Maserati Kubang SUV hits the road in new video

Maserati Kubang SUV Video

There was a time when we expected everyone from Ferrari to Lamborghini and Bentley to Rolls Royce to cobble together a luxury SUV to tempt buyers. That fad went away for a while, but now its back and we have the first SUV in a generation from a maker of Italian exotica – the Maserati Kubang SUV – and this video of the Kubang on the road.

Interestingly, although the Kubang is supposedly the start of this video, it only turns up in the final third, with the first two thirds dedicated to showcasing Maserati’s performance pedigree – past and present. It’s almost as if Maserati are starting with a justification and apology for the Kubang.

The Kubang – a re-used SUV moniker for Maserati, first used on their 2003 SUV Concept – arrived officially at this year’s Frankfurt Motor Show to much the same approbation as the Cayenne received when it debuted eight years ago.

But even though Maserati fan-boys – and a big chunk of motorists the world over – decry expensive on-road SUVs as an abomination, the Kubang could well do for Maserati what the Cayenne did for Porsche – if it’s properly bolted together and if it has decent performance and dynamics.

The starting point is good - based as the Kubang is on the new Grand Cherokee (and by definition the Mercedes M Class too) – with Maserati promising Maserati suspension, brakes, handling and performance.

And thankfully the Kubang won’t just get a re-hashed Grand Cherokee lump (although the hugely powerful 6.4 litre V8 from the Grand Cherokee SRT8 wouldn’t have been a bad starting point) but will get proprietary engines designed in Modena and bolted together by Ferrari at Marenello.

All of which sounds very promising – if you ignore the cries of sacrilege that resonate round the world’s car forums – and could signal the rebirth of Maserati as a profitable and successful marque in its own right.

And whatever the complaints are about the Kubang, it’s certainly no worse looking than the Cayenne.

(3 photos – click any thumbnail for full size)

By Cars UK