2015 Mercedes-Maybach S600 – prices, specification and gallery
The Mercedes-Maybach S600 has gone on sale with prices beginning at £165,700. Very first UK deliveries of the super-luxury model are planned for June.
The S600 marks the come back of the Maybach name two years after its was pulled by Mercedes-Benz because of faltering sales. Now the nameplate has returned for this V12-powered, extra-long-wheelbase S-class model.
The swish ‘upper luxury-class’ saloon received its public debut at the LA motor demonstrate last November. The car is planned to challenge in a segment of the market occupied by the Bentley Flying Spur and Rolls-Royce Ghost.
For the £165,700 asking price, customers get a choice of leather, wood and stitching options. Other than more opulent paint colours, the only other option available is Very first Class Cabin, which exchanges the three seat bench for two individual seats, which can recline to 43.Five degrees.
The list of luxuries on the S600 is long. Highlights include air-conditioned, heated and massaging seats, armrests that can be heated, a system to pump scented, ionised air around the cabin, a one thousand five hundred forty watt Burmester 3D surround sound system with twenty four speakers.
This saloon also heralds the sensational comeback of Maybach, which was written off by parent company Daimler after a troubled 10-year comeback.
This time, however, Maybach is a sub-brand that will sit within the Mercedes-Benz fold in much the same way as the Mercedes-AMG spectacle division does.
Company chiefs expect Maybach to exploit the growing customer desire for high-margin luxury vehicles in much the same way that AMG is sprinkling its go-faster stardust on an increasingly broad range of vehicles.
Mercedes sales and marketing chief Ola Källenius, who was boss of AMG inbetween two thousand ten and 2013, said: “Mercedes-AMG is the blueprint for the extension of our brand. More than 40,000 AMG cars will be sold during two thousand fourteen and it is a superb ‘co-pilot’ for Mercedes-Benz.
“With Mercedes-Maybach, we are applying the same logic as Mercedes-AMG, but in the area of prestige and exclusivity. It is not an equipment line; it is a sub-brand that, in future, will produce Mercedes-Benz vehicles in an even more sensational form.”
Källenius confirmed that the S600 won’t be the sub-brand’s only suggesting. “Our deliberations in the area of Mercedes-Maybach are not focused solely on the S-class,” he said, but he wouldn’t be drawn on other future models.
However, the crucial factor is retaining exclusivity, so the fresh sub-brand will be involved with cars at only the premium end of Mercedes’ vast model range.
There isn’t, for example, business case to produce a Mercedes-Maybach version of the A-class, something that AMG has executed with excellent aplomb with the A45 AMG hot hatchback.
“It’s relatively effortless to do a Mercedes-AMG version of the A-class, but we will only do Maybachs when we see the potential in the market and when our customers expect it,” said Källenius.
The Mercedes-Maybach S600 is differentiated from other S-class models by a series of subtle exterior styling details, including a more stately style of grille and lengthened rear doors.
Inwards, the fresh model has a freshly designed interior with individual, electronically adjustable rear seats similar to those used by the earlier Maybach fifty seven and 62.
Power for the Mercedes-Maybach S600 hails from a revised version of the company’s twin-turbocharged 6.0-litre V12, produced at AMG. The car will be produced on the same production line as the regular S-class in Sindelfingen, Germany. This will be the only variant destined for the UK and sales commence next spring.
Key markets for the sub-brand’s very first products will be China and the US, followed by South Korea, Russia and the Middle East. Two further engine variants will be suggested in other markets. The S500 will be powered by a twin-turbo V8. The all-wheel-drive S500 4Matic has a V6 engine and is aimed squarely at the Chinese market. A version using a hybrid powertrain isn’t presently planned, but Källenius didn’t rule it out. ”
The range-topping saloon forms the basis of a larger S600 Pullman model that has an even longer wheelbase and seating for up to six.
Q&A Ola Källenius, executive vice-president, sales and marketing
Are you certain of sufficient request for this type of vehicle when there wasn’t for Maybach?
It is clear where extra scope for expansion lies at our company: in the areas of exclusivity and individuality. We have received fairly clear signals from many customers who have voiced a wish to drive the S-class in a supremely special, individual variant.
What differentiates Mercedes-Maybach models from their standard counterparts?
On a technical level, the very first model of the fresh sub-brand is virtually identical to the Mercedes-Benz S600, [but] vehicles from Mercedes-Maybach feature sensational equipment and appointments that go beyond the spectrum available from Mercedes-Benz.
Does it send out a strange message to revive the Maybach name so soon after axing the stand-alone brand?
When we launched the current generation of S-class, we said we’d find a haven for Maybach customers. That promise has now been kept with this S600 and fresh Mercedes-Maybach sub-brand.
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