S65 AMG not expensive enough for you? Just 300 Maybach Cabs will be built

A Mercedes-Benz S65 AMG Cabriolet with a 6.0-litre biturbo V12 and 625bhp will cost you a mere £193,300. This brand new Mercedes-Maybach S650 Cabriolet with a 6.0-litre biturbo V12 and 625bhp will cost you… over £260k.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the first fully-convertible Maybach. What, you might legitimately cry, is the point of a £260k+ Maybach S-Class Cabriolet when an S65 AMG does the same job already?

Allow us to take you through some of the updates. There’s a new front bumper with a new lower section and “numerous” chrome highlights dotted around the car. The Maybach badge itself has been surreptitiously added to the wings, and there’s no mistaking those brand new 20in “bichromatic” forged wheels.

Nor that 6.0-litre V12. With 625bhp and 738lb ft of torque, it’ll go from 0-62mph in just 4.1s and top out at a limited 155mph top speed.

Even so, a Maybach isn’t really about performance. Opening the door leads you into a world of individually prepared leather nirvana. There’s Maybach logos on the front and back of the seats, “waterfall” inspired seat upholstery, outer diamond quilting and “progressive” perforations. Because nobody wants reactionary perforations.

Then come really thick floor mats, a chrome-plated ‘1 of 300’ badge, and every optional extra available for the S-Class Cabriolet thrown in as standard.

The trim, as mentioned, is individually commissioned for each car in terms of colour and grain. The lines you see coursing around the wood veneer were precision milled to give a 3D effect, while there’s also an inlaid Maybach logo on top of the soft-top compartment. The overall feel was inspired by Merc’s Arrow 460-Granturismo yacht. Fitting, then, for a posh S-Class Cab.

You want more? You got more. There’s a four-piece luggage set individually tailored to match the interior of your very own Maybach Cab, a high quality car cover with diamond quilting, and a welcome pack including a signed certificate from Daimler boss Dr Dieter Zetsche himself.

So, £260k+. Yes, it is very, very exclusive as only 300 will be built, with less than a very, very small handful expected to hit the UK. But is it really worth all that extra money over an S65? We’re not entirely sure.

As a side note, if you regularly get shot at, there’s a Merc-Maybach S600 Pullman Guard, which is apparently the world’s first passenger car to meet the highest ballistic protection level for civilian vehicles. And an excellent way to spend even more money.

This is a story of tech and engines, because as you can quite clearly see, the overhauled Mercedes S-Class looks almost exactly like the car it replaces.

Revealed at this week’s Shanghai motor show, ahead of its market launch this July, the new S-Class gets all the latest Mercedes autonomous driving tech. Most of which debuted on the E-Class last year.

New to the S-Class is Distronic Active Proximity Control, which when set uses GPS data to slow it down for roundabouts, junctions, corners, toll booths and so on. We’ve already had a demo of all the new features, which also include autonomous parking, and you can read all about them by clicking on these words.

Finished? Good, because there are some new engines to talk about too. A 3.0-litre in-line six-cylinder diesel replaces the existing V6. In the S350d it produces 282bhp and 443lb ft (a 27bhp increase and 14lb ft decrease), and in the S400d you get 335bhp and 516lb ft. That’s the most powerful diesel Mercedes ever, and isn’t yet confirmed for the UK.

The famous S500 badge makes way for S560, with the old 4.7-litre V8 replaced by the newer 4.0-litre biturbo with 463bhp, 516lb ft and cylinder deactivation.

You want AMGs? Of course there are some. The S63 AMG gets the 4.0-litre V8 – from the E63, C63 and so on – but with 604bhp, a faintly outrageous 664lb ft of torque (the same as a LaFerrari) and a nine-speed automatic gearbox. Meanwhile, one per-centers will be pleased to hear the S65 AMG keeps its V12.

In left-hand-drive countries, all bar the S65 get 4Matic all-wheel drive. So equipped, the S63 will do 0-63mph in 3.5secs. Yikes. But in the UK everything is rear-wheel drive only. Boo.

Inside, it’s as opulent as ever. There’s a new steering wheel (with controls that replace the familiar Mercedes cruise control stalk, which is no more) and the widescreen LCD screens from the E-Class. A new ‘energising comfort control’ feature links together the seats (massage, heating etc), climate control and stereo to deliver set ambiances like freshness, warmth or joy.

Right-hand drive cars will arrive in October.

Ah, the new S-Class Coupe and Cabriolet. Well timed…
Indeed. In the week we got our first proper go in Bentley’s magnificent new Continental GT, Mercedes has served up a timely reminder that one of its seemingly 492 model lines is a plus-size luxury coupe and convertible.

How could we forget? Mercedes sells about 600 S-Class Coupes and Cabriolets annually in the UK, so it’s a rare groove. Neither is quite as showy as the new British contender nor Aston Martin’s DB11, but as the S-Class’s more hedonistic and self-centred spin-off, this is arguably luxury automotive travel at its most definitive.

Costly, too: prices range from circa £102k for the S560 Coupe to £141k for the S63 AMG and a thumping £198k for the S65 AMG. Although that one comes with extra bells and whistles on top of the standard bells and whistles.

So what’s new?
In typical Mercedes style, it’s a thorough update, although the devil is in the detail here. The biggest news is the arrival of the S560, whose new 4.0-litre, 469bhp V8 biturbo replaces the old – and still fabulous – 4.7-litre twin-turbo.

Fair to say it’s prioritising efficiency over total performance, and the Coupe’s combined consumption figure of 35.2mpg (32.4mpg for the cabrio) means it drinks eight per cent less fuel than the previous car. Emissions are down to 183g/km (199), depending on wheel choice, which is hugely impressive for a car with this much power.

The 4.0-litre still uses the ‘hot V’ configuration familiar from AMG sports cars, and four of the eight cylinders are deactivated between 900 and 3,250rpm (or when you’re not hoofing it in Sport or Race mode in the Dynamic Select programme). Direct injection with spray-guided combustion also helps thermodynamic efficiency, and the fuel pressure varies between 100 and 200 bar.

I’ve also just discovered that the new engine uses a ‘centrifugal pendulum to reduce fourth-order vibrations in eight-cylinder mode as well as second-order vibrations in four-cylinder mode’. Good to know.

What else can you dazzle us with?
The visuals get an overhaul, most notably a more aggressive front apron with a chrome-plated splitter and bigger air inlets. The AMG versions get the ‘Panamericana’ grille, as used elsewhere in the range, to slightly less appropriate effect here, to my eyes at least.

Organic LEDs enliven the tail-lights, a total of 66 ultra-flat OLEDs floating inside the cluster for a distinctive day and night-time signature. As with the S-class saloon and E-class, Mercedes’ commitment to the autonomous driving cause is deepened here, via its distance control and active steering software. The car’s speed is also adjusted automatically ahead of bends or junctions.

The widescreen, all-digital cockpit arrives inside, there’s a new steering wheel design, new trim lines, and near-field communication for your smartphone. Mercedes also offers what it calls ‘energising comfort control’ to network the climate control, the seats, lighting (64 ambient colour options), and even music to turn the car into an automotive wellness spa. Of course, you can always stream your Napalm Death playlist if you insist.

That sounds ridiculous. The wellness thing, not Napalm Death…
It may well do, but these cars get close to Rolls-Royce Phantom levels of refinement and imaginatively unadulterated luxury. Even a lowly C-Class is a nice place to sit these days, so you can imagine what its sybaritic, range-topping über-luxo brother feels like.

I asked Mercedes’ chief design officer Gorden Wagener how the company was delivering such consistently strong interiors, and the answer is simple: “we invest the money”. Rivals, take note. His team is also reimagining the age-old wood and leather tropes to ever-greater effect, and if you plump for the ‘Flowing Lines’ trim, the substrate below the veneer is visible for an enhanced 3D effect.

The optional Burmester audio system integrates the woofers into the bodyshell, and even the windscreen wipers are intelligent, and know not to douse you in screen wash if the cabrio’s roof is lowered. The hood itself is a triple-layered acoustic job, that delivers the same refinement roof-up as the Coupe. The attention to detail is awesome.

Good to drive, we assume.
Beneath the welter of assistance systems – including evasive steering assist, which boosts steering torque all the better to help you avoid mowing down whatever has just strayed into your path – the fundamentals remain deeply impressive.

The suspension uses Merc’s Airmatic semi-active air setup to vary the damping, and Magic Body Control is available on the S560 to scan the road ahead for imperfections. Active body control effectively negates roll, and as before the S Coupe and Cabrio can be equipped with a curve tilting function, for greater passenger comfort.

Dynamic Select tailors the engine, transmission, suspension, and steering across Comfort, Sport, Sport+ and Race modes. Or you can individualise the settings. Even on the canyon roads around Malibu, the default Comfort setting seemed perfectly good most of the time. The S560 uses a silken nine-speed automatic transmission, the S63 AMG the dual-clutch nine-speed MCT. Whatever iteration you’re in, the S-class Coupe or Cabrio will not be a light car, so the precision of its turn-in and its overall balance if you act the idiot are exemplary. The new Conti GT shades the big Merc in terms of ultimate on-limit feel, but the margin is slender.

We drove the 4Matic S63, which is rear-drive most of the time until you’re right on the edge. It’s also not coming to the UK.

Any other observations?
Yep. We’ve had the pleasure of running the now-outgoing S500 cabrio for a few months, and we’d have gone for it over the AMG versions. It’s just a beautiful thing. This latest round of revisions reverses that: the 4.0-litre biturbo in the S560 is more efficient but slightly less engaging, while the S63 – with 612bhp and 663lb ft – is simply blindingly good. AMG doesn’t always serve up the optimum iteration of whichever Mercedes it’s reworking, but that’s the case here.

Verdict: Taken as an overall brand manifesto, these reworked S-class Coupes and Cabrios are nailed-on superstars and fearsomely well-engineered bits of kit.

Facelifted ultimate S-Class tackles new Rolls Phantom with much beigeness

Feast your eyes upon the gaudy magnificence of the new Mercedes-Maybach S-Class. Now with extra chrome and one hundred per cent more beigneness.

Maybach’s done the two-tone thing before. Not well. Back in the early 2000s, when Mercedes attempted to revive the forgotten luxury marque, the resulting 57 and 62 saloons were available in a variety of dubious two-tone paint shades appealing mainly to owners of Emirati hotels. And Rick Ross.

By 2013, the global financial crisis – and the surging success of the likes of Rolls-Royce and Bentley – had put paid to the Maybach machine. It was consigned to the annuls of motoring history once again… for about five minutes.

For three years, Mercedes has been offering stretched, ultra-specced S-Classes under the Maybach brand, with complete bespoke wheels, grilles, interior finishes and vast quantities of sneer factor. Mercedes-Maybachs are aimed at clients who look at a Mercedes S-Class – a genuine candidate for Best Car In The World status – and shudder at the thought of being whooshed around in something so common.

So, as Mercedes has finished facelifting the S-Class and then shoehorning most of its tech and cabin design into a family hatchback, it’s turned its attentions – and chrome-plating gun – to the Maybach.

In addition to the new paint hues (nine combinations, since you ask, plus a new double-clear coat option which gives the car a piano-like finish, we’re told) there’s a new design of many-spoke 20-inch wheel. Inside, you’re welcomed into a suite-like cocoon of yet more beige, with a choice of copper, gold or titanium stitching.

Wait – our mistake – those are the colours of the thread. Though we wouldn’t put it past Maybach to stitch the seats together using actual gold or platinum, if you asked nicely enough.

Engine options remain a 4.0-litre, 462bhp V8 with rear or all-wheel drive, or a 6.0-litre V12 developing a meaty 621bhp. All Maybachs get you from 0-62mph comfortably under five seconds, depending on the heftiness of your chosen driver/bodyguard/henchman. Feel free to delete as appropriate.

Question is, would your personal oligarchy be better commanded from within the quilted confines of the world’s most opulent Benz, or the statesmanlike new Rolls Phantom?

Mercedes-Maybach stands for the ultimate in exclusivity and individuality. The absolute top-of-the range model from the luxury brand is the Pullman (fuel consumption combined: 14.6 l/100 km; combined CO2emissions: 330 g/km) with vis-à-vis seating behind the partition screen. Now the high-end luxury class from Mercedes-Benz is becoming even more exquisite. A new radiator grille and new exclusive colour combinations in the interior make for a new appearance. The longest model from the S-Class family with a length of 6.50 metres can be ordered starting on 15 March.

A reinterpretation of the Mercedes-Maybach radiator grille with its fine, vertical struts accentuates the front end. The grille was inspired by a pinstriped suit. It celebrated its world première in the Vision Mercedes-Maybach 6, the exclusive coupé concept car which thrilled connoisseurs and fans of the brand in 2016. The exterior appearance of the top-of-the-range model is rounded off by the 20-inch wheel in 10-hole design known from the Mercedes-Maybach. For an even more individual appearance, the range of paint finishes by customer demand now also includes the two-tone paint finishes presented with the Mercedes-Maybach S-Class. The new exclusive colours magma grey, mahogany brown and silk beige/deep sea blue are available in the interior.

Its length of 6.50 metres alone is a sign of the special status of the Mercedes-Maybach Pullman. It provides space for a generously sized and tastefully appointed club lounge in the rear, with a multitude of creature comforts fitted as standard, thereby ensuring the chauffeur-driven limousine lives up to today's expectations of what constitutes maximum exclusivity and luxury. The VIP occupants sit on two standard-specification executive seats facing the direction of travel. They can enjoy the largest legroom in the segment; and can get in and out of the car with the greatest of ease and comfort. As is typical for a Pullman, the four passengers can sit facing each other in the compartment with an electrically operated partition. Also new for the Mercedes-Maybach Pullman is a front view camera. Rear passengers are thus able to monitor the traffic in front of the vehicle even when the partition screen is closed.

The "2 cabin sound" feature of the sound system offers more exclusivity than ever before. Thanks to independent control for the front and rear passenger compartment, the occupants of the Pullman enjoy even more personalised music. The price of the Mercedes-Maybach Pullman starts at around half a million euro.

The V12 biturbo engine of the Mercedes-Maybach Pullman now has an output of 463 kW (630 hp).

Many governments, heads of state and royal families around the world have, for decades, chosen Mercedes-Benz saloon cars with the designation "Pullman" to travel in the stately style befitting their status. With the Mercedes-Maybach Pullman, the company is underscoring its exceptional position in this discerning segment: In addition to providing spacious seating in first-class comfort for high-ranking passengers, the new Mercedes-Maybach Pullman is of course also the embodiment of exclusivity at its highest level. One can sense the significance and greatness of it in every detail.

Fifty years ago, Benz unveiled the daddy of the W109s. It remains amazing

Rudolf Uhlenhaut had an ear for an engine, and an eye for beauty. In the 1950s and 1960s, he was part of Mercedes F1’s unstoppable triumvirate (the others being team boss Alfred Neubauer and one Juan Manuel Fangio). He was also head of the company’s road car development team, and once ran the fabled 300 SLR ‘Uhlenhaut Coupe’ as his company car.

The story goes, one day, sitting in his office, he heard “the subdued growl” of a V8 in a prototype Benz as it passed him by, and immediately summoned his test engineer Erich Waxenberger to his office to explain.

Waxenberger explained that – without the consent or knowledge of his bosses – he had been working on slotting in the 6.3-litre V8 from the Model 600 into the W109 series. He had built an actual prototype. And as soon as Rudy heard this news… he signed it off for development.

It was to emerge into the bright lights of the 1968 Geneva Motor Show as the Mercedes-Benz 300 SEL 6.3; a precursor to the S-Class behemoths you see today, and it remains just as glorious and desirable as ever.

It delivered a hearty (well, for 1968) 247bhp, and allied to the SEL’s 1,780kg kerbweight, managed 0-62mph in 6.5secs and top speed of 137mph.

We could tell you loads more – like the fact that it had air suspension and automatic level control, power steering (with a ginormous steering wheel), a four-speed auto, a locking diff, electric windows and central locking. Or that 6,526 of them were built. Or that it had – for the time – a sophisticated injection system.

But we won’t, because you only need to stare at it. Go on, stare.

Echoes of the big Benz from days past.

Aspiration—the human emotion, not the breathing variety—is a funny thing. People’s hopes and yearnings, goals and ambitions, can change over a lifetime, and it’s likely that one generation will value things differently than those that precede or follow it.

Highs: The benchmark luxury sedan, more power than last year, performs like a sports car, it’s a 560 S-class.

Lows: So much electro-gimmickry, really nice plastics are still plastic, the Maybach is flashier, the AMG is faster.

Five-sixty, for instance. That number represented an object of automotive desire for many of us in the late 1980s, when this writer was a neophyte in the car-magazine game. If hearing that the numeral 560 has returned to the decklid of a Mercedes-Benz S-class sedan for 2018 triggers some warm tingle of recognition, know that you’re remembering a whole different world and a previous century’s notions of luxury.

The digits on the 2018 S560 4Matic, the car tested here, have reappeared less out of nostalgic regard than to mark an engine change with the model’s mid-cycle update. The new twin-turbocharged 4.0-liter V-8 supplants a similarly boosted but less powerful 4.7-liter used in the S550. Still, the reappearance of the 560 badge gives us occasion to consider how the luxury-car market has changed over 30-some years.

A mid-cycle update also brought us the original 560SEL, which in those simpler days denoted that its then-new M117 V-8 displaced 5547 cubic centimeters, which almost rounds to 5.6 liters. The E in SEL declared that it was fuel injected electronically; that the engine had only two valves per cylinder seems quaint now. This engine was offered in the sedan from 1986 until 1991 and also was available in the SEC coupe and the SL roadster. In America, it came only in the extended-wheelbase chassis—the L in SEL—and was the top model of the W126-class S-class, which had been in production since 1979. In that slower-paced era, Mercedes actually boasted that the W126 had been under development for a full decade before it started its 12-year production run. A little math says that means the designers in Stuttgart laid down their first lines of graphite on vellum when Richard Nixon had barely warmed the seat in the Oval Office. That the 560SEL’s seats were warmed, too, was considered a big deal. Also a big deal: headlight wipers!

In retrospect, its standard ABS and, later, optional traction control telegraphed that the W126 was a pioneer of the radical transformation that led toward today’s semi-autonomous driving aids. So rudimentary were those systems, though, that the W126 still stands out as the apex analog car—you’d search its interior in vain for anything resembling a screen, a driving-mode dial, or ambient mood lighting. In contrast with today’s car, you’d find more metal and less plastic, wood trim in shapes that resemble furnishings more than they do abstract sculpture, and no dials or buttons with pictograms so obscure that you’d need to look them up in the printed owner’s manual. Remember those?A 2015 exhibit at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum of art and design asked the question in its title: “What is Luxury?” It didn’t provide a clear answer except to say that luxury is evolving in this millennium. The objects displayed demonstrated traditional luxury attributes: quality materials, exceptional craftsmanship, artistic design, relative rarity. Tradition also still applies, the curators made clear in an accompanying online quiz, with regard to spending big bucks on an object not because of its inherent values but only because it confers prestige or status on the owner. That has never been luxury. It’s still vulgarity.

“Luxury,” though, has changed in that the word is increasingly applied to devices or services that save the owner time. The lifestyles that lead one to the door of a Mercedes dealership, for instance, are increasingly crammed with must-do-right-nows. So what people now consider luxurious are less the comforts and conveniences that have become so abundant as to be redefined as necessities—24/7 entertainment, climate-controlled dwellings, overnight delivery—and more so any device or service that frees up their time to enjoy the rest.

The new S560 4Matic wastes no time putting its 463 horsepower to use. It leaps to 60 mph from a dead stop in 4.2 seconds on the way to covering a quarter-mile in 12.8 seconds at 111 mph. Compared with its 2017 S550 4Matic predecessor that we tested, that’s 0.2 second quicker to 60 mph and 0.1 second and 1 mph faster in the quarter-mile. Fifty pounds lighter than last year’s car, the S560 also returned 19 mpg overall during our test, a huge 4 mpg improvement over the S550. In cornering at 0.90 g and coming to a stop from 70 mph in only 161 feet, the big sedan reveals sports-car-like moves that the engineers of its 1980s ancestor never imagined could be reconciled with the smooth and comfortable ride delivered by the adaptive dampers and air springs. The S560 might be quicker and nimbler still if it shed the weight of the optional 4Matic all-wheel-drive system, but these numbers already suggest you’re looking at a land yacht that would have no trouble chasing down a Mazda Miata on the Tail of the Dragon.

That’s not the way most S-class buyers think of time-saving, though. Our subject vehicle was also equipped with a $2250 package of driver assists that brings the latest version of the company’s semi-autonomous driving features. Including adaptive cruise control and lane-keeping assist that allow more relaxed highway driving, these systems let the driver devote more precious moments of time to other pursuits. In theory. We’re amazed by the technology if not particularly enamored of it in practice.

These systems still demand that the driver pay attention to the road and traffic, for reasons amply revealed when we sought to ease a long drive home after a tiring day of helping a family member move. It was twilight, with a light rain falling, so it seemed wise to engage all the safety systems in light of the driver’s fatigue. In these challenging circumstances, though, the car seemed nearly as uncertain about the lane demarcations as were our own tired and aging human eyes. If we removed our hands from the steering wheel, the car ping-ponged between lane lines and tried to follow the paint into I-75 exit lanes we had no intention of taking. As with the Mercedes in our comparison test two years ago, letting the car drive worked best in traffic jams. One new change is the controls are now on the steering-wheel spoke thanks to the elimination this year, at long last, of the traditional Benz cruise-control stalk. Which was, come to think of it, just about the last interior element that the driver of a W126 S-class would have found familiar in previous model years of the current-generation car.

Although not exactly time-saving, the 21st-century S560 is also amply endowed with new twists on the more self-indulgent traditional luxuries, including a $2600 Warmth and Comfort package that actually heats the leather on the center and door armrests as well as the seats. As part of a $5000 Premium package, the seats themselves offered a “hot stone” massage function, but we’ve seen video of these being dissected on YouTube revealing that they do not, in fact, contain any stones whatsoever. More than $30,000 of the as-tested price was optional equipment, including $2260 for a night-vision system and $6400 for a Burmester “high end” audio system. There’s a stock Burmester system, but this one is $6400 more “high end.”

A second may still be a second, but it certainly feels as if time has been accelerating for the past 30 years. If you were a thirtysomething when a V-8 W126 was the ultimate Benz—remember kids, this was before there were Maybach and AMG sub-brands to render a mere Benz subordinate—the 560 was aspirational less in the here and now but in the “one day, if I keep my nose clean and achieve most of my career ambitions” sense. It was an old person’s car that made becoming old seem like a worthy goal. The 560 was a thing you’d save up for over a lifetime, buy as you neared retirement, and maybe pass on to your grandchildren.

Built for this multitasking, immediate-gratification era, the new S560 4Matic is no old-man’s car. The interior plastics are high-grade stuff, but plastic is not known for long-term durability, nor are electronic screens or the software driving them. Hence, the 2018 model doesn’t convey the impression that it’s meant to last for generations so much as it’s designed to be leased for a couple of years then resold as a certified pre-owned car to earn the dealer a second hit on the profit margins. Leasing makes the ability to drive such a thing more a matter of immediate cashflow than a measure of accumulated net worth. Like a smartphone, it’s not a thing to save up for and buy later but one to acquire as current achievement allows. It’s still an object of aspiration, but it’s turbocharged to keep up with modern market realities. And to save its owner time, whether on the freeway on-ramp or by letting the car do more of the driving.

None of this commentary should be construed as a moral judgment that the old way was better. It was different. Things change, and if the S560 that exists as one nears retirement is not the sort of car to which one aspired decades ago, it’s one hell of a car in its own right. If we really preferred the old one, W126 sedans in splendid condition are readily available, and they routinely list for much less than the price of a new Volkswagen Golf. That they’re often included in estate sales suggests that the younger generations who inherit Grandpa’s big cruiser don’t want to keep it any more than they do Grandma’s fine china and silver service for 12. Things that need storage and maintenance do not save one’s time.

Quiet, comfortable, competent, and quick, the 2018 Mercedes-Benz S560, though, is something to lust after in the here and now.