Maserati GranCabrio Trofeo review: a Ferrari-engined convertible for a very short list of Bahraini buyers
3.6/5motorssouq Editorial Team
The GranCabrio Trofeo is the most convincing Maserati has built in years — the Nettuno V6 is a genuinely world-class engine and the chassis underneath it is new, not a decade-old platform wearing a facelift. In Bahrain it is a car for the handful of buyers who want a drop-top grand tourer and do not need the badge to also be a sensible financial decision: there is no used-market history yet to judge long-term reliability against, the roof is a fair-weather-only proposition against the summer heat, and depreciation on a car this new and this niche will be steep. Buy it to drive, not to hold.
Pros
- Nettuno V6 is genuinely in-house and world-class, not a rebadged Ferrari unit
- All-wheel drive and an eight-speed automatic make 550 hp genuinely usable
- New MC20-derived platform, not a decade-old chassis with a facelift
- Rarity means real presence — almost nobody else in Bahrain will have one
Cons
- No used-market track record in Bahrain to judge long-term reliability against
- The roof-down experience only really works outside the May-to-October heat
- Depreciation on a niche new-generation car this expensive will be steep
- Maserati's recent electrical-reliability record is a reason for real caution
Maserati spent the last decade building its V6 and V8 sedans and SUVs around engines developed with, and largely for, Ferrari — the twin-turbo units in the Ghibli, Levante and Quattroporte are genuinely good but never entirely Maserati's own story to tell. The Nettuno V6 changes that. Built in-house, using pre-chamber combustion technology drawn from Formula 1, it makes 550 hp and 650 Nm in Trofeo tune, and it is the single best reason to want a new Maserati in 2026.
Driving it in Bahrain
All-wheel drive and an eight-speed automatic make the GranCabrio easier to place on the road than the drama of the specification sheet suggests, and the Nettuno engine's response and noise at the top of its rev range are more special than anything in the Ghibli or Quattroporte's older V6. The roof-down experience is genuinely the point of the car — for the handful of weeks either side of Bahrain's brutal summer when it is actually pleasant to have it down. From May to October, this is functionally a very expensive coupe with the air conditioning working overtime.
The reality of buying one new
This is a car with essentially no used-market history in Bahrain to draw on: it only returned to production in 2024, volumes are tiny, and nobody can yet tell you honestly how the Nettuno V6 or the new electronics ages over five years of Gulf heat and humidity. Maserati's own recent record on electrical reliability — well documented on the Ghibli, Levante and Quattroporte — is the reason to be cautious rather than assume the new platform has fixed everything. Anyone buying a GranCabrio Trofeo new in Bahrain should plan on keeping it inside the warranty period and treating depreciation as the price of admission, not a future problem to solve.