Daimler kills off Maybach

Only seven Maybachs were sold in Australia and that number is unlikely  to grow now that Mercedes-Benz management has put its sword through  the car and company.

It rejected a proposal to renew the lineup with replacements for the Maybach 57 and 62, which would have hit the road in 2014.

“We've come to the conclusion that it is better to cut our losses with Maybach than to continue into an uncertain future," says Dieter Zetsche, chairman of Daimler.

"Yes, production will end late 2013," confirms David McCarthy, spokesman for Mercedes-Benz Australia.

The re-born Maybach hit the road at almost the same time as the Rolls-Royce Phantom, but there was never any real contest. The BMW-owned British limousine was right on the money, and right for the money, but the Maybach always came across as a long-wheelbase S-Class Benz with a Dick Smith store in the back seat.

The Maybach promised business-class airline seating for two, as well as a brilliant tail-end entertainment package, and delivered on that end of the deal.

But the car was never different enough, or better enough, to lure conquest customers or even satisfy upscale Benz buyers. Long-time Benz owner and collector Lindsay Fox, for one, always wanted an S-Class Pullman and not a Maybach.

When prices could easily soar above $1 million, sales were slow at a  time when Rolls-Royce regularly delivered 20 cars a year in Australia and more than 1000 worldwide.

McCarthy says only a couple of the fully-loaded Maybach 62s were sold here, with the balance delivered as the shorter-wheelbase 57, but refuses to go into detail.

"Each Maybach was made specifically to customer order. There is  nothing 'average' about a Maybach price, specification or their customers," he says.

Despite the death sentence, Maybach owners will still get support.

"Every Maybach owner will continue to receive the exceptional level of customer support, interaction and exclusive benefits that come with owning one of the most exclusive cars on the planet," McCarthy says.