The ultra-luxurious Maybach is making a return to compete with the ever-luxurious Bentley Mulsanne and Rolls-Royce Phantom.
The new cars will be ultra-long-wheelbase versions of the company’s new flagship S Class model. The autos will have larger, rectangular rear doors for effortless ingress and egress, and the rear compartment will contain every creature comfort needed to work or recline in comfort while someone else takes care of the driving.
When Mercedes first revived the Maybach luxury brand, in 2002, it did so with two cars — the long wheelbase Maybach 57 and even longer wheelbase 62, which were meant to be Mercedes’s even more luxurious answers to a resurgent Rolls-Royce.
Based on an older S Class platform, they were devised to offer rear seat passengers an experience equivalent to flying business class — fully reclining leather seats, panoramic glass roof, a wine chiller and slide-out solid wood picnic tables. Also adding to the exclusivity was the price. An entry-level Maybach57 S cost $381,000 and a Maybach 62 $394,000, while limited edition versions commanded price tags of up to $1 million.
Despite finding a cult following within the rap community — Rick Ross loves them so much his record label was named in their honor and Jay Z and Kanye West took power tools to one in an act of extreme customization in the video to the track “Otis” — the marque bombed so badly that Mercedes’s parent company, Daimler, was forced to pull the plug in 2011.