Do you remember the… Maybach 57 and 62?

They were to be the cars of all superlatives. They were to show Rolls-Royce and Bentley what true luxury was.

They were to attract stars and the powerful. In the end, they were above all a commercial failure.

Crossed destinies

Wilhelm Maybach was one of the automotive pioneers working with Gottlieb Daimler in its early days. He left the Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft (the first half of what would become Daimler-Benz) in 1907 to found his company in 1909 to build engines for Zeppelin airships.

In 1919, the Treaty of Versailles prohibiting Germany from producing aeronautical equipment, Maybach turned to the automobile. From 1921 to 1940, Maybach would create some of Europe’s finest models, including the DS7 and DS8 Zeppelin, using Germany’s first V12.

Around 1,800 cars will be marketed before the Second World War interrupts this activity. The company then began to manufacture military equipment, in particular tank engines. After 1945, Maybach returned to the production of industrial engines. It was purchased in 1960 by Mercedes-Benz and renamed MTU in 1969.

30+

It is said that Mercedes-Benz would have developed the new generation of Maybach after the failure of the takeover attempt by Rolls-Royce in 1998. Only then, the brand had been working on the project for almost two years already…

In fact, Mercedes observes in the mid-1990s that 30-somethings are steadily increasing. No, not people aged 30 and over. This term effectively corresponds to people whose fortune is equal to or greater than 30 million dollars. This is an ultra-demanding clientele that seems targeted only by Rolls-Royce and Bentley (then one and the same company).

Mercedes thinks there is potential there. Especially since the brand has already competed with the venerable English company with some success between 1963 and 1981 with the 600.

In 1996, three in-house style offices (Irvine, California, Tokyo and Sindelfingen, Germany) were appointed to work on the concept of a prestige limousine under the name “Projekt Maybach”. Five models are presented to the management in January 1997 and it is that of Tokyo (made under the direction of the Frenchman Olivier Boulay) which is chosen almost unanimously. The Italian coachbuilder Stola will be responsible for manufacturing the prototype.

It was in October 1997, at the Tokyo Motor Show, that Jürgen Hubbert, president of the Mercedes-Benz brand, unveiled the Mercedes-Benz Maybach in the company of Wilhelm Maybach’s granddaughter. Faced with the enthusiastic reaction, the company decided to go ahead with the development of a production model.

A brand in its own right

It was around the same time that the Vickers Plc group put Rolls-Royce and Bentley up for sale. Mercedes showed interest for a time but quickly withdrew from the negotiations leaving Volkswagen and BMW to lead a duel of titans which culminated in an agreement in the summer of 1998, putting Rolls-Royce in the hands of BMW and Bentley in those of Volkswagen. It was during the same summer that Mercedes announced that Maybach would be a separate brand and not a specific model in order to create a complete range. Rule number one of a German luxury manufacturer: do not leave an inch of ground to your competitors!

Jürgen Hubbert appoints Prof. Hermann Gauss for the development of the Maybach (W240 series). It was he who carried out the design of the S-Class generation W220, introduced in 1999, and which will serve as the basis for the Maybach. Olivier Boulay will be responsible for the design. If the exterior lines do not change ostensibly from the concept, the interior is completely revised, to follow up on “clinics” with the wealthy clientele of this world. Mercedes emphasizes personalization. At launch, nearly two million gear combinations will be possible. Suffice to say that no Maybach produced is identical.

Two body lengths will be offered: 5.7 or 6.2 meters…hence the names 57 and 62. The 57 is when you want to drive; 62 is when you want to be driven.

A new V12 is designed: 5.5 liters of displacement, 3 valves per cylinder, two turbos, dual ignition… the small dishes are put in the big ones. Result: 543 horsepower and 664 lb.ft of torque obtained from 2,200 rpm. The automatic transmission has 5 gears. The 57 achieves 0 to 100 km/h in 5.2 seconds and the 62 in 5.4 while the speed is electronically limited to 250 km/h. Not bad for machines weighing 2,737 and 2,857 kilos respectively! To brake all that weight, the front discs have not one, but two four-piston calipers and the entire braking system is controlled by an electro-hydraulic system (SBC) and receives ABS and ESP. The double wishbone suspension at the front and the multi-link rear axle are fitted with Airmatic DC pneumatic struts which provide controlled damping.

Debauchery!

It is by opening the doors that one enters another world. The finest materials are vying for your attention: wood (more than 100 pieces with 3 species to choose from), leather (210 fabrics in 6 colours), chrome, alcantara… It’s very simple, no more plastic is not visible!

The equipment is plethoric: two separate air conditioning systems (one for the front, one for the rear), Bose audio system of 600 watts and 21 speakers, front seats adjustable in 14 directions, electric curtains, reclining rear seats (ottomans in 62), counters for passengers (speed, time, outside temperature), multimedia system… The list of options isn’t bad either: DISTRONIC automatic distance control, rear refrigerator, folding tables (57), air-conditioned seats, partition screen with the driver (62) and the famous panoramic roof which can be clouded at the simple press of a button (62). In Canada, the 57 and 62 are priced at $472,378 and $548,568 respectively (2004 vintage). By comparison, a $224,990 Bentley Continental GT looks like a bargain. On the other hand, at this price, you have access to a personal assistant 24 hours a day to meet all your needs.

A start with a bang!

The Maybach 62 chassis number ‘001’ is shipped from the Sindelfingen factory, via Southampton in England, to New York as original. She was loaded aboard the liner Queen Elizabeth II on June 26, 2002 in a transparent container. On the morning of July 2, the container was unloaded by helicopter and, two hours later, the car was parked with drums and trumpets in front of the Regent Hotel on Wall Street, a stone’s throw from the New York Stock Exchange. The unveiling is symbolic because Maybach thinks to sell in the United States 400 of the 1,000 copies it plans to produce each year.

Cold shower

If a few stars and other influential people hasten to open their checkbooks, Maybach realizes very quickly that everything is not going to go as planned. Only 600 copies are sold the first year. And the numbers will go down from there. The launch of the S-Class W221 in 2006 (which somewhat dated the Maybach) and the financial crisis of 2008 will not help matters.

To support sales, Maybach introduced the 57S (Geneva Motor Show, March 2005) and 62S (Detroit Motor Show, January 2007). They benefit from a revised V12 (6.0 liters, 604 horsepower and 738 lb-ft of torque) and special wheels. Then there will be the Zeppelin versions at the 2009 Geneva Motor Show, limited to 100 units for each model, with a 631 horsepower V12 and specific color and material combinations. The 57 and 62 received their only restyling in 2010, at the Beijing Motor Show. The aesthetics are slightly modified while the electronics (driving aids and multimedia) are updated. Nothing works…

Not even the Landaulet, in memory of a body style seen in the 20s and 30s and on the 600, presented in Dubai in 2007 as a concept and equipped with a convertible roof over the entire rear part. It will be produced in only 8 copies and sold for the staggering sum of 1.3 million US dollars.

the cleaver

There is a time considered to develop a new generation of Maybach in collaboration with Aston Martin, which could use this platform for a Lagonda model. But the plan falls through.

Mercedes prefers to bet on the W222 generation of the S-Class which will be launched in 2014. On November 25, 2011, the company with the star announces the end of Maybach for the 2013 vintage. Finally, nearly 3,000 copies will have been produced in 11 years , of which a little more than half sold in the United States. The British newspaper Because calculated that Mercedes lost more than 330,000 euros per vehicle sold (equivalent to more than 450,000 Canadian dollars in 2013).

We can attribute this failure to an elegant but generic style, too similar to that of the S-Class costing 3 times less (customers want absolute exclusivity at this price level) and the absence of the cachet of the Maybach name.

Today, Maybach is attached to ultra-luxurious versions of existing Mercedes models (S-Class, G-Class and GLS). And it works! Sales are excellent and Mercedes is “building” the name. With this, it is not impossible to one day review a specific Maybach model. Hoping that customers have forgotten the misadventure of 57 and 62…