Enthusiasts Blogging Our Favorite Classifieds
I pretty much covered all the Maybach models that have launched since the brands rebirth except the biggest, baddest, and most expensive one of them all. It wasn’t for the lack of desire, but rather there are reportedly only 22 examples in the world so finding one for sale wasn’t exactly the easiest task. What is it? The 62S Landaulet.
A few weeks ago I took a look at the former king of the Mercedes-Benz chauffer cars, the Maybach 62S. Back when it hit the scene in the early 2000s, it rivaled everything on the road of terms of executive ground transpiration and certainly had the price tag to match. However, now that 20 years have passed, it isn’t so impressive anymore other than it being a look back into the time and doing the math at how much value they have lost. When Mercedes brought back the Maybach name as a sub-brand in 2015, it certainly made more sense to have them positioned as a trim level of the S-Class, rather than trying to pitch them as an entirely new brand. Wouldn’t you know, it fared much better and certainly kept production costs down as the majority of the changes were just to the rear seating and some various trim pieces. In typical S-Class fashion, it followed a heavy depreciation after the first few years but still offers great value if you want to go that route. This 2019 up for sale in Texas offers you a $50,000 discount if you’d like roll around in a previous generation car. Would anyone even notice?
This is it. This is the big one – literally. The Maybach 62 rings in with a 150-inch wheelbase and a total length of over 242 inches. Single parking spaces need not apply. Starting price? Over $400,000. You can see where I am going with this one. This was a car bought by those who would never drive it. Still, today if you buy one of these to actually drive, you are out of your mind. However, now that these are old enough to legally buy cigarettes? It might not be a bad idea. Well, maybe it’s not a bad idea…
By 2012, the writing was on the wall for the Maybach brand. Daimler’s CEO Dieter Zetsche (remember Dr. Z?) announced that the final year of production as 2013 model years would be carried out before retiring the brand again. Only for it to be brought back as a trim level a few years later. So what did that mean?
During those final faithful years, Maybach rolled out the Zeppelin edition that would be limited to 100 units between the 57 and 62, although it wasn’t 50 cars each. The name was an ode to the pre-war models Maybach DS7 and Maybach DS8, which were as literally larger than most boats I’ve ridden in. All of these 100 examples got some special touches both inside and out, as well as configurated as an S model with the 6.0-liter twin-turbocharged V12. Prices started at €406,000 for the 57, while the 62 Zeppelin began at €473,000. Absurd to say the least. Today, one would think that these depreciated down to their normal levels, but this example up for sale in Germany went a totally different direction. Hold on to your trousers.
I promise this is the last Maybach for a while. I also promise this one is worth it. This the 57 S. The standard wheelbase car, if you could call this thing standard, but with a 6.0-liter M285 twin-turbo V12 in place of the same M285 as we get on the 57, but with an extra half a liter. It also rides a half inch lower and was standard on 20″ wheels. Maybach says the S stands for Special, I always looked at it as Sport, but you can make your own call. Of course it was ungodly expensive at over $370,000, and now it is literally worth a fraction of that. However, if you were expecting the normal Maybach interior of boring beige leather and a bunch of fake wood, you would be wrong. Very wrong.
