Maybach: The Lost Luxury

​            Born from a dream to re-invent the high end market, Maybach has come along way in its quest of becoming a competitor to Bentley and Rolls Royce.  Yes it seems that maybe this car did have a chance when it burst onto the scene.  But like the many other cars of its kind, it quickly faded into the background.  What went wrong you may ask

 well many things?  And no it wasn’t the fall of the market, since that happened long after the brand was admitted to the emergency ward. 

            For starters, why would Daimler-Benz think they could resurrect a brand from the past, which had not been heard of in over fifty years?  Well I guess they thought they could sell people on its rich heritage.  But they forgot one thing.  Most of us had never heard about Maybach and their rich past.  This could be a problem when you’re trying to sell a half a million car on its history.  And this could also pose a problem when you try to explain why you brought this name back.  It may have been a better fit if they had brought back a more known of historic name like Duesenberg or Packard.  Maybe then they would have had an easier time selling the car on its history.

            Next major problem for the brand was the fact that the brand used the platform and design from a Mercedes-Benz S-Class.  This could pose a major problem when you’re trying to distinguish a new brand from another brands car.  Most consumers saw the Maybach as just an overpriced Mercedes-Benz.  Considering the S-Class at the time cost a tick under half of what the Maybach cost, it would be hard to sway new customers to brand new brand and its models. 

            Now for one of the biggest problems this brand had, would be the lack of difference between its models and lack of models altogether.  When you’re trying to take on the biggest high end companies, it’s hard to fight them when you only have one main model with two variations.  Now if they had added in a coupe and convertible model to the mix they may have had a fighting chance.  But since they did not, they really haven’t made a dent in the bottom line of its competition.

      One of the worst things Maybach did to itself was the fact that it took nearly a decade before a new model emerged.  And when the cover came off, all we saw was a 62 with the middle cut out of it.  Really they thought this would bring in customers to the showroom.  I don’t think so.  Now if you wait a couple of years you may find that another company had a vision for this brand.  It was created by tire manufacture Fulda to test a new high-performance tire, but was later scrapped due to the financial meltdown.  Now why would a company who had never had a coupe and knew they need one, give up a free car.  Well when you’re fighting off Smart for funds, you may have some problems.  Considering that small cars are coming back.
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       Now if you still haven’t figured why Maybach is a dying brand, then maybe you need to start paying more attention to the high end market of the automotive world.  Let’s just hope that Daimler will finally figure out what is going on Maybach and fix it before we lose another prestige mark.
 
May 10, 2011