first roadlook test
Mercedes-Maybach S-Class
Mark Bursa
Return of the ’bach
ProDriver Tested 32.8mpg / 30.0mph July 2019
A
s a stand-alone brand, Maybach may have failed to
make much of a dent in Rolls-Royce and Bentley’s domination of the super-luxury saloon sector in its 2002-2011 revival. But since the famous nameplate was relaunched as a sub-brand of Mercedes-Benz five years ago with a stretched and opulent version of the S-Class, Maybach has quietly got on with selling a lot of cars. Since the relaunch in 2015, more than 60,000 Mercedes-Maybach S-Class saloons have been delivered worldwide, especially to the Chinese
30
market, where in 2019, average sales exceeded 700 units per month. Alongside China, the main sales markets in recent years have been
Russia, South Korea, the USA and Germany. Now there’s a new Mercedes-Maybach S-Class, launched in tandem with the ‘plain vanilla’ Mercedes-Benz S. And fans of the 2002 Maybach 57 and 62 models will be delighted that the latest versions are reviving a lot of the distinctive Maybach features – notably two-tone paint and some spectacular pale-leather interior trims. The effect, at first glance at least, is of a more distinctively “Maybach” car than the first Mercedes-Maybach S-Class, which wasn’t really different-looking enough to catch the eye
NOVEMBER 2020
