The World's Most Luxurious Car?
Mercedes-Benz' Maybach Costs $350,000
By Ned Potter
N E W Y O R K, Aug. 19 — "The very rich … are different from you and me," said F. Scott Fitzgerald. To which Ernest Hemingway supposedly replied, "Yes, they have more money." That's not all, of course. They can also afford some really expensive cars.
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That is precisely why Mercedes-Benz plans next spring to sell the Maybach 62, a revival of a German limousine of the 1920s. The sticker price — if they bothered with stickers for such a car — would be about $353,000.
"It's the finest in automotive engineering, design, and elegance," says Paul Halata, president of Mercedes-Benz in the United States. "It has so many features, I could not show them all to you."
So here's a short list for this unusually long, 18-foot car:
• A 12-cylinder, 543 horsepower engine.
• A trunk and doors that close electronically.
• Reclining rear seats (much like first-class airline seats) with electronically extendable footrests.
•A cooler for your champagne.
•An entertainment system (with Dolby stereo and video screens in the front headrests) that puts opera houses to shame.
As Halata says: "Not bad. Not bad for a car."
A Matter of Aura
"There is a very small segment of people that are in the market for a vehicle like that," acknowledges Halata. "They are people like movie stars, they are entrepreneurs, they are industry giants, they are show people, and they are of course people that want something very unique and very special."
Mercedes figures it can find a thousand such people a year worldwide — 400 of them in the U.S. It may not make the company a tremendous profit, but that's not the idea.
In the jargon of automobile marketing, the Maybach is a "halo" car, adding an aura of exclusivity to some of the less expensive cars sold by its parent company, DaimlerChrysler. Analysts point out that even the once-revered Mercedes name has been diluted somewhat. With 200,000 Mercedes on the road in the U.S., it's just not as special as it used to be.
A Matter of Timing
But when the stock market is down for the third year in a row, and Americans' nest eggs have lost $7 trillion, some people say it does seem an odd time to bring out a car that costs double what the average American home does.
"This car was conceived in the go-go '90s when the stock market was surging," says Csaba Csere, the editor in chief of Car and Driver magazine. He points out that to bring the Maybach to market now, Mercedes had to start work five years ago — when times were very different.
"There's always people who have money," says Csere. "Sometimes, though, when times are hard, even if they have money they conclude that's not the right time to show off they have money."
Undaunted, Mercedes brought the first Maybach to New York recently in a glass crate on the deck of the Queen Elizabeth II, and delivered it to shore by helicopter.
A show of excess? Not quite. Rumor has it royalty from Japan, Belgium and Bahrain have been kicking those rather costly tires.
Mercedes-Benz' Maybach Costs $350,000
By Ned Potter
N E W Y O R K, Aug. 19 — "The very rich … are different from you and me," said F. Scott Fitzgerald. To which Ernest Hemingway supposedly replied, "Yes, they have more money." That's not all, of course. They can also afford some really expensive cars.
Print This Page
Email This Page
See Most Sent
• Mom Hopes Mystery Boy Is Her Son
• 'Silly Season' Begins in 2004 White House Race
• Lowly Fruit Fly's Amazing Flight Secrets
That is precisely why Mercedes-Benz plans next spring to sell the Maybach 62, a revival of a German limousine of the 1920s. The sticker price — if they bothered with stickers for such a car — would be about $353,000.
"It's the finest in automotive engineering, design, and elegance," says Paul Halata, president of Mercedes-Benz in the United States. "It has so many features, I could not show them all to you."
So here's a short list for this unusually long, 18-foot car:
• A 12-cylinder, 543 horsepower engine.
• A trunk and doors that close electronically.
• Reclining rear seats (much like first-class airline seats) with electronically extendable footrests.
•A cooler for your champagne.
•An entertainment system (with Dolby stereo and video screens in the front headrests) that puts opera houses to shame.
As Halata says: "Not bad. Not bad for a car."
A Matter of Aura
"There is a very small segment of people that are in the market for a vehicle like that," acknowledges Halata. "They are people like movie stars, they are entrepreneurs, they are industry giants, they are show people, and they are of course people that want something very unique and very special."
Mercedes figures it can find a thousand such people a year worldwide — 400 of them in the U.S. It may not make the company a tremendous profit, but that's not the idea.
In the jargon of automobile marketing, the Maybach is a "halo" car, adding an aura of exclusivity to some of the less expensive cars sold by its parent company, DaimlerChrysler. Analysts point out that even the once-revered Mercedes name has been diluted somewhat. With 200,000 Mercedes on the road in the U.S., it's just not as special as it used to be.
A Matter of Timing
But when the stock market is down for the third year in a row, and Americans' nest eggs have lost $7 trillion, some people say it does seem an odd time to bring out a car that costs double what the average American home does.
"This car was conceived in the go-go '90s when the stock market was surging," says Csaba Csere, the editor in chief of Car and Driver magazine. He points out that to bring the Maybach to market now, Mercedes had to start work five years ago — when times were very different.
"There's always people who have money," says Csere. "Sometimes, though, when times are hard, even if they have money they conclude that's not the right time to show off they have money."
Undaunted, Mercedes brought the first Maybach to New York recently in a glass crate on the deck of the Queen Elizabeth II, and delivered it to shore by helicopter.
A show of excess? Not quite. Rumor has it royalty from Japan, Belgium and Bahrain have been kicking those rather costly tires.
