David Finlay

This makes it less likely that models built in North America will do well in Europe, or vice versa, but that hasn’t stopped manufacturers from trying. The second-generation Audi 5000 (America’s equivalent of the third-generation Audi 100 as it was named elsewhere) should have sold well, but it became famous for cases of a phenomenon called sudden unintended acceleration.

David Brown (1904-1993) drove it shortly before deciding to buy the company, so he must have been impressed, but there was never to be a production version. Marcello Gandini (born 1938) must have been looking the future square in the face when he designed the low wedge shape and scissor doors for the mid-engined Carabo. At first glance, the RX-500 seemed like it had been designed for the same reasons as the Alfa Romeo Carabo.

Over the last century and a quarter, motoring has become entangled in a web of untruths and half-truths.

Here are some examples of design flaws, presented in alphabetical order of the cars they apply to. Switching on a car's lights normally usually requires a single action, as it should. In the case of the Alfa MiTo, the driver had to delve into the trip computer, making no fewer than seven button presses, and could do so only when the car was stationary.

Here, then, are 30 models which could, using the term very broadly, be described as at least partly controversial, arranged for your pleasure in chronological order. The very first Mercedes was proposed to Daimler by one of its dealers, Emil Jellinek-Mercedes (1853-1918), who named it – and his race team and even, weirdly, himself – after his young daughter (1889-1929). Designed by Wilhelm Maybach (1846-1929), the 35hp was light and powerful, and had a remarkably low centre of gravity for the time.

The straight eight, so named because its eight cylinders are lined up in a single row, is a rare exception. Originally known simply as the Straight Eight, what is now known as the Model A was America’s first car with an engine of this type.

No rotary engine fitted to a car has ever exactly followed his original idea, but they are named after him because he came up with the concept of one or more rotors which surround, and drive, a central crankshaft, from which power is taken through the transmission to the driven wheels.

The AC Ace roadster was introduced in 1953 and was fitted with several engines during its production run, the most powerful being a 2.6-litre Ford straight-six. Its handling made it an effective road-legal competition car, but over in Texas Carroll Shelby (1923-2012) reckoned it would be better if it had a lot more power. Rather than dismissing this thought and moving on to something else, he created the Cobra, a reworked Ace with a Ford Windsor V8 engine initially measuring 4.3 litres and later 4.7.

In the 120 years since its founding, Ford has produced many impressive cars under its own name. Driven by anglophile Henry Ford II in one of his final decisions, Ford bought a majority stake in Aston Martin in 1987, and assumed complete ownership in 1993. In the latter year, Aston revealed its new DB7 to the public, heralding a new direction for the brand, and the car went on sale in 1994 as a coupe.