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    Has Maybach hit rock bottom?

    Despite Australia's record-breaking 1 million-car sales this year, Maybach managed to snag exactly zero buyers. To put this in perspective, with a population of approximately 21 million, 1 million cars sold means nearly one in 20, or roughly five percent of Australians bought a car this year alone. It's probably true that fewer than 1 in 20 Australians could theoretically afford a Maybach, but with not a single car sold, one has to wonder about the viability of the brand - and not just in Australia.

    And it's not like the million cars sold were all budget-loving economy cars, either. Luxury marques saw rises across the board, from Ferrari's 43.6 percent increase in sales to Bentley's 17.6%, expensive cars sold well in Australia this year. Rolls-Royce even managed 17 sales, an increase of 5 over 2006. In fact, Rolls-Royce cars are in such great demand that the factory simply can't keep up with the demand. So what's wrong with Maybach?

    Re: Has Maybach hit rock bottom?

    Maybach started at rock-bottom and went downhill from there.

    Re: Has Maybach hit rock bottom?

    Quote:
    fritz said:
    Maybach started at rock-bottom and went downhill from there.



    Indeed.

    Re: Has Maybach hit rock bottom?

    'so what's wrong with maybach?'

    i think the fact that it's fugly might have something to do with it. Also lacks the elegance of the RR.

    Re: Has Maybach hit rock bottom?

    M-B should have sold it as an M-B model, positioned above the S-Class and priced at $175K (U.S.price) and they would have sold all that they could produce.....

    Re: Has Maybach hit rock bottom?

    Maybach is so low it has to look up, just to look down. lol

    Re: Has Maybach hit rock bottom?

    Maybach is like a large S-class. I have sat in both the top of the line S-class and Maybach side by side, and I couldn't see any reason why I would spend double the amount for the Maybach. Whereas with RR, I wanted to buy one when I sat in it (only problem is I could afford it ).

    Re: Has Maybach hit rock bottom?

    Quote:
    964C2 said:
    M-B should have sold it as an M-B model, positioned above the S-Class and priced at $175K (U.S.price) and they would have sold all that they could produce.....



    Exactly.

    Re: Has Maybach hit rock bottom?

    It also doesn't help that it looks like last generation's S class , esp the interior , for 3-4 times the price.

    Re: Has Maybach hit rock bottom?

    It's really too bad, I definitely like the Maybach. I just saw one for the first time in over a year a few days ago, a 62 none the less!

    Re: Has Maybach hit rock bottom?

    no class, no style, no identity......no sales

    Re: Has Maybach hit rock bottom?

    Most people would choose a Phantom or an Arnage. There is no room for the Maybach, esp these days.

    Re: Has Maybach hit rock bottom?

    Agree - the problem is this car itself.

    It looks like the pre-old S-Class model, especially in the interior. Compared to the Phantom it looks to aged.

    Re: Has Maybach hit rock bottom?

    Quote:
    SoCalHoosier said:
    Quote:
    964C2 said:
    M-B should have sold it as an M-B model, positioned above the S-Class and priced at $175K (U.S.price) and they would have sold all that they could produce.....



    Exactly.



    It's, in fact, not that simple. They intended to launch a model line beyond the S-class a couple of years ago, aquiring customers and increasing interest margin over the cheaper models. Customer surveys revealed that it would be hardly accepted badged as a Mercedes car. Therefore they dug up the Maybach name from the past.

    Apart from lacking history, something that especially in the US brands like Lexus have overcome, the car's strong points were of technical (read: rational) origin. On the other hand people were supposed to pay an unrational premium over the regular S-class to acquire this car. Since novelty and those technical highlights start to fade there is even less reason to buy this car nowadays. Furthermore, the car is definately not seen as a fashion item as the Merc SLR, which, despite similiar managine flaws, has an easier standpoint on the market.

    Re: Has Maybach hit rock bottom?

    Simon Cowell bought one - that was the kiss of death!

    Re: Has Maybach hit rock bottom?

    Haha. shows that he is not good at judging everything.

    Re: Has Maybach hit rock bottom?

    Quote:
    vinnie said:
    Haha. shows that he is not good at judging everything.



    Also owns a phantom.

    As far as the Maybach is concerned:
    It is ugly
    More Expensive than direct competitor
    57 is useless.
    However they have come up with the S version that improves the car quite a bit however it is not available yet on the 62

    But from a comfort standpoint and for its primary purpose as a chauffered driven car, the 62 is better than both the phantom and the ewb phantom. I believe that the EWB should come standard with seperation window and fold down seats to accomodate 4.

    The phantom with bench seating defeats the purpose and when it has the theatre package can only fit two in the back.

    Re: Has Maybach hit rock bottom?

    The Maybach has several engineering feats and is a technical feat. I was in one that a friend rented for a party, and while doing 100mph on I-95 there was nearly no wind, road, or engine noise. It was like we were in a leather wrap vacuumed sealed cacoon.

    But in this class, styling sells just as much as anything else and the bland styling is what sunk the car.

    Even Mercedes in an interview said it got the styling wrong and will make effort to correct this in the next iteration.

    Re: Has Maybach hit rock bottom?

    US is world's biggest mkt for $150K+ cars....

    Only mkts in US where guys routinely use limos are Manhattan and, to much lesser extent, BevHills....and Maybach was flop in US from Day 1 of launch some ?3yrs ago.....

    In Manhattan, most hedge fund/PE titans are driven around in nondescript, scuffed-up blk/blk <$100K S550s.....

    More image-conscious, IQ-challenged BevHills has a few more guys who choose S65 and driver to ferry them around Westside....

    SiliconValley is almost exclusively a self-drive culture.....and most titans commute via CL63/SL55 (or some S/CL)...some tech/financial billionaires drive S65, but 65 is an uncommon choice among SiliconValley guys who can easily afford any car...but also have little to prove....

    Culture of buying an expensive car w/archaic-tech (like Maybach/Bent/RR, etc.....or cars w/Luddite gearboxes or dubious safety engineering ) is largely a 3rd World/Podunk US/EU fascination.....and if unwashed masses' favorite US rappers are supposedly driving/being driven in whatever car, that brand/model may be aspirational car of choice in Podunk for some period.....

    Re: Has Maybach hit rock bottom?

    Who else thinks that WBH is just a teenager who is obsessed with the world of riches?

    Re: Has Maybach hit rock bottom?

    Quote:
    WAY said:
    Who else thinks that WBH is just a teenager who is obsessed with the world of riches?



    +1

    Re: Has Maybach hit rock bottom?

    That's the whole point.

    The Maybach program was a complete failure. So instead of scrapping everything they worked on with the Maybach and rather than designing a brand new from the ground up S Class, they just rebadged the Maybach into the new S class.

    I think in the back of their minds the board only approved the Maybach program when that, if it became that the Maybach program was failing that MB would use any of the resources it blew to engineer the Maybach for the new S class. SO that is basically why the Maybach looks/feels like an S class and vice versa. From the outset it was doomed to be that way, UNLESS the Maybach succeeded.

    Re: Has Maybach hit rock bottom?

    Quote:
    RR4 said:
    they just rebadged the Maybach into the new S class.



    Which technical elements do you refer to? The Maybach and McLaren vehicles were sent on their way back in the time when Schrempp was in charge at Mercedes. He dropped cost and quality to a level where it wasn't funny anymore. As simple as that, he concluded that if people pay high prices for a strong brand even when it's lacking quality, they'd pay even higher prices for a mysterious and exclusively branded vehicle. Can't say it isn't exclusive...

    Re: Has Maybach hit rock bottom?

    Gosh who doesn't want a 400K Mercedes S class just to say they coiuld pay more. Probably the same fools who would buy a 1.3 mill dollar Murcielago. Apparently none of those fools live in Australia.

    Re: Has Maybach hit rock bottom?

    Quote:
    355Spider said:
    Gosh who doesn't want a 400K Mercedes S class just to say they coiuld pay more. Probably the same fools who would buy a 1.3 mill dollar Murcielago. Apparently none of those fools live in Australia.



    One lives in Canada!

     
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