Photo: Daimler AG
Some say that the resurrection of Maybach-Manufaktur was the worst bet that Daimler made at the turn of the third millennium. Not for all the money that the project burned, but mainly because of the image dent it brought to Mercedes-Benz, especially since Maybach was packaged with other fiascos, like the Daimler-Chrysler “marriage in heaven,” a Mitsubishi venture and the not-so-successful launch of the smart brand.
I somewhat disagree with that mostly general consensus, but only from a single perspective. Maybach-Manufaktur was re-launched in the worst possible way since its resurrection was helmed primarily by bean-counters and not by passionate folks.
The Maybach 57 and the humongous 62 were excellent luxury cars, in many ways better than the very successful Rolls-Royce Phantom, so why did they flop? Well, in layman terms, they looked too much like a pimped S-Class instead of a bespoke luxury car.
They had S-Class engines and transmissions, most of their interior bits and bobs consisted of S-Class buttons and slightly restyled trims, and this made a lot of people question the 300% price premium over an S600 or an S 65 AMG. The Phantom, while using a lot of BMW 7 Series parts, including some of its interior pieces and infotainment system, is still quintessentially British luxury at its best, and its exterior design still has a lot of presence and looks the part 13 years after it was introduced.
It wasn't a case of lack of customization options, performance, technology or inherent luxury features with the third-millennium Maybachs, it was just bad design and a lack of understanding of how luxury works.
It wasn't supposed to be like this, though. The 1997 Mercedes-Maybach Concept aimed to give a glimpse of what the 57 and 62 could have been, but then came the S-Class W221, and it was pretty much the same car, but 25% smaller.
Few people know this, but Daimler was actually working on a 12-liter, V24-cylinder engine for the Maybach project back in the late 1990s. Largely based on fusing two M120 DOHC V12 mills together, it would have offered around 800 hp and 1200 Nm (885 lb-ft) of torque without the use of forced induction, at the cost of a comically long hood and enormous weight. Bean counters opted for a more cost-effective, twin-turbocharged V12, which would have been more than adequate if it hadn't been the same friggin engine from the S600, slightly modified.
If Daimler's head honchos would have had the gonads that Ferdinand Piech had at the time, who came up with 16 and 18-cylinder engines for no other reason than vanity and megalomania, maybe things would have been different with the double-M brand. A distinctive exterior and interior design, entirely different than the Mercedes-Benz design language, would have done wonders as well. It wasn't the lack of sales that prompted Dieter Zetsche to put Maybach to sleep at the end of 2012, but the actual viability of the project.
Fast-forward to 2016 and Maybach is sort of back, but only as a Mercedes-Benz sub-brand, like Mercedes-AMG. Mr. Zetsche seems to have tested the waters with models like the Mercedes-Maybach S600 and its Pullman version, and there are plenty of similar cars in the pipeline.
Since Maybach no longer wants to be a full-blown Rolls-Royce and Bentley competitor but merely steal some of their sales without trying so hard, things have actually improved. Sales are going well all across the Mercedes-Benz lineup, so Mr. Zetsche already thinks about resurrecting the double-M once again.
This time, it should be different, though, for two very simple reasons. First of all, the “double-M” will no longer come from Maybach-Manufaktur but from Mercedes-Maybach, just so the connection between the history of the two brands is no longer suggested in a muffled manner, but ostentatiously shown.
Second of all, the Vision Mercedes-Maybach 6 looks like a Sci-Fi movie villain's car, and its design is a preview of things to come at the resurfaced brand. Everybody knows that most rich people live for customization and have a “more is better” attitude when it comes to expensive objects like houses, yachts, planes or cars. Each of their possessions must have presence and signify that they are the one percenters, the Joneses, the elite.
A lot of mildly successful people can lease a low-spec S-Class that looks almost identical to an S 65, but when the hood of their car is longer than a sub-compact car, then they're not only doing OK but are the crème de la crème.
From that point of view, the Vision Mercedes-Maybach 6 looks like it has covered everything on the checklist in a very obnoxious manner. It has a monstrous hood, high window sills, low roof, short rear deck and it could very well pass as a futuristic and hardtop version of Red Skull's V16 Coupe. It looks expensive and atrociously upmarket, especially since something like that cannot be parked on the curb, like all the other peasants do, but has its own air-conditioned garage. This is how the new Maybachs should have been from the start because it's exactly how the ones from the 1930s rolled.
The Maybach 57 and the humongous 62 were excellent luxury cars, in many ways better than the very successful Rolls-Royce Phantom, so why did they flop? Well, in layman terms, they looked too much like a pimped S-Class instead of a bespoke luxury car.
They had S-Class engines and transmissions, most of their interior bits and bobs consisted of S-Class buttons and slightly restyled trims, and this made a lot of people question the 300% price premium over an S600 or an S 65 AMG. The Phantom, while using a lot of BMW 7 Series parts, including some of its interior pieces and infotainment system, is still quintessentially British luxury at its best, and its exterior design still has a lot of presence and looks the part 13 years after it was introduced.
It wasn't a case of lack of customization options, performance, technology or inherent luxury features with the third-millennium Maybachs, it was just bad design and a lack of understanding of how luxury works.
It wasn't supposed to be like this, though. The 1997 Mercedes-Maybach Concept aimed to give a glimpse of what the 57 and 62 could have been, but then came the S-Class W221, and it was pretty much the same car, but 25% smaller.
Few people know this, but Daimler was actually working on a 12-liter, V24-cylinder engine for the Maybach project back in the late 1990s. Largely based on fusing two M120 DOHC V12 mills together, it would have offered around 800 hp and 1200 Nm (885 lb-ft) of torque without the use of forced induction, at the cost of a comically long hood and enormous weight. Bean counters opted for a more cost-effective, twin-turbocharged V12, which would have been more than adequate if it hadn't been the same friggin engine from the S600, slightly modified.
If Daimler's head honchos would have had the gonads that Ferdinand Piech had at the time, who came up with 16 and 18-cylinder engines for no other reason than vanity and megalomania, maybe things would have been different with the double-M brand. A distinctive exterior and interior design, entirely different than the Mercedes-Benz design language, would have done wonders as well. It wasn't the lack of sales that prompted Dieter Zetsche to put Maybach to sleep at the end of 2012, but the actual viability of the project.
Fast-forward to 2016 and Maybach is sort of back, but only as a Mercedes-Benz sub-brand, like Mercedes-AMG. Mr. Zetsche seems to have tested the waters with models like the Mercedes-Maybach S600 and its Pullman version, and there are plenty of similar cars in the pipeline.
Since Maybach no longer wants to be a full-blown Rolls-Royce and Bentley competitor but merely steal some of their sales without trying so hard, things have actually improved. Sales are going well all across the Mercedes-Benz lineup, so Mr. Zetsche already thinks about resurrecting the double-M once again.
This time, it should be different, though, for two very simple reasons. First of all, the “double-M” will no longer come from Maybach-Manufaktur but from Mercedes-Maybach, just so the connection between the history of the two brands is no longer suggested in a muffled manner, but ostentatiously shown.
Second of all, the Vision Mercedes-Maybach 6 looks like a Sci-Fi movie villain's car, and its design is a preview of things to come at the resurfaced brand. Everybody knows that most rich people live for customization and have a “more is better” attitude when it comes to expensive objects like houses, yachts, planes or cars. Each of their possessions must have presence and signify that they are the one percenters, the Joneses, the elite.
A lot of mildly successful people can lease a low-spec S-Class that looks almost identical to an S 65, but when the hood of their car is longer than a sub-compact car, then they're not only doing OK but are the crème de la crème.
From that point of view, the Vision Mercedes-Maybach 6 looks like it has covered everything on the checklist in a very obnoxious manner. It has a monstrous hood, high window sills, low roof, short rear deck and it could very well pass as a futuristic and hardtop version of Red Skull's V16 Coupe. It looks expensive and atrociously upmarket, especially since something like that cannot be parked on the curb, like all the other peasants do, but has its own air-conditioned garage. This is how the new Maybachs should have been from the start because it's exactly how the ones from the 1930s rolled.
Google News