There’s a new Mercedes-Maybach S-Class, the car that improves upon what is generally considered to be the best car in the world. This new Maybach coincides with the introduction of the seventh-generation S-Class in September. You’re not supposed to drive the new Maybach, like all Maybachs. You’re supposed to be driven.
Indeed, the very first sentence of Mercedes’ release is, “The Mercedes-Maybach S-Class is particularly suitable for chauffeured driving.”
That’s because the new Maybach’s wheelbase is seven inches longer than the S-Class, with all of that extra space going to the rear seats. The new Maybach also has 20-inch wheels as standard, though 19-inch wheels are optional. The new Maybach can also come with rear doors that open themselves. Official pricing is not out but you can expect the new Maybach to be close to $200,000.
A feature called “active road noise compensation” means the new Maybach will be quieter than the new S-Class. You don’t want to hear the Maybach’s V8 — it only comes with a twin-turbo V8 and not a V12, for now — or the tires slapping the road. When you’re being driven in the new Maybach and sipping champagne from the optional fridge, you don’t want to hear anything.
The new Maybach has an automatic seatbelt extender in the rear seat as well. Mercedes actually put the following sentence in its press release:
It is no longer necessary to move from an adopted, comfortable seating position to fasten the belt.
They had me at, “It is no longer necessary to move.” There is also a rear airbag back there, and the rear-axle also helps with steering to make the turning radius smaller. The rear of the new Maybach is where you want to be.
Other stuff: Mercedes says that the optional two-tone paint job (the one above) takes its painters up to a week to complete. Mercedes also says that they’ve delivered over 60,000 Maybachs since they launched the S-Class Maybach in 2015. An increasing number of those — over 700 per month last year — go to China.
Still other stuff: the new Maybach has up to five screens in various interior compartment configurations. It has 253 LEDs for ambient lighting. It optionally has E-Active Body Control and Road Surface Scan, which uses a camera to look at the road ahead and adjust the suspension as needed to make the ride as smooth as possible.
Let’s return very briefly to the optional rear doors:
The comfort doors can be operated in several ways. They can be:
- opened or closed manually using the inside and outside door handles
- with the vehicle key
- via the central display in the first seat row
- the displays of the rear seat entertainment
- using a pressure switch in the roof liner
- The doors can also be closed automatically by touching the sensor surface on the outside door handle.
Brief pressure is sufficient to close them. Continuous pressure is required for opening, as the user remains responsible. The comfort doors have obstacle detection. Opening is also monitored by Blind Spot Assist if this is active: if the system recognizes that another road user is approaching from the rear, the door function is automatically deactivated.
If the buyer of a Mercedes-Maybach S-Class opts for the comfort rear doors, a non-arrested door check strap with a powered coupling and an additional door control unit are installed in the vehicle. The comfort doors were required to undergo extensive testing in true Mercedes-Benz fashion. Before being made to demonstrate their operating convenience and reliability in overall vehicle trials, they were tested on various test rigs including the climatic chamber. Their acoustic properties and safety functions were also thoroughly tested.
Can you get your calves massaged in the rear and get heating on your neck and shoulders, as well? Dumb questions. Of course, you can. And not that you care since you won’t be driving but the new Maybach also has every driver assistance feature you can imagine.
This post is an incomplete list of all the features of the new Maybach but sadly we don’t have enough ink to make a complete list. So let’s look at some pictures instead:
