► Excess all areas! A new Maybach
► Mercedes-Maybach S650 Cabrio
► Just 300 to be built, unveiled in LA
It’s telling that the world’s premium car makers flock to Los Angeles to unveil their top-end wares: Hollywood types lap up ostentation – and they don’t come much more OTT than the new Mercedes-Maybach S650 Cabriolet.
Unveiled at the 2016 Los Angeles motor show, this is Maybach Max. Only 300 will be built, and they’ll be on sale from spring 2017 at a price of €300,000 (call it about £260k in British pre-Brexit coinage).
Ben Oliver experiences the regal rush of a Maybach limo
What’s new about the S650 Cabriolet?
They’ve taken the four-seater S-class Cabriolet and given it the Maybach luxury club treatment. That makes it the first modern-day convertible to wear the M badge.
Most of the considerable pimping-up has taken place inside the soft-top S. Every option box is ticked, granting niceties such as AirScarf and bling Swarovski headlamps. There are considerable colour and trim upgrades including a new, more textured 3D wood panelling and ‘waterfall-effect’ leather trim you won’t find in regular S-classes.
Does it work? We’ll let you pore over the photographs to make your own judgment on the uniqely sculpted bumpers, 20-inch bichromatic wheels and Maybach logo puddle lamps.
You even get a certificate signed by Merc chief Dieter Zetsche and a winningly expensive-looking luggage set made of leather matching your seat’s hide to accompany your pan-European jaunts.
Engine specs, bragging rights down the Promenade des Anglais
The familiar 6.0-litre twin-turbo V12 AMG engine powers the Mercedes-Maybach S650 Cabriolet, which boasts some decidedly fleet-of-foot figures for one so heavy:
- Power output 621bhp @ 4800-5400rpm
- Torque 737lb ft @ 2300-4300rpm
- 0-62mph acceleration 4.1sec
- Top speed 155mph
- Combined fuel economy 23.5mpg
- CO2 emissions 272g/km
Mercedes-Benz is gradually building up its newly revived Maybach brand, in a remarkable about-turn after axing the badge back in 2011; it was estimated at the time that Merc lost €330,000 on each one sold.
The new Maybach generation is designed to be less outré and more closely follows the regular S-class range, to keep costs under control. The new S650 unveiled in LA follows the S500, S600 and Pullman models.
Click here for a pampered drive in the new Maybach limo
