic-tic” sound, the sound is something out of a 1990’s Super Mario Bros. game – a playful electronic “boop” that amused us to no end and inspired lots of joking about saving the Princess. It’s certainly not a dealbreaker but I’m sure Maserati could find something a little more refined.
Aside from those small issues though, the Grecale Modena lived up to “Everyday Exceptional.” We thoroughly enjoyed our time with it. Perhaps we can spend some time later this year with a 2026 model and see how it compares. And whether or not Maserati saved the Princess before we could.
The Grecale Modena starts at $84,500. Our model, as tested, came in at $87,900. That’s a chunk of change but it’s not unreasonable for such an exclusive and nicely finished car with the performance of the Grecale Modena.
Performance: 7
Handling: 7
Design: 8
Interior: 8
Infotainment: 8
Sound: 5
Fun: 7
Overall: 7
