The Rise and Fall of the Maybach 57 and 62 (Reworked)
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- Опубліковано 3 чер 2024
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This is a reworked and reuploaded version of the original video.
Guten Tag! :D
In today's video, we venture into the realm of luxury cars, specifically the two revivals of the long-dormant Maybach brand that appeared in the early 2000's, the 57 and the 62. However, while these cars were the very pinnacle of affluent motoring, there were a few too many practical problems with these machines that soon rendered the Maybach marque extinct once again.
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References:
- Daimler Benz
- Auto Trader (and their respective sources)
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The biggest issue was that it looked like a stretched S-Class where as the RR never looked like a 7 series. In a way, it lost its soul because of that
Sometimes trying too hard to be superior and tasteful becomes superfluous and tasteless.
If you're trying too hard, you're already halfway to failing
Yes, a sort of grand folly, a bit like the Edsel
You got it - has to be effortless to work!
Another problem was that unlike Bentley, Rolls Royce etc nobody under the age of 80 had ever heard of Maybach.
Hey, they made the engines in Tiger tanks!
@@monkeyeagle1921 - My point exactly!
@@monkeyeagle1921 Beat me to it...
Lots of younger people knew who Duisenberg was
they covered that aspect in the video.
I used to see one from time to time parked on a street waiting for its owner near Grand Central Station in NY City. These are also extremely expensive and difficult to maintain and fix,
Back in the mid 2000s you could find a Maybach 62 on every block around Wall Street along with Rolls-Royce Phantoms. That was the only place I’ve ever seen a Maybach aside from a garage which was storing used luxury cars for sale. Occasionally I see a new Mercedes-Maybach Sonderklasse driving around the streets, but it’s very rare. I like what Daimler-Benz has done with the new Z223 Mercedes-Maybach Sonderklasse, the Mercedes-Maybach GLS 600 and Mercedes-Maybach EQS 680 SUV.
The numbers 57 and 62 aren't the Wheelbase but the roundabout overall length in decimetres (they aren't exactly 5.70 and 6.20 metres long).
The Story of MTU is also interesting, the Friedrichshafen branch as the successor to Maybach is still building large Diesel engines and is now part of Rolls Royce Power Systems (independent from the motor cars) while the (independent) Munich branch originated from BMWs aircraft engines.
MTU. Motor und Turbin Union.
I work for MTU Aero Engines AG in München , and i have never heard for the Maybach story , but they are in deed the old „BMW Flugmotoren“ … 😅 We still have many old BMW aircraft engines in MTU München …
Your videos are so well researched and produced, I have no idea how you release them as often as you do. But I'm glad you do!
I used to nog get this car, but now I do. I think it aged quite well, like many other pompuous cars that were considered ugly in the 00's. The 612 Scaglietti, 6 series e63, Continental GT and W221 S class all come to mind as well. Now that cars have gotten so much bigger and heavier, these have all become less pompuous and less ugly, eventually outgrowing the 'guilty pleasure' segment.
I think it's the honesty that I appreciate. Like the Maybach, all the cars I mentioned aren't ashamed of being huge luxury cars, not trying to be eco friendly while they're not.
In the 1920ies Maybach was often producing the cars' engine, base frame, suspension and steering. That basis was usually completed by companies specialized in car body and interior design manufacturing. One such company wasn't too far from the Maybach works in Friedrichshafen: Spohn Karosseriebau in Ravensburg. And the term manufacturing may well be taken literally since most of the production steps were done by highly skilled craftsmen. There was no production in series because the cars were designed according to the individual requirements of very wealthy customers - quite like other top luxury car manufacturers of that time.
One selling point of Maybach was the fact that some of the engines had been derived from engines used for propelling and navigating the Zeppelin airships built in Friedrichshafen.
Building luxury cars was a bit of a trend in the second half of the 1990ies and the 2000s. Volkswagen not only acquired Bentley but Bugatti too. And apart from the flagship model Audi A8 VW couldn't resist launching the Passat W8 and the VW Phaeton - the latter to be assembled in a particularly flashy "glass factory" in Dresden.
Quite different times.
I've yearned for an early 2000's Maybach 57 since they came out. All that beautiful interior wood trim makes me ache with desire.
That's scary. Such opulence is sickening with so many people living way below the poverty line.
I recall a beached Maybach at a Goals soccer centre. The rear air suspension had collapsed. It was enormous, almost impossibly long and looked utterly knackered. A tragic end to an amazing vehicle.
As soon as I saw the M badge in this video, I realised that I'd actually seen a Maybach for real, when I was in Beijing. I do believe a majority of Maybach sales were in China. It's the of thing some nouveau riche like, gaudy and without breeding and pedigree.
And now the NEW Maybach (effectively the highest trim level of the Mercedes S-Class) is very popular in China and many other asian countries.
If I remember rightly, there was also a. special edition of the car named after Zeppelin. Judging by that car's girth, I'd bet it had the same turning circle as well.
5:10 The numbers state the length of the car. The Maybach 57 was 5.7m long and the 62 was 6.2m long. If you look at the wheelbases of the two models the 57 has a 133 inch wheelbase and the 62 has a 150 inch wheelbase, clearly no relation to wheelbase in the model name.
I believe Simon Cowell had one. Classy!
Why would a company with a long and superb reputation choose to undermine the status of its brand by introducing a 'higher' level which is essentially little more than augmentation of existing products. The W140 represents the end of a tradition.
Beautiful car. 👏👏
Beautiful materials all wrapped up in an ugly car.
Well, that's a matter of opinion!
@@planestrainsdogsncars4336
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
when these first came out d-b offered 1st class transit by lufthansa to stuttgart so the prospective owner could watch their maybach being assembled.
Sure, the initial Maybachs failed, but this stunt arguably paid off for them in the present day. The original maybachs were re-embedded into pop and car culture during that period of time. Now in upscale areas you now see Maybach sedans and SUVs everywhere.
Even living in the wealthy DC area, Maybachs are a rare sight. I've seen maybe 3 total. And I see G Wagens, Range Rovers, and even Lamborghini Uruses much more commonly than that
Flawless timing in my feed🙌
Were you just about to buy one?
@@brendangarvin7787 No I was just pondering what sort of wheels I would roll around in if I was an evil dictator. Definitely not a Mercedes tho cause that's Soo cliche now.
In a way they went out similar to Duesenberg; Introduced at one of the worst possible times. Similar to how Maybach was killed by the 08 financial crisis, Duesenberg was killed by the 1929 wall street crash
And as with Duesenberg, one of their founders lost his life in an accident driving his own product - if a company loses their main driving force, usually this spells the end of the company
Saw a couple of them at Mercedes World in Surrey U.K
I thought they were gross
not surprised that they were a failure.
They built it on the old s class and M-B brought out a new S Class not long afterwards so it was out of date from day one.Still like them even though they are money pits
A loss of $330,000 for each vehicle sold? That is just staggering.
You should ask this with Damian (of theCarGuys YT channel) - he lost £300k getting rid of his Ferrari F12 TdF that he once paid £900k
That's probably why MB went on a cost cutting regime and debased the quality of subsequent Mercs - and it's still doing it!
@@michaelbacon561Daimler went on a cost cutting campaign right after the W140 Sonderklasse which reportedly cost over $1,000,000,000 in research and development costs. You could see the cost cutting in subsequent models such as the W210 E-Class, C208 CLK-Class, W220 Sonderklasse, and W203 C-Class models. Mercedes-Benz build quality and reliability didn’t come back to normal until the late 2000s beginning with the W221 Sonderklasse. Now they’re back on track and much higher quality than they were around 20 years ago.
Thank you!
The Phantom looks exactly like what it is. A large expensive ostentatious luxury car. And when people spend that kind of money that's usually what they want. This thing looked like an S class.
And Mercedes is a common car, here in Singapore they have the second largest market share behind Toyota.
It is an S class. Just with a slightly fancier interior.
Granted the Rolls is just a fancy 7 series underneath, but perception is greater than reality. And they put much more care into that aspect.
@@SkylineFTW97 the phantom is not just a fancy seven series. Although the drive train is
@@kevinbarry71 I said underneath. Meaning the drivetrain and electronics.
@@SkylineFTW97 but not the chassis and suspension
Should have had FU edition because it cost FU money. I lived in Manhattan at the time an saw maybe one or two Maybachs. What a colossal failure from Mercedes but another winner from Ruairidh.
I GUESS IT WAS A FAILURE FOR Mercedes Benz, but, I consider them insanely gorgeous., every model is on my bucket list for 2024/25. I enjoy this amazing video review of the Maybach story, intriguing, informative, & mind-blowing ( for me )because I love these incredible automobiles. Thanks for sharing/posting ,
I’m ok with my Honda Jazz, car is to get from A to B with as few complications as possible.
So like most Mercs, they ended up as Taxis. That's funny. Pity they didn't build them as diesels.
back in 2009 we had a 57 come into the workshop i was working in. swiped the keyring which i still have
A six wheel version a la Lady Penelope would have been brilliant 😂
In May 2024 I saw about 10 Maybachs on a parking lot in Tokyo. They were driven in and out and it was quit a busy place.
If you walked straight from a maybach to a Rolls or vice versa it was clear which was the more upmarket environment to me, the rolls was otherworldly while the Maybach was the embodiment of new tech in a big Merc. Rolls for me not that I would ever need to make that choice sadly 😂 But if f you did the same exercise today where the connectivity becomes ever more important than the leather work I’m not sure the Maybach tech fest wouldn’t come out on top - in some ways ahead of it’s time? And I was in a position to make that walk a few times in a press capacity in case you think I was just looking at pictures - but oh to be a customer 😊
5:20 - Sounds like you’re on the conveyor belt section of The Generation Game! Phew! (“Didn’t he do well?”)
Whilst the Maybach name had alot of prestige the cars just looked too similar to a standard S-Class; most people couldn't tell the difference between a W220 S-Class and a Maybach despite one costing 5x more than the other. I think its a similar problem that the VW Phaeton encountered; that being nobody wants to look like they paid alot less for their car than they actually did. Although with the Phaeton it was even worse because on top of it looking less expensive than it really was it also had a VW badge which had virtually no prestige in the luxury car space.
Possibly Piech took a lot of pride from lifting Audi to a similar reputation and position as BMW and Mercedes. Being CEO of the entire Volkswagen company he possibly thought he could repeat that success a second time.
Maybe another aim was moving VW away from the expectation that a "cheaper" car couldn't offer anything else but cheaper quality or couldn't build cars for more demanding customers.
@@MichaelBurggraf-gm8vl That was indeed Piech's intention; he probably saw how far Audi had come under his leadership so he thought he could do the same for VW.
That's why he released the Phaeton under the VW brand; he wanted to make the best car in the world a VW to push the brand upmarket. I have to say it was working. Ever since the Golf IV VW has generally produced higher quality cars than its mainstream rivals which helped solidify VWs reputation as a sort of "premium mainstream" brand. If it weren't for dieselgate VW would have likely been considered a legitimate premium brand by now.
Great car but launched at the worst possible time for a market that sets its own rules.
11:23 Rishi Sunak on his way to Lidls for the weekly shop.
See, he is just like us minions after all...
The name Maybach. Basically those who don't remember the Zeppelins of the 1920's and their engines will not be able to put the finger on this name. Even in Germany, who remembers the Maybach Zeppelin car. Good luck with that.
Another factor in the failure is surely that the styling resembled nothing more than a large Korean saloon, whereas a Rolls-Royce or Bentley look special.
Except a Carat Duchatelet, there was nothing more comfortable and spacious in the back than a Maybach 62 with partition wall. The Phantom EWB's partition wall decreases the rear legroom.
Fantastic awesome video epic as always 😊
Fun fact.
Maybach the engine manufacturer is know now as MTU and is a Part of Rolls Royce Plc.
All Piston powered military, marine and industrial engines of Rolls Royce and MTU are now placed under that branche.
That's not correct, AFAIK. Mercedes is running their own engine production in Untertürkheim.
MTU Friedrichshafen - now a brand of Rolls-Royce - is specialized in fast rotating diesel engines for special applications like boats, railways, tanks, emergency power supply units. They've developed fuel cell systems too.
When Maybach was in a difficult situation during the 1960ies, I think Mercedes-Benz and MAN founded a joint venture to buy Maybach rebranding it MTU (Motoren und Turbinen Union, they were developing turbine engines for eg. aviation too - located near Munich). However, after several years MAN quit the joint venture and MTU became a part of the Daimler-Benz holding.
@@MichaelBurggraf-gm8vl Oops i said Daimler i ment Maybach. Both very important engineers in the development of the internal combustion engine.
MB did sell off all its non car/truck/bus related divisions. Its marine, heavy machinery, industrial and aerospace divisions are now all gone.
In theory MB can's uses ist star logo anymore that stands for motorising land water and air.
Now, who's gonna build me a Horch...
I think the Audi A8 is alluding to the Horch 8 a bit.
Luxury is a type of wealth only truly poor people can afford.
Where's the dice hanging off the mirror ....
It is said that the 3 spokes of the Mercedes Benz symbol are Daimler, Benz, and Maybach, as they were the original 3 founding partners of what is today Mercedes - Benz
I think this Maybach brand failed because the brand itself had been dormant for years, and the car looked like a garish custom job on the then S-Class Mercedes done by someone with more money than good taste.
I don’t care what anyone says. I want one. I’m already halfway there with my W220😅
No mention here of the dictator's former favourite, the Mercedes W100. That's true gravitas, although not necessarily the pinnacle of reliability either.
I often wondered why they didn't use the Daimler name, as that would have some brand recognition.
They might have had problems selling it in Britain because Jaguar still owned and used the name at the time.
@@jeremiahbrown5826 thanks, fair point - like how Rolls Royce cars and Rolls Royce jet engines have totally different ownership 👍
I wonder how many Landaulets were actually sold?
Probably less than 100. It cost around $1,500,000 in 2009. I know Birdman bought one.
I ❤ MAYBACH!
I guess driving the Maybach across Siberia and the Bering Straits to the US wouldn not fit the ultra luxury Image.
VW has it's Bentley, BMW has it's Rolls Royce, this was just a shoddy attempt to replicate the success of the others. Had they built a new actual Maybach from scratch, maybe it would have worked. But cheaply re badging an S-Class was so pathetic it hurts.
They started research and development on the Maybach project in 1994 with the W140 Sonderklasse chassis. By the time it came out in 2003 the W220 Sonderklasse had already been out since 1998 and made the Maybach models look like a cheaply thrown together clone of the Sonderklasse which cost about one fourth of the price! Most wealthy people chose to go with the W220 Sonderklasse instead understandably. Finding a used Maybach these days seems like a bargain in a way.
I think the customer for this vehicle would prefer a Rolls Royce. I know that I would. That being said, my '08 S550 is a terrific car with plenty of luxurious options.
I’m sorry but I cringed when you stated their wheelbases were 57 and 62 inches respectively. For comparison, a classic Mini’s wheelbase was 80 inches.
990 million lost on a vanity project lol , Utter Madness.
...but people still bought crappy MBs, BMWs & Audis. The market deserves the crap they are getting, quality be damned.
Oooo 12mpg !
Of course the rich don't have to bother about fuel consumption / road tax.
No doubt all those costs are taken care of by their business... 🙄
WAKE UP BABE NEW RMV VIDEO 🎉❤
My biggest question has always been, why have the Maybach ( by Mercedes ) instead of a Pullman, also by Mercedes. Both are beautiful auto's, but I can't say the Maybach is even close to a Pullman.
The problem is the maybach brand is not as recognized as rolls royce. Those who were in the market for a stately home on wheels would opt for a rolls royce and those who wanted the ultimate grand tourer opted for a bentley or aston martin, but also higher end mercedes cl and sl classes
Sorry. Totally wrong Maybach pronunciation.
Despite these are very good quality and quite informative short documentaries, the author seems not to pay attention to correct pronunciation of products, airlines etc, in the videos he creates.
yes, i cringed even more than when a german trys to speak a th
It didn't help that the wood and leather looked less nice- and perhaps even cheap- than the British equivalents. Moreover, its awkward too-big S-Class proportions made it seem like a car for the wealthy Russian and Chinese oligarchs, and image that remains deeply unpopular in W. Europe
It sat on the W140 platform
I always found that strange. It used the W140 platform and looked like a stretched W220 Sonderklasse. It was doomed from the start. The recession only helped put the nail in the coffin ⚰️. The Maybach might have succeeded if it came out in the mid ‘90s. Either way Bentley had the right car at the time with the affordable (in ultra luxury car segment) all new Continental GT and Continental Flying Spur. The all new Rolls-Royce Phantom also had a unique stately presence that looked like a $325,000 ultra luxury sedan instead of a customized aftermarket W220 Sonderklasse selling for anywhere between $375,000 - $450,000 or $1,500,000 the Maybach Landaulet. Daimler-Chrysler tried their hardest and just came up short in every way. The Maybach 57 and 62 were very nice for what they were though. They were like Lear jets for the streets. The current Mercedes-Maybach variant Z223 Sonderklasse, Mercedes-Maybach GLS 600, and Mercedes-Maybach EQS 680 SUV models are all very well executed and most importantly priced properly.
The numbers were the lengths, 5700 & 6200. Also: V8?! Really?!
I was thinking the same thing. Daimler only gave Maybach their greatest V-12 engines that they had at the time. Also it is pronounced MY BOCK! Only dumbass rappers like Rick Ross say “may back”.
Weren't Maybach engines used in rail locomatives? For example Hymek, Warship and Western.
Pfft a 1995 Rover Metro any day for me 😂
It's not "may-back" - it's "my-bach" like Johann Sebastian Bach, the famous composer.
talk about british leyland
Mercedes was greedy in spare parts prices as well
i cant imagine paying that much money for a car with wheels that looks like a clk250
This reminds me of the (very) short-lived Lagonda Taraf.
not at all, that's a gorgeous car,, one of the best looking sedans of this century. This is cool in it's own way by now, especially the 62, but will always be an ugly car. The Phantom always looked better.
@@HJ-vs7lf - I didn’t mean it reminded me of the Taraf in looks, but in it being a bit of an unknown quantity.
@@AtheistOrphan I understand what you mean, although the market for these cars is completely different. The Taraf was meant to be a limited run model, of which AM knew berforehand there would be a small market. The Maybach 57 and 62 where meant to be bigger volume, regular production top segment limousines, but simply failed to sell.
@@HJ-vs7lf - I agree.
And then less was more
I remember looking at the sales brochure. In it Maybach boasted about the number of pieces of wood veneer in the interior: something over a hundred if I remember rightly. As you can see from the video, every single item, no matter how small, that could be veneered in wood was duly covered in the stuff. It ended up looking like the aftermath of an explosion in a cabinet maker's workshop! Clearly a case of more is less, and utterly tasteless to boot.
May have also something to do with the fact that not only it's based on the S Class and yet manages to be UGLY
Whatever…Mercedes would have been better off reviving the 600 Pullman’s of the 60’s and 70´s. Maybach lacked exclusivity of design (they looked lick clumsily design Mercedes’ derivatives and marketing. Nothing beats the design of the earlier 600’s.
They were exclusive, elegant and timeless. Not so the Maybach, regardless of all the tech. They threw into It.
To my mind, the Maybach just wasn't 'regal' enough for the price point. Too low and sleek.
Never mind other problems, they did no look good,
V12s not V8s?
Exactly how on earth do you do your research? There has never been a Mercedes W108 or W116 model named Maybach. Not even in advertising. It's not only completely wrong, it's totally fabricated. Do you simply invent stuff on your own for these videos instead of doing some actual research?
The Maybach models also used V-12 engines, not a V-8 engine. They got the horsepower number correct at least. The worst offense is pronouncing it “May back”. It is MY BOCK!
Hideous. It's just too much.
How to look like a complete tool
Blah blah all Mercedes has is the Maybach name.
Zero Maybach engine technology.
Maybach sold their name and is now MTU making fantastic engines for all applications.
Mercedes has become a laughing stock over the last 20 years. Bad Design, very poor reliability and crazy high priced.... completely out of touch with modern day cars and peoples needs
It’s pronounced MY BOCK!!! The engine was a 5.5 liter V-12 also. The S models had a Mercedes-AMG built 6.0 liter V-12 engine that put out 604 horsepower and 738 lb. ft. of torque. The same engine could be found in the 2004 Mercedes-Benz CL 65 AMG along with other Mercedes-AMG 65 models at the time.
Ugly car from the outside.
Maybach were all ugly!
Its an over priced mercedes
Let’s be honest it was a crap car. 😂
To me the Maybach was just so shockingly FUGLY that just seeing one hurt the eyes! They were hideous looking things that looked like a cheapo Mercedes knock off and not a MUCH more expensive high end version. The Maybach looked like a cheap n nasty Chinese knock off!