Maserati's beautiful and popular $110K+ Quattroporte has, in recent years, taken heat from the automotive press (and doubtless a few owners) for its very rough-going F1style paddle shifter. The lack of a full fledged automatic transmission has hampered the Trident's competitive viability against the established Teutons.

That is until now. With great fanfare and a fresh site dedicated solely to the sedan that they've renamed "Quattroporte Automatic", Maserati has finally fitted and honest-to-goodness 6-speed automatic transmission to its luxury flagship.

In cahoots with ZF, the same transmission people who do just about everyone else's automatics - including Mercedes-Benz, the new Maserati takes a little longer to get from standstill to 60 mph (5.6 sec. vs. 5.2 sec.) and develops a new rear bias to the car's weight balance (49% front / 51% rear).

The new sedan goes on sale in the UK this upcoming Valentine's Day. The North American release date has not been announced.

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