German Car Zone

Our friend Vincent over at Autoblog.nl pointed us to us to a story this afternoon in which the eerily psychic journalists at Auto Motor und Sport predict that we may soon see a smaller addition to the exorbitant Maybach family.

The German publication is reporting that to do battle with the forthcoming Rolls Royce as well as the Bentley Continental Flying Spur, the premium luxury division of the Mercedes Car Group will introduce a 5.10 meter version of the Maybach (a Maybach 51), with power ranging from 500-600 horsepower either via a V8 or V12 powerplant.

The magazine added it expects to see the new Maybach introduced somewhere around 2009 or 2010, with pricing set around the EUR 200,000 mark.

As always, we'll keep you posted if any late-breaking new emerges; in the meantime, head over to Auto Motor und Sport for the full article (roughly translated from German).

That car already exist and it is called the S-class.

I dont know what that comment was about...

OBVIOUSLY this article is regarding a MM. With all the Maybach amenities and so on.

No, a smaller Maybach will not be on the way (not a fact, just what I strongly think), if anything the next Maybach derivative will be a vert or coupe...

Does anyone know anything about the Dussenberg project?

Why is there doubt that as the article states in 2009/2010 a smaller version is to be available?

Whats the surprise? They are extending thier line. Sure other cars may be planned too, but this is regarding a MM 51 as it reads.

I don't see it in the cards. The Maybach 57 is already the "small" car in the range. Since the brand needs an attention booster I see a coupe/cabrio as a natural shoe-in.

First I want to state some facts:

LWB W221's lenght is 5206mm.
LWB S65 AMG costs 206,500 euros (in Germany).
S600 features 517PS, S65 AMG features 612PS.


Lenght:
Now, in the case MM made a MM 51 (indicating a lenght around 5100mm) the car will be shorter than W221 S-class. That does not make sense. Even if they make MM 53, the car will be still too close to W221.

Price:
The "cheapest" MM 57 costs 365,500 euros (in Germany). That leaves an approx. 160k euro gap between S65 AMG and MM57. OK, that's enough to fill it with a smaller MM.

Power:
MM 57 & 62 feature 550PS, 57S features 612PS. So, there is no room for to squeeze the right engine in while not to interfere with W221 on one side, and MM 57/62 on the other.


So, why would anyone buy a MM with same or even less power than MB W221, similar size than W221, same features than W221, and similar shape - but at addtitional price of approx. - let's say - 50-100k euros?

Has MM brand really enough brand cache to steal customers from W221?

I agree with the others: coupe / cabrio are more possible to appear.

Perhaps from the customers/buyers of the MM may have suggested it and maybe MM considered it a reasonable item to produce. MM buyers dont contemplate a W221 because its cheaper... They buy MM's for all the amenities and class of being a MM. Anyways this is just an article. It is what it is...

Again dont roll the average buyers mentallity as if every buyer had MM money to begin with. MM buyers are in a FAR different class.... They have thier preferences and would not contemplate a S550, because its cheaper.... These are two different buyers and two different cars.

Guess this makes as much sense as VW making the Phaeton?!