What: Maserati Quattroporte auto
Where: Launched Monte Carlo, Monaco, February
On sale: Now
Price: Starting price $249,500
About: When Maserati put its Quattroporte on sale, the four-door luxury sedan with the sporting flavour came out with only a manual gearbox. That's an anomaly in a bracket in which the auto is king, particularly in the brand's main market, the USA.
Clearly an auto was a necessity - but it took time. It wasn't just a matter of bolting an auto gearbox in place of the manual; Maserati's transaxle format didn't suit the auto, for starters.
To move the gearbox up front meant a new floorpan, changes to the rear suspenders and a heap of work on the engine.
Converted from dry to wet sump operation, it still offers 294kW but now puts out a nudge more torque, at 460Nm, arriving 250rpm earlier down the rev range. Meanwhile the damping effect of the oil changed the car's soundtrack - an important factor in a car with such a flavour of sporting derring-do.
The gearbox itself was key, of course. This ZF unit needed some work to cope with the relatively high revs of the Maser engine, but otherwise appears in such competitors as BMW, Jaguar and Mercedes.
Does it work? Oh yes. Scrambling up the precipitous slopes on the road towering above Monte Carlo before following its wriggles to Nice, we discovered a transmission that steps effortlessly from gear to gear just when you want it. More sporting flavour is a tap away, liberating a feral bark and a more urgent response. No, it isn't Lexus-smooth - that wouldn't suit this car.
The ease of the auto's operation suits this Maserati's luxury market as easily as does its beautifully-trimmed interior, and its patrician looks. That wonderful soundtrack suits the hints of bad-boy flavour beneath its glossy skin.
And its rarity suited the environment in which we drove - where Bentleys are commonplace, Ferraris ten-a-penny, but a Maserati still turns heads.
For: Rarity value, iconic name, and that matchless combination of hoonery and refinement.
Against: A quarter-mill is a lot of money for any four-door sedan, even if it does now have cupholders...