Leaked photos of the Mercedes-Maybach Ultimate Luxury SUV spoiled the surprise for a lot of us. But in some ways, we’re actually glad those photos leaked because they would’ve spared us from catastrophic disappointment. The Ultimate Luxury SUV is a sight for sore eyes, and that’s maybe putting it lightly. That hasn’t stopped Mercedes-Maybach, though, from rolling out another teaser of the luxury SUV. Guess it didn’t get the memo that the photos have already been leaked.

I’m not going to waste a lot of time trying to digest the contents of the new teaser. It’s pretty pointless at this point because we’ve already seen the concept in all its stomach-churning glory.

The biggest issue I have with the concept’s aesthetics is that it doesn’t look like something you’d see from Mercedes-Maybach. Our expectations were so far removed from the actual thing that it’s disappointing to the point of disheartening. We expected more, Mercedes-Maybach, or should I say, we expected less than what you created.

That’s the biggest issue of the Ultimate Luxury SUV. There’s too much going on in its design. It looks like it’s trying too hard to stand out that it somehow accomplished that for the wrong reasons. The front sections is a cluttered mess. The side profile is confusing. The rear section is boring. That’s not the kind of concept you’d expect from a company like Mercedes-Maybach, let alone from Mercedes-Benz itself.

I didn’t even mention how the whole thing looks like an elevated sedan with a set of wheels that are too big for its own good. This concept is something you’d expect to see from an old Pimp My Ride episode, not from Mercedes. That’s probably the most damning way to describe the Ultimate Luxury SUV.

The good news is that it’s only a concept; we won’t have to see it hit the road in its current form anytime soon. If Mercedes-Maybach really wants to break up the Bentley-Rolls-Royce establishment, it’s going to have to do a lot better than this. There’s still time to do that. I’m not losing hope that this concept SUV could turn into something better when it becomes a production model. Maybe the ugly duckling can still turn into a swan.

But yeah, it really is one ugly duckling now.

References

Read our full review on the 2017 Mercedes-Maybach Vision 6 Concept.

Read our full review on the 2017 Mercedes-Maybach Vision 6 Cabrioelt.

Read our full review on the 2017 Mercedes-Benz GLS.

Read more Mercedes-Benz news.

Read more 2018 Beijing Auto Show news.