Ever since the Maserati Levante made its debut I’ve felt that it was a good idea, badly executed. In fact, the whole design seems like a lot of nice design ideas (the grille, the slit-like headlights, the fastback profile, the rear haunches) that have been spread a bit thin over an awkward shape, taking away much of what made the Kubang concept that proceeded it great.
Ultimately, I think the shape of the car is too blame – it’s almost too fastback, too RWD-looking, with wheels that look way too small – whereas I feel most great-looking SUVs have a much more squat, all-fours stance. And it’s a fault the Levante shares with the Infiniti QX50 – a car that tried too hard to look like a normal (albeit RWD) hatchback, and ended up with a shape that was neither svelte enough to challenge the best-looking wagon cars, nor butch enough to challenge competing SUVs like the Audi Q5. I do hope the Levante all the best, and I think we all want Maserati to stick around in the long term, so I will be hoping that sales pick up quickly from their late-March start in Europe.
