SECTOR: Executive   PRICE: €64,980   FUEL: 5.9l/100km   CO2: 158g/km

Maserati may sound like an unlikely contender for fleet sales, but the Ghibli shows it’s serious about entering the corporate sector. And it’s doing so with a diesel engine and some surprising affordability under its belt.

Celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2014, Maserati has long been a performance-dominated manufacturer of grand tourers and sports saloon cars. Both are ideal for retail sales but, with only petrol engines, neither have much potential in fleet.

Things are changing, though. The company has a target of 50,000 global sales by 2015, with the Levante SUV and Ghibli executive car central to those growth plans. Both are launching into fleet-heavy sectors, which meant establishing a corporate sales department and equipping them with a viable diesel engine to get there.

While the Ghibli isn’t aiming to topple the 5 Series off the corporate sales charts, it puts Maserati in a new sector with its most efficient, most affordable model. It uses a range of turbocharged V6 engines with a single diesel, a 275hp unit positioned as a rival to German rivals’ high performance diesels rather than high-volume, low-carbon four-cylinder models. With this engine, the Ghibli consumes 5.9 litres of diesel per 100km with CO2 emissions of 158g/km.

It’s as much power as most drivers will need. The diesel is incredibly refined, paired with an eight-speed automatic gearbox which has an ultra-smooth comfort setting for motorway cruising. But it’s a true Maserati when it needs to be. In Sport mode, it holds onto each gear for longer, changes gear quicker and sharpens throttle and steering responses to enliven the drive. Maserati purists may bemoan the lack of a petrol engine note, but Sport mode also opens flaps in the exhaust and gives it a convincingly purposeful growl.

Aluminium body panels help keep the kerb weight down, and in turn it means the Ghibli feels remarkably sure-footed and agile on sweeping roads, despite its size, while making the most of the available power. However, it’s worth testing both the standard executive suspension setup and sports option before making the final choice. The former is far more suited to day-to-day driving, and barely blunts the handling compared to the far stiffer sports setup.

Mechanicals aside, it adopts Maserati’s new family styling complete with a wide oval grille and aggressive headlights similar to the new Quattroporte’s. The cabin is awash with soft leather and can be heavily personalised – it’s fairly well laid out, though the large transmission tunnel can make the back seats feel a little cramped. Its infotainment system with Garmin navigation is almost identical to the Lancia Thema’s.

So is the Ghibli Diesel a compromise? Perhaps, but only slightly. This is a great executive car, and feels every bit the downsized Quattroporte it should. With sensible targets in mind and no plans to blur the brand identity with eco-focused models, but with running costs low enough not to scare fleets away, this is a convincing first entry into a very demanding part of the market.

Verdict:

Not the cheapest in its segment to run, but the Ghibli is an attractive entry point into the Maserati range with plenty of aspirational fleet appeal.