Revised Maybach range revealed

[JadeVetti]

I see. That makes sense then.

This car is for the true workaholic. A main office, an office at home, a Blackberry or two, (or three), a car that can ease effortlessly from home to road to office without so much as a blink...

 

[Merc1]

The greatest car that never was........


M

 

[bmer]

So after 8 years, what the [ˈmaɪbax] gets is LEDs, a slightly modified grille, a new front bumper and rear-view mirrors that debuted in the C-Class + 18 hp more for the S-model. Sounds like end-of-life care for the brand...

The perfume atomiser has to be the most unavailing feature I've ever seen. They could have just put one of these instead and it would have been just as useful:

 

[GBOY]

Stunning ... from this angle. Best look yet 4 me.

 

[Centurion]

They got the head light units from the SLR parts bin.

 

[Yaz]

The greatest car that never was........


M

Now that I think of it, the Maybach is the best W220 ever!

 

[Merc1]

LOL...its actually a W140 (hence the Maybach's W240 designation), but with W220 interior, Airmatic etc...


M

 

[Yaz]

Well, I knew that, but the average Joe wouldn't know that. But looking at the MM and the W220, they're very much alike. I think the W220 has dated by now, but not the W240.

I mean, who needs a W220 when the W240 is this good? (Price aside of course )

 

[Merc1]

I really think that the Maybach is the type of car Mercedes would have been building as the S-Class if things (Lexus etc.) hadn't changed and made them change course. Of course the car would have been more up to date, but the build quality and heft of the Maybach is what today's S-Class would have been if things hadn't changed IMO.

The W140 of 1992 was supposed to get Airmatic, but it wasn't ready so they waited until the W220 came out. The Maybach is the W140 plus Airmatic. I can only imagine what such a heavy car on air springs rides like.

I still think the Maybach is among the top 3 luxury cars on earth, but its so dated and the name doesn't have any modern or known prestige like Bentley or Rolls-Royce. If I were silly rich I'd have a facelifted 57S or Zepplin without hesitation.




M

 

[Sovereign]

I really think that the Maybach is the type of car Mercedes would have been building as the S-Class if things (Lexus etc.) hadn't changed and made them change course. Of course the car would have been more up to date, but the build quality and heft of the Maybach is what today's S-Class would have been if things hadn't changed IMO.

The W140 of 1992 was supposed to get Airmatic, but it wasn't ready so they waited until the W220 came out. The Maybach is the W140 plus Airmatic. I can only imagine what such a heavy car on air springs rides like.

I still think the Maybach is among the top 3 luxury cars on earth, but its so dated and the name doesn't have any modern or known prestige like Bentley or Rolls-Royce. If I were silly rich I'd have a facelifted 57S or Zepplin without hesitation. M

Very well said Sir!

The problem with MAYBACH is the exterior and interior design. The rest of the car, although based on w140, is still very competitive. This shows the efforts of Mercedes engineers in the W140 platform.

The problem with MAYBACH IS that there is no visual link to its past. My suggestion is to take the design cues from the 1930 Maybach zepplin. For example, the 30s Zepplin used color coded bars in the grill, that should have been used in the current model. I dont think this would cost Mercedes a whole lot of money, while providing a visual link to its past model. Another clue is in the low roof and high body design which would require a redesiging of the car and that is what many of us want.

http://www.carxy.com/wallpaper/Maybach-Classics-10/
courtesy: www.carxy.com

 

[HighestOfHigh]

Very well said Sir!

The problem with MAYBACH is the exterior and interior design. The rest of the car, although based on w140, is still very competitive. This shows the efforts of Mercedes engineers in the W140 platform.

The problem with MAYBACH IS that there is no visual link to its past.

Well this is true, but there was such a long period between Mercedes Maybach and the previous generations. It's only so much you can take from such an old design. At least Rolls-Royce/Bentley designs constantly progressed so BMW/VAG didn't really have too go back too far at all.

Of course their is one visual design used and that would be the grill. With the straight lines and the bold line down the middle. The problem is it's more of a Mercedes than a Maybach. It's just like BMW building a Super lwb 7 SERIES and slapping a RR grill on it.

The Maybach itself it an outstanding car. Anyone in this forum would be lucky to own one. The problem is why pay all that money for something that looks similar to a S-class.

 

[Merc1]

Seeing the W221 next to the Maybach (in the S-Class pic thread) only underlines how pointless the Maybach really is in the market. I don't think Mercedes can effectively make/market/sell a better car than the S-Class. Maybach they should just close down Maybach and go with derivatives of the next S-Class platforms for some upper-level market presence.

This is why the deal with Aston-Martin would have been so important to Maybach. Maybachs could have had a totally different look from Mercedes.

M

 

[Pagani]

The Maybach heritage could have given talented designers with a purpose a lot to work with and come up with a worthy Phantom competitor. The problem is that Mercedes banked too much on what they thought was a technological tour de force, a design that was conceived as Mercedes, not Maybach. They thought people were looking for an S-Class to the second power.

 

[Merc1]

Yep. Exactly.

M

 

[K-A]

Maybach is just such a hideous looking car to me.

I'd rather have a 221, even taking all the extra coddling in the Maybach into account.

It's still based on a 140 or 220 (dunno which exactly), which means the steels, engineering, etc. are supremely ancient, considering what you pay for (the thing should be as current and state-of-the-art as possible), it looks like a mutant W220, and once the W221 came out, IMO it looked like a properly done Maybach (especially from the rear).

Also, the interior, aside from the gorgeous plush elements everywhere, is a W220 basically, dressed up.

Good riddance to Maybach, leave the uber-Luxury car stuff to Rolls and Bentley, etc. and give M-B (which has enough cache to compete with those two Brits, even despite all the $30K C-Classes driving around) an uber S-Class, to take over where the Mayback left off.

 

[K-A]

I now realize you guys already covered all that.

 

[Merc1]

which means the steels, engineering, etc. are supremely ancient

The "steels" is ancient? What does that mean K/A?


M

 

[K-A]

Yeah that wasn't too clear. I mean, (as M-B has said when referring to the strength of steels they used on the W212) just like technology, the advancement of steel strength, and engineering of active Safety improve dramatically and rapidly, in even short time frames. Not to mention, since the Maybach was built.

Cars from the 90's didn't feature nearly the high strength/low weight steels used in cars today. I'd assume, the Maybach is still built off of whatever prime steels were avail and usable (for Auto's) from the 140 or 220 days.

 

[Merc1]

Yeah that wasn't too clear. I mean, (as M-B has said when referring to the strength of steels they used on the W212) just like technology, the advancement of steel strength, and engineering of active Safety improve dramatically and rapidly, in even short time frames. Not to mention, since the Maybach was built.

Cars from the 90's didn't feature nearly the high strength/low weight steels used in cars today. I'd assume, the Maybach is still built off of whatever prime steels were avail and usable (for Auto's) from the 140 or 220 days.

K/A you know you're my guy, but you're way off here if you trying to say that the Maybach is in anyway unsafe.

Mercedes-Benz has been building vehicles with high strength/low weight steel for the longest. Its not as if Mercedes took a W140 chassis and just dropped the Maybach body on it. The Maybach true, is built the old Mercedes way, bank vault solid unlike the W220 S-Class. There is nothing unsafe about a Maybach K/A. There is no evidence that even hints at anything remotely like that. Every car on sale today has to meet the crash and safety standards of today, regardless of when the car was developed. Hence the reason why certain slow-selling cars are dropped or phased out when their lack of sales make it an unsound business case to re-engineer them for changing safety laws.

I'd suggest sitting in a Maybach or examing the body of the car, its built better than anything Mercedes builds today, except maybe the W221.

The only real change since the Maybach's day is that the construction methods used today yield the same or better strength with less weight. The Maybach being as strong/solid as it is, was build around the old way of doing things, which is why it weighs so much compared to an S-Class. Unsafe? Heck no.


M

 

[K-A]

K/A you know you're my guy, but you're way off here if you trying to say that the Maybach is in anyway unsafe.

Mercedes-Benz has been building vehicles with with high strength/low weight steel for the longest. Its not as if Mercedes took a W140 chassis and just dropped the Maybach body on it. The Maybach true, is built the old Mercedes way, bank vault solid unlike the W220 S-Class. There is nothing unsafe about a Maybach K/A. There is no evidence that even hints at anything remotely like that. Every car on sale today has to meet the crash and safety standards of today, regardless of when the car was developed. Hence the reason why certain slow-selling cars are dropped or phased out when their lack of sales make it an unsound business case to re-engineer them for changing safety laws.

I'd suggest sitting in a Maybach or examing the body of the car, its built better than anything Mercedes builds today, except maybe the W221.

The only real change since the Maybach's day is that the construction methods used today yield the same or better strength with less weight. The Maybach being as strong/solid as it is, was build around the old way of doing things, which is why it weighs so much compared to an S-Class. Unsafe? Heck no.


M

Haha, well I respect your word Merc so I'll take it.

No way am I saying it's unsafe though fwiw. I just have always been under the impression that as time passes, regardless of cost, new Steel "technology" per-se gets introduced. There was something M-B said about it, in regards to the 212, where they said they used Steels that weren't even available 1-2 years prior to its construction, which they state are stronger than anything used before it (or something like that, could be an easy PR statement of course).

That is true, in regards to the Maybach being built to older M-B standards, which is a good thing, as long as it's pre-W220, hehe.