Daimler to Drop Maybach Brand, Focus on New Mercedes S-Class - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

Pavka007 · #1 11-25-2011, 03:36 PM

Nov. 25 (Bloomberg) -- Daimler AG will shut down the super- luxury Maybach brand to end almost a decade of losses from an auto that sells for more than $350,000 when a revamped version of the flagship Mercedes-Benz S-Class comes to market in 2013.
“It would not make sense to develop a successor model,” Chief Executive Officer Dieter Zetsche said in remarks confirmed by Daimler spokesman Marc Binder. “The coming S-Class is in such a way a superior vehicle that it can replace the Maybach.”
Daimler hasn’t made a profit on the Maybach after deciding to reintroduce the 1930s-era marque in 2002, Zetsche said. Mercedes will double variations of the 72,000-euro ($95,000) S- Class to six as it seeks to boost annual vehicle sales by at least 10,000 a year and step up its challenge to Bayerische Motoren Werke AG as the world’s top luxury-car maker.
BMW and Volkswagen AG’s Audi have grown at more than five times the pace of Mercedes over the past decade by adding new offerings faster. The 125-year-old manufacturer, which has also dropped to third in profitability, lost the luxury-car sales lead to BMW in 2005 and slipped behind Audi this year.
On the Offensive
“Mercedes is now also mounting the attack in the high-end segment,” Zetsche said in comments to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper, to be published tomorrow. “We have always dominated this segment and that should continue to be the case. We don’t want to wait until the others pull ahead.”
Daimler held extensive internal discussions on “which route promises the greatest possible success in the luxury segment,” before concluding that sales prospects were better at Mercedes than at Maybach, the CEO said.
U.K. luxury sports-car maker Aston Martin, which said at the Frankfurt motor show in September that it expected to conclude talks on cooperation with Mercedes within weeks, declined to comment on the ramifications of Daimler’s comments. Zetsche had said at the expo that the talks concerned Maybach.
“We’ve been talking with Mercedes for some time,” Aston Martin spokesman Matthew Clarke said today by telephone.
Maybach hasn’t seriously challenged BMW’s Rolls-Royce and Volkswagen AG’s Bentley since it its reintroduction, with sales topped out at 600 cars in 2003 and sliding to 200 last year. Rolls-Royce sold 2,700 vehicles in 2010 and Bentley 5,100.

cmac2012 · #2 11-25-2011, 03:43 PM

I was thinking as I read this that Bentley and RR were brands that would be difficult to lodge from dominating that market and the last paragraph confirmed it. A top of the line S class is no small measure of luxury.

PaulC · #3 11-25-2011, 03:49 PM

The marque name was a mistake. No one under the age of 80 recognized the name, and the price jump from a loaded S600 to the most modest SWB Maybach left too many aspirational current S-Class owners in the dust. A wiser move would have been to revive the "600" in spirit, and price it closer to the junior Bentley's, not the senior RR's.

elchivito · #4 11-25-2011, 09:11 PM

6 or 8 oil sheiks are really depressed about this.

Skippy · #5 11-25-2011, 09:35 PM

Meh. I wouldn't have bought one even if I was filthy rich (see 450 SEL 6.9 or 300 SEL 6.3 for that contingency).

I still want a C-Class with three pedals and no spark plugs.

Hatterasguy · #6 11-25-2011, 10:46 PM

They are freaken nice cars though.

Even though Mercedes isn't selling as many cars they have really improved things and taken the lead over BMW and Audi in the past couple of years. For starters Mercedes jacked up their prices and quality significantly over the past couple of years. You can't even buy an SL, CL, or S class for under $100k these days. Even a pretty basic diesel S class is $95k. They moved everything up market in the past few years. Compare the pricing on an A8 or 7 series, similar cars are $20k-$30k cheaper. Let them sell a lot of cheaper cars, Mercedes tried it a decade ago and it backfired.

RR and Bentley have huge name recognition and seem to be the only brands that can sell $300k++ cars.

leathermang · #7 11-25-2011, 11:47 PM

Just as I was about to buy one ....

Jim B. · #8 11-25-2011, 11:55 PM

Well, there was one of them at the Los Angeles International motor show I saw, at the Mercedes Benz display last week.

It was nameless and totally ignored by showgoers..

THIS:

MTI · #9 11-26-2011, 11:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by leathermang

Just as I was about to buy one ....

Just one? I was about to pull the trigger on seven, with tags for the days of the week.

tbomachines · #10 11-26-2011, 12:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by elchivito

6 or 8 oil sheiks are really depressed about this.

And Rick Ross

C280 Sport · #11 11-26-2011, 12:25 PM

I saw this comming a while ago. I even told a friend of mine who purchased one back in 2004 when he traded in his 140 that the Maybach will not be around for long. He is on his second 57's. We were both laughing at dinner one night joking about how the Sultun of Brunei will corner the marker and have them all in his collection.

leathermang · #12 11-26-2011, 01:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MTI

Just one? I was about to pull the trigger on seven, with tags for the days of the week.

I can do that with my two wheeled Gravely walking tractor collection...but not with anything else...

Pooka · #13 11-26-2011, 05:44 PM

The first one of these I saw was at a dealer in the Houston Area. I was in there buying parts and thought I would wander over to see the new S-Class.

So I was looking at it and thought the styling had really jumped; not in a Mercedes kind of way but totally. Then I found I was looking at a Maybach and the first thing I tried to do was see the extra $250,000 worth of content.

It just was not there. It was nice, but not almost 3.5 times the S-Class nice.

Since they have been losing money on them I wonder what the real cost to build one would have been?

pj67coll · #14 11-26-2011, 07:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pavka007

Maybach hasn’t seriously challenged BMW’s Rolls-Royce and Volkswagen AG’s Bentley since it its reintroduction, with sales topped out at 600 cars in 2003 and sliding to 200 last year. Rolls-Royce sold 2,700 vehicles in 2010 and Bentley 5,100.

While I'll never be anywhere near in a position to buy either one of these things I have to say that this sentence pretty much kills any interest in either "brand" for me. No doubt I'm a curmudgeon and completely iconoclastic in my outlook but as I get older I find I'm losing interest in brand engineering even more quickly that I would have believed possible. I would never buy a BMW Rolls Royce and even less a Volkswagen Bently. For that matter I'll never buy a Tata Jaguar either. I always thought the Maybach was an insipid looking thing. Designed by the Japanese wasn't it? Had no presence and simply no reason to buy it. Frankly it looks even worse to me than the current S-Class which is saying a lot because I really hate that car too.

If I were the kind of person who could spend that kind of money I would avail myself of a genuine 600 and just look down on everybody else, especially the nuvo riche poseurs in their brand engineered fashion statements.

- Peter.

Pavka007 · #15 11-26-2011, 08:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pj67coll

While I'll never be anywhere near in a position to buy either one of these things I have to say that this sentence pretty much kills any interest in either "brand" for me. No doubt I'm a curmudgeon and completely iconoclastic in my outlook but as I get older I find I'm losing interest in brand engineering even more quickly that I would have believed possible. I would never buy a BMW Rolls Royce and even less a Volkswagen Bently. For that matter I'll never buy a Tata Jaguar either. I always thought the Maybach was an insipid looking thing. Designed by the Japanese wasn't it? Had no presence and simply no reason to buy it. Frankly it looks even worse to me than the current S-Class which is saying a lot because I really hate that car too.

If I were the kind of person who could spend that kind of money I would avail myself of a genuine 600 and just look down on everybody else, especially the nuvo riche poseurs in their brand engineered fashion statements.

- Peter.

Agree 100%. If I was in a position to buy whatever I want...I want NEW S500 W140, dark blue with sand leather..........

I am sure that if the money are not limited I will find one, somewhere around the world in a private garage with only delivery miles.....one can dream....