Pick the diesel and Maserati says you’ll get 45mpg. That figure should be taken with a pinch of salt but either way it’s still the best to go for if you want to keep costs down. The petrols are very thirsty indeed.

Bear in mind that the Quattroporte’s residual values, like those of many luxury saloons, are poor, retaining an average of less than a third of its new price after three years and 30,000 miles.

As you would expect, the lowest CO2 emissions come from the 3-litre V6 diesel engine, rather than the V6 or V8 petrols.

Pick the former and you can expect 163g/km of CO2 – not enormously high but dirtier tham most of the Quattroporte’s rivals.

Some of the components have seen action elsewhere, which is usually a good indication of reliability, plus every Quattroporte is put through 700 quality assurance checks, including a 40-mile road test, before it reaches the customer.

During development Maserati put the car though extreme-temperature testing in South Africa, Morocco, Sweden and New Zealand, plus conducted nearly four million test miles in a fleet of more than 90 Quattroportes – so they’re pretty serious about quality control.