Maybach 57/62 (W240/V240) [Spy Shots] Maybach Facelift: Spy Photos & Info

[Merc1]

For them to wait this long the facelift had really better be something, otherwise why bother. There is only so much you can do with a modified W140 (hence the Maybach's W240 designation) and W220 interior pieces. I still would have one of these, either a Zepp or 57S, but I can't see why anyone else would buy one over a Rolls or Bentley at this point. These cars are however IMO the best built in the world from a safety/solidity/engineering point of view, but their image and design are a complete yawn to buyers in this segment. Either design something totally new (let Aston do the styling) or just fold it.


M

 

[Sunny]

Benz doesn't really admit to failure.

And I guess Chrysler never happend? Not that there is anything wrong with cutting your losses and walking away. Only a fool wouldn't admit failure and walk away. Fortunately MB is not that stupid.

 

[Tarek]

Man,that chrysler deal was a major serious drag!

 

[HighestOfHigh]

And I guess Chrysler never happend? Not that there is anything wrong with cutting your losses and walking away. Only a fool wouldn't admit failure and walk away. Fortunately MB is not that stupid.

Other then supplying parts they really didn't build Chrysler vehicles. Throwing Chrysler away really isn't admitting failure. Now the Maybach they actually build as well as the R-class. Giving up on those is like say "We (Mercedes-Benz) made a mistake".

Chrysler sucks and all they did was drain Mercedes, so it was the best move they made. Giving them up was just buyers remorse. Then again, thats my opinion so to each his own.

 

[Wolfgang]

Facelifted Maybach confirmed

Merc boss Dieter Zetsche has admitted that the super luxury Maybach saloon will be facelifted next year - but he refused to confirm that a next-generation car was being planned, adding to rumours that the brand is being axed.

"The contribution of Maybach is not significant or relevant but there are only two players in this market and we are one of them. But there are no plans in the long run," he told Autocar.

Zetsche also revealed that he thinks that luxury buyers' tastes are changing towards more "discreet and subtle luxury".

Chas Hallett

Facelifted Maybach confirmed - Autocar.co.uk

 

[Wolfgang]

Checking up on Maybach sales:

USA YTD 2009 JAN-NOV: 57

USA NOV 2009: 6

From:

Auto Sales - Markets Data Center - WSJ.com

 

[HighestOfHigh]

^Now that is beyond sad! This better be a good facelift.

 

[EnI]

Maybach was revived by Benz to take on Rolls-Royce and Bentley. On the other hand I have read plenty of articles that have stated the Mercedes-Benz was not even interested in Rolls-Royce.

In the mid 90s RR / Vickers was searching for a partner for RR / Bentley. DaimlerBenz wanted to buy RR/Bentley not just being a development / supplier partner. Yet at that time Vickers declined to sell the RR / Bentley r - but rather opted for a supplier. So DB said thank you very much, good bye. So Vickers picked BMW. Therefore RRs 6 Bentleys featured BMW engines & other parts.

Later Vickers decided to sell RR / Bentley - and BMW sounded as a perfect choice. MB wasn't interested anymore due to bad terms that favored BMW as supplier, Ford also changed their minds. But then VAG appeared as a second bidder beside BMW - agreeing with all the terms. And won the bidding battle.

The further development is well known: VAG only get rights to RR grille & Emily but not to the RR name & logo - which was acquired for peanuts by BMW from the rights owner the RR Plc the aero engine maker which was a JV partner of BMW in aero engine business. So, VAG & BMW agreed to pass RR grille & Emily to BMW but retaining Bentley & getting the engines + parts from BMW. And the rights to market RR till 2003. With 2003 all RR rights & trademarks were passed to BMW - while all the factory, dealer networks, suppliers, know-how, workers stayed with VAG / Bentley.

Therefore BMW had to do it from scratch: new factory, new workers, new suppliers, new dealer network for RR.

 

[EnI]

Checking up on Maybach sales:

USA YTD 2009 JAN-NOV: 57

USA NOV 2009: 6

Auto Sales - Markets Data Center - WSJ.com

US market, November 2009:
Bentley : 131 (-36.7%; Nov 08: 207) ... YTD 1,202 (-52.7%; YTD 08: 2,540)
Rolls Royce: 26 (-33.3%; Nov 08: 39) ... YTD 309 (-18.3%; YTD 08: 378)
Maybach: 6 (-33.3%; Nov 08: 9) ... YTD 57 (-49.6%; YTD 08: 113)

 

[Giannis]

In the mid 90s RR / Vickers was searching for a partner for RR / Bentley. DaimlerBenz wanted to buy RR/Bentley not just being a development / supplier partner. Yet at that time Vickers declined to sell the RR / Bentley r - but rather opted for a supplier. So DB said thank you very much, good bye. So Vickers picked BMW. Therefore RRs 6 Bentleys featured BMW engines & other parts.

Later Vickers decided to sell RR / Bentley - and BMW sounded as a perfect choice. MB wasn't interested anymore due to bad terms that favored BMW as supplier, Ford also changed their minds. But then VAG appeared as a second bidder beside BMW - agreeing with all the terms. And won the bidding battle.

The further development is well known: VAG only get rights to RR grille & Emily but not to the RR name & logo - which was acquired for peanuts by BMW from the rights owner the RR Plc the aero engine maker which was a JV partner of BMW in aero engine business. So, VAG & BMW agreed to pass RR grille & Emily to BMW but retaining Bentley & getting the engines + parts from BMW. And the rights to market RR till 2003. With 2003 all RR rights & trademarks were passed to BMW - while all the factory, dealer networks, suppliers, know-how, workers stayed with VAG / Bentley.

Therefore BMW had to do it from scratch: new factory, new workers, new suppliers, new dealer network for RR.

Pischetsrieder's initial offer for RR was 250m pounds. The offer was rejected but he had two aces: First was the engine supplier for four door models of RR and Bentley, and second BMW was well supported by RR plc, with which von Kuenheim had forged a joint venture in small aero engines in the early 1990s.

Under a 1973 agreement RR plc had the power to veto the RR name and trademarks (grill and emblem) to a foreign owner.

In April, it looked as if Pischetsrieder had won the fight with what appeared to be a winning bid of 340m pounds. However at eleventh hour Piech produced a bid of 430m pounds and obviously won RR and Bentley. RR plc did not veto the sale.

Von Kuenheim, though, played the card of stopping the supply of engines to RR and Bentley, unless VW ceded RR to BMW. Piech conclueded that he could not develop an engine in time, as BMW's notice period was a year. So he "surrendered" the RR brand to BMW, but as EnI said, kept all the factories, workforce, dealers, suppliers and know-how.

 

[SKY]

The problem here is another. BMW has donde this pretty well. As they (BMW) are not prestigious enough to price a car at some specific prices, the buy a brand that suits this better, RR. What else can be priced that high?.

And that´s because RR is a more prestigious brand than BMW. But, Is Maybach a more prestigious brand than Mercedes? C´MON, not even my father knows what Maybach was before Mercedes bought it.

They better axe Maybach brand a make an ultra-luxury Mercedes.

 

[vabboud]

"The contribution of Maybach is not significant or relevant but there are only two players in this market and we are one of them.

what does this mean?

 

[EnI]

Yes, BMW's ace was the supplier status to RR - so they could extort VAG with possible engine supply cut. Which could be fatal for RR & Bentley.

Also the great relationship with aero engine maker RR Plc gave BMW an opportunity to get rights to RR name & logo, which would otherwise go to VAG.

BMW knew their cards before starting the bid, and being a bit too confident in the bid victory due to those cards. VAG spoiled the party - therefore BMWAG played the plan B game - a dirty one. Extorting VAG, and forcing them to surrender RR to BMW.

Imagine how Piech was pissed. And he still have no sympathies for BMW Group.

 

[Giannis]

BMW knew their cards before starting the bid, and being a bit too confident in the bid victory due to those cards. VAG spoiled the party - therefore BMWAG played the plan B game - a dirty one. Extorting VAG, and forcing them to surrender RR to BMW.

Imagine how Piech was pissed. And he still have no sympathies for BMW Group.

They did to VAG exactly what they DIDN'T want Honda to do with BMW. Before the purchase of Rover by BMW, Honda supplied parts and tech to pretty much the entire Rover line-up. When BMW bought Rover they needed some time to develope new products and replace the existing ones, so they really didn't want Honda to stop supplying parts to them. Business world is a very dirty world.

 

[EnI]

what does this mean?

Exactly what I'm saying: Bentley is not on par with RR & Maybach image wise.

They better axe Maybach brand a make an ultra-luxury Mercedes.

That was the initial plan. The original concept was called Mercedes-Benz Maybach - featuring MB star on tho hood!

 

[Merc1]

Bentley's image is not on par with Maybach? Plum ridiculous. A brand that no one under 70 remembers and more importantly that no rich people even buy. Right.

Not on par with Rolls-Royce, when they were the same car for years and years and shared the floor together? Oh gawd, where does this stuff come from.

Maybach is the one with the image problem, not Bentley.

Dr can say all he wants, but Bentley is just as much in the minds and wallets of rich people as any brand on earth. Moreso than Maybach in fact. Maybach is exclusive because no one buys them! Not because they're limited in production!


M

 

[Cashmere]

It really is sad, looking at the reputation MB has made for themselves in the automotive industry, one would expect no one better then MB to resurrect the Maybach brand and elevate it to the apex of the auto industry yet here they are dropping the anchor on a ship that is already sinking.

Making a facelift is just plain stupid. Are the Maybach guys living in a cave? Clearly they still haven't discovered where they went wrong.

 

[Merc1]

All I know is that they'd be planning something really massive for this facelift otherwise it is money/time/effort wasted. I doubt there will be another Maybach. They simply don't the money to go all out and create a car that is unique and yet superior to the S-Class. That type of effort is reserved for the W222.


M

 

[HighestOfHigh]

Making a facelift is just plain stupid. Are the Maybach guys living in a cave? Clearly they still haven't discovered where they went wrong.

Well the issue really isn't the fact that they're giving Maybach a facelift. All companies usually do that including Rolls. The issue is that it's a late facelift. The facelift was expected for sometime now. Maybach can't all of a sudden rush a Maybach to the market before at least trying to update the next model.

I think right now Maybach is probably testing the waters. They want to see if a facelift will do anything for Maybach. It's makes sense especially considering the development cost for a new one. It would be horrible for Maybach to throw a new MM 62 out there and it suffer the same fate as the current model.

Even if Mercedes makes the Maybach completely different then Benz...whos to say that it will sell. People still might ask Who is Maybach. They really have to get their marketing skills together for this.

This is all Mercedes has to work with as far as history...

Maybach has historic roots through the involvement of Wilhelm Maybach, who was the technical director of the Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft. The company originally developed and manufactured diesel and gas engines for Zeppelins, and then rail cars. The Maybach Mb.IVa was used in aircraft and airships of World War I.

The company first built an experimental car in 1919, with the first production model introduced two years later at the Berlin Motor Show. Between 1921 and 1940, the company produced various classic opulent vehicles. The company also continued to build heavy duty diesel engines for marine and rail purposes.

Maybach contributed to the German Nazi war effort in World War II by producing the engines for many self-propelled guns and tanks. This included such as the Jagdpanther, Panther and Tiger tanks with the Maybach HL230. After the war the factory performed some repair work, but automotive production was never restarted, and some 20 years later, the company was renamed into MTU Friedrichshafen.

- Maybach - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

And that's it....They really have to work on rebuilding the name of Maybach and the horrible sales and depreciation values of the current model aren't helping. Mercedes-Benz has to push the right button. I personally belief a lower priced model with better looks before the next generation would really help.

 

[Wolfgang]

what does this mean?

It was explained a bit when the Maybach was introduced:


Timeless appeal

by Fulvio Cinti





Unexpectedly Mercedes-Benz exhibits the prototype of a large car called the Maybach at the Tokyo Motor Show and the reactions are immediately explosive. The generous dimensions of the Maybach are striking, nearly six metres long (5.77 to be precise, 56 centimetres more than the S600), as are the unusual colour scheme for our times, the opulence and refinement of the interior appointments, and the name.

Yes, for if in general the historic memory of the car world is short, for the men of Mercedes-Benz, Wilhelm Maybach (1846-1929), designer, is the unforgotten protagonist of several chapters in the history of the German automobile, having developed with Gottlieb Daimler the first Daimler car and brought life to the legendary Maybach twelve-cylinder 'Zeppelin', the representative example of the luxury car. But it is the styling of the Maybach that, within the overall acclaim, engenders some perplexity and sceptical comments.

The perplexity originates in the dearth of information over the 'existence' of a car expressed in such timeless styling cues. If the Maybach 'object' had been presented not under the spotlight of a normal motor show, but on the catwalk of a concours d'élégance, at Pebble Beach say, no dissonant chords would have been heard above the overall acclaim. It was at Pebble Beach, California, during the 1996 edition of the celebrated classic-car concours, that the Maybach idea began to germinate in the minds of the top Mercedes-Benz design people.

"The Concours d'Élégance cars seen at Pebble Beach are generally prestige cars whose continuity has been lost. They belong to the golden age of the automobile before the Second World War and their makers have long since disappeared. Only the Rolls-Royce phenomenon has maintained a clear continuity, there have been a few other sporadic examples, such as the Mercedes 600 in the early nniteen-sixties. So the idea grew at Pebble Beach, where a good part of the past treats the eyes and the memory for a few hours," recounts Bruno Sacco.


From:

Auto & Design - 107 - Timeless appeal