Maserati Levante review - Reliability and safety

Maserati has big sales ambitions for the Levante, with the SUV set to open the brand up to more customers. It's still a low-volume manufacturer in the UK though, so it didn’t feature in our most recent annual Driver Power owner satisfaction survey. Build quality is good in some places but patchy in others, and overall it’s some way off rivals from Porsche or Audi.

The car should be safe, though. Euro NCAP hasn’t crash tested it, but the Ghibli, a car with which it shares much of its mechanical architecture, was awarded the maximum five-star rating when it was tested in 2013. The Levante gets six airbags as standard, and each of the outer rear seats is equipped with Isofix child seat mountings.

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For an extra £2,300, the Driver Assistance Pack Plus adds a range of safety features, including a surround view camera, forward collision warning with autonomous emergency braking, blind spot warning, traffic sign recognition, and ‘Highway Assist’. Highway Assist mixes adaptive cruise control with lane keeping assist, which enables the Levante to drive autonomously on dual carriageways and motorways for short periods.

LED Matrix headlights were introduced in the 2018 updates, giving drivers a significantly better view of the road ahead at night, without dazzling oncoming traffic.

Warranty

The Maserati Levante’s three-year, unlimited mileage warranty is competitive, and beats the Audi Q7’s three-year/60,000-mile guarantee. Porsche, BMW and Mercedes all offer the same cover – and, according to historical data, are likely to suffer fewer niggles during the first few years.

Servicing

Maserati offers fixed-price servicing from £599, as well as three-year servicing packages from around £1,500. Service intervals of 12 months or 12,500 miles mean you’ll be visiting your dealer fairly regularly, though at the time of writing there are just 16 dealers spread across the length and breadth of the UK – meaning getting your car there might prove troublesome. However, as most Maserati dealers are joint franchises with Ferrari workshops, it'll feel like an event every time you take your car in for work.