Maserati has restyled and renamed the Ghibli

Meet the Maserati Ghibli GranLusso and GranSport. Those suffixes are new, and mark this out as the facelifted Ghibli, now with two slightly different styling packs. The facelift lands four years after Maser’s BMW 5 Series rival launched, but a mere year after a round of updates for the model below the skin.

The Ghibli’s had a restyle, but good luck identifying one on the road. The headlights are mildly different, the grille gets more chrome, and we’re told the bumpers are new. Anyway, it’s always been a decent looking thing, so we can tolerate Maser not messing with it too much.

Maserati insists both models' new styling isn’t just aesthetic, and that it also improves the four-door’s aerodynamics. Whether the change is as marginal aerodynamically as it is stylistically we’re not told. The GranSport has less chrome a more assertive grille and splindlier alloys, but beyond that the two different trims look fairly similar.

The Ghibi’s update also brings a cleverer tune of stability control and newly electric power steering, which means active safety tech can be fitted to take us a step closer to self-driving Maseratis. But we imaging choosing one of these over a superior 5 Series or E-Class means you’re more interested in driving yourself.

Engines should remain the same; a 272bhp V6 diesel that sells best, and a pair V6 petrols that drive best. The most potent gets a small power upgrade that now sees the topmost Ghibli produce 424bhp. All Ghiblis sold in the UK are rear-wheel drive, but European markets get optional four-wheel drive.

The Ghibli received an update last year (we drove it, here) and so the adding of a new badge and some minor exterior tweaks are, in truth, leaving us a bit nonplussed. It seems Maserati has predicted that, giving the car its big reveal at the Chengdu motor show (what do you mean you haven’t heard of it?), rather than at the huge Frankfurt show next month.