Maybach officially turns up its toes

After almost a decade of trying, Mercedes has finally officially thrown in the towel and announced the end of Maybach production.

Maybach – a brand name almost unknown outside Germany when it was revived – was supposed to be Mercedes’ answer to Rolls Royce and Bentley. And perhaps it could have been.

It could have been if Mercedes has made the Maybach a state-of-the-art limo with cutting-edge underpinnings and subtle inclusion of the latest technology. Instead, we got a Maybach based on an old S-Class, a design that jarred the sensibilities of most with even a modicum of taste and an interior that looked like an explosion in a glitterball factory.

Mercedes tried, they really did. They gave us the option of a long Maybach in the 57 and a too long for European roads 62. They tried bolting an ‘S’ on the end to make the Maybach sporty, they toyed with a Maybach Coupe (even the firm tasked to produce the Maybach Coupe fro Mercedes went bust) and we even had a Maybach Landaulet and a Maybach Zeppelin. All to no avail.

Perhaps it wasn’t just the poor design and poor conception that killed the Maybach, but the resurgence of Bentley and Rolls Royce under the ownership of VW and BMW that was the killer nail in Maybach’s coffin?

But whatever the reasons, Maybach is now gone. But don’t be surprised to see the next generation S-Class with a Maybach moniker appended to the end of the Pullman version to signify the Daddy of all S-Classes.