• Safety equipment improved during 2016 facelift
• Not exactly cutting-edge kit but it works well
• Too specialist to be crash-tested by Euro NCAP

While the Maserati Quattroporte hasn’t been crash-tested by the safety experts at Euro NCAP, a strong chassis and lots of standard kit should mean it’s a safe place in which to travel.

All grades get bright bi-xenon headlamps with an adaptive front lighting system so you’ll be able to see easily in the dark. There are also dual-stage front airbags for the driver and passenger plus side and window airbags.

An electronic stability control system is installed too, along with a tyre-pressure monitoring system and a can of tyre-sealing compound with an electric air compressor in the boot.

Alarm-wise you get sensors in the car and an anti-lift device, plus a NavTrak vehicle tracking system to help prevent theft.

As part of the 2016 revisions, additional safety kit became available include a 360-degree camera system, adaptive cruise control to maintain a predetermined gap to the vehicle in front and blind-spot warning to alert you to traffic approaching from behind you may have missed in your mirrors.

• Cabin is large but more snug than you’d expect
• Decent amount of oddments storage space
• Boot size and shape is typical of this class

This is a big car and while you’d expect there to be a lot of space inside, it’s more snug than the Maserati Quattroporte’s considerable 5,264mm length suggests.

You can stretch out in the back, even behind a tall driver, but it’s far cosier than what you would experience in the back of a Mercedes-Benz S-Class, even a standard-wheelbase one.

There are a number of little touches that amplify the Quattroporte’s practical side: electric sunblinds in the rear doors can be deployed from the driver’s seat to shield the face of a sleeping toddler or celebrity passenger, while unsightly cupholders are hidden away behind a veneered flap next to the gearlever. There’s also a sizeable hidey-hole under the central armrest.

The boot offers a generous 530 litres of space for your bags of golf clubs or folded-up pushchairs, with a 60:40 split-folding rear seat back to increase flexibility.