Maserati rental
Kuala Lumpur

Maserati has spent a century being the interesting alternative to the obvious choice, and it is a marque best appreciated by people who already know the mainstream options. Founded in Bologna in 1914 and long headquartered in Modena, its most celebrated period produced grand tourers with big-hearted engines and styling that was more sensual than aerodynamic. The company has never quite been mass-market and has never wanted to be.

The engineering thread worth knowing is the Ferrari connection. For a long stretch of the modern era, Maserati's V6 and V8 engines were designed and assembled at Maranello, and the resulting units carried a hard, metallic, high-frequency exhaust note that no German rival produced. That soundtrack is the single most identifiable Maserati characteristic and it is the reason people fall for the cars despite the more prosaic parts of the ownership experience.

The Levante is the SUV application of all that, and it is a strange and likeable thing. It shares its platform architecture with the Ghibli and Quattroporte saloons and is not built up from a truck, which gives it a lower centre of gravity and a more car-like response than most rivals. The air suspension has real range between its settings, the steering is hydraulically assisted in a way that has all but disappeared from the segment, and it makes a noise going up a hill that a Range Rover simply does not.

In Malaysia the Levante works as the SUV for someone who has already had the German ones. Ride height clears every hump and ramp in the Klang Valley, the cabin is comfortable for the Karak run to Bentong, and the road presence is distinctive where the German ones are ubiquitous. If the objective is not being the fourth identical SUV in the hotel driveway, this is the answer.