Maserati introduced a successor for the Quattroporte after four years since the last of the third-generation model rolled out from the assembly lines.
Alejandro de Tomaso sold his stakes in Maserati to Fiat, and the Italian company decided to continue the Quattroporte and offered it as a premium sports sedan. It was, more or less, a stretched, four-door version of the Maserati Biturbo.
Fiat selected Marcello Gandini to design the car. He kept the same wedged shapes from the Biturbo and Shamal models. It featured horizontal, rectangular headlights instead of the four squared headlamps use on its predecessor. The wrapped-around plastic bumpers sported the fog lights on the lower side. He penned a clean and ascending line on the upper side of the wheel-arches, following the same design idea from the Shamal, which was introduced four years earlier.
Inside, the carmaker installed a luxurious, leather-clad interior. Maserati enhanced it with wood veneers on the dashboard, door panels, center stack, and center console. As a touch of excellence, the carmaker installed an oval-shaped analog clock in the middle of the dashboard. The bucket seats featured higher bolstering than most of the executive sedans from that era. In the back, Maserati offered a bench profiled for two occupants, with a folding center armrest. Due to the high transmission tunnel, it wasn't easy to sit three people there.
Under the hood, Maserati offered a choice of three engines, depending on the market. They provided between 284 hp and 336 hp, and they were paired to a five- or six-speed manual, with an option for a four-speed automatic. A 2.0-liter V-6 bi-turbo was on the offer until 1998 when the Italian carmaker introduced a facelifted version named Evoluzione.