20 years ago I was enjoying lunch with former Ford design boss J Mays in Chelsea. Always on them watch for good and bad design, J suddenly commented: ‘What is that sh** ugly car?’ A new first-gen BMW 1-series drove by.
It was a first-generation BMW X1. Ill-proportioned, top-heavy and gobmouthed, this was surely BMW’s styling nadir . Let me bring this tale up to date. Just the other day I was walking the black spaniel when I had another WITSUC moment. It was my first in a while. Not because there is a shortage of ugly cars. Rather, I’m pretty good at differentiating one styling tragedy from another.
No. As I got closer, I realised it was a Maybach GLS 600. It had the polished presence of a nightclub bouncer in an expensive three-piece suit: huge, top heavy, well attired but muscularly misshapen and with a big ugly face. Silly me, I thought the Maybach brand had quietly died.