Car changeover days are rarely as painful as this… So, I’ve just handed back the keys to the Quattroporte and taken delivery of a Renault Twingo. In white. With black stripes. Ouch.

You might think I have a twisted sense of logic but the fact is, the Maserati is my favourite motor of the year. It’s not a Jaguar, a Porsche or a Ferrari but a crazy grand tourer with the maddest interior I’ve seen in decades.

Yes, it was the interior ‘wot won it’. There have been more beautiful cars than the Maserati (Jaguar F-Type, Bentley Convertible, Porsche Boxster) but that brown and blue cabin in the Quattroporte just took me back to the 1970s, when Lancia and Alfa created cabins of beauty and desire.

So, for the man with his flies down, go buy that Ferrari. Me? I’m a Maserati man and I’ve pledged to buy my own by Christmas next year. Writing my note to Santa now…

Nobody else would dare do it – a brown leather interior complemented by a blue dashboard! Welcome to the wonderful world of Maserati.

And just like stilton and marmalade on toast, somehow the daredevil Italians have pulled it off. It works brilliantly and makes Mercedes, Porsche and all the rest of the grey-seat manufacturers look more than a little dull.

Even the alcantara headlining is brown – a £1,158 option yes but damn it looks good. There’s a stunning red interior available too that really is amazing.

I’m loving the Quattroporte. It’s a big car for manoeuvring at low speed but apart from that, why are you even considering a four-door Porsche??

I have this theory that people move out of the outside lane of the motorway only if they really, really have to. Why else would people be such arses about it when they are slowing down a car travelling behind them?

It seems the best way to ‘encourage’ drivers to move over is appear behind them in a car with a seriously intimidating front end.

Contenders for this would be the Audi Q7 (Clarkson once said you could nail it to a church door to keep the devil at bay), the latest Range Rover, the Jaguar XFR-S and the Quattroporte.

However, you should pick the Maserati because it also has the advantage of being so rare outside of London that people haven’t got a clue what is coming up behind them in their rear-view mirror.

Sinister front grille + unknown quantity = rapid progress in the outside lane….