Brace Yourselves: A New Maybach'd Up S-Class Is On The Way

When Mercedes canned the once great Maybach brand last year, we didn’t exactly shed a tear. Maybach was one of the automotive greats of the first half of the 20th century, making some of the most opulent and expensive cars in the world, so when the brand was resurrected in 2002 - with Daimler having bought the rights to it in the 1960s - it seemed a bit much that this illustrious name was to be used on a bunch of tarted up S-Class saloons.

Unfortunately, the Maybach name is making a return, for something rather similar. However, this time around, it’ll be more of a sub-brand, with the new car - which will make its full debut later this month - being badged as a ‘Mercedes-Maybach’, in a similar manner to the hottest Mercs now being known as ‘Mercedes-AMG’.

It also won’t be anything like as expensive as the old Maybach range, which had an absurd starting price nudging £300,000. Instead, the new car is expected to be around £10-15,000 pricier than the long wheelbase V12 S600 on which it’s based; not a bad increase considering it’ll be 200mm longer and no doubt come with lots of extra kit and added swankiness (check out the interior pic above). On the whole, this all sounds much more agreeable than the previous S-Class-based Maybach 57 and 62.

While teasing this new, posher S-Class, Mercedes also confirmed its new naming structure, which will see all SUV and crossover models start with the letter G, the SLK renamed the SLC, plus a change in some of the letters used to denote different types of powertrains. Perhaps it’s time we updated our Merc idiot’s guide…