Maserati Quattroporte

When cultural historians get around to sorting out the golden age of bling, we’d bet big money this vehicle will emerge as the era’s poster car. It’s not a distinction Maserati set out to achieve, and the term makes at least some folks from the engineering and product-planning ranks wince when they hear it. But there’s no denying the Maserati's popularity with various high-visibility individuals — professional athletes, X-gamers, pop stars — and there’s no denying that, as a consequence, the new Maserati had to upstage the bling quotient of its predecessor.