All Entries Tagged With: "MAYBACH"
Maybach Sells The Chinese Tycoon The Subtle Art of Seducing The Western Femme Fatale
by Gunnar Heinrich ::: img Daimler, AG ::: Maybach China
MAYBACH manufactur marketing has been a study of sexual innuendo as of late.
There’s the overt let-them-eat-cake, party-like-its-1929 photo splash variety that pushes the marque’s excess is everything image forward. And then there is this subtle (tell) tale.
In this gallery and video, tells the wordless, nuanced story of one surprisingly gallant Chinese businessman.
He’s almost certainly a self-made man, who caters to a certain visitor of the fairer sex for business purposes. She might be a fellow corporate dragon slayer – but really, she’s something much more.
She’s the undiscovered country. The last and almost unreachable goal. A summit of sorts, to crest professionally, socially, and even – dare we mention it – sexually?
He’s well-groomed now because money and a world of experience have blended all his rough edges. In another time, she’d be well out of his league. An undreamt of fantasy.
The Beijing ghetto of his hard childhood is a not too distant memory. As are all the suffering his family endured in Mao’s “Cultural Revolution”. Those were the hardest of times.
But now, by way of Maybach refinement: a coterie of almost Japanese-like technology mated with Mercedes allure, he rides like a late-in-years prince charming in the back of a chariot the size of a small living room. A plush, opulent, leather bound living room full of gadgetry.
And the magic of it all seems to impress our fair haired fellow traveler. She seems genuinely impressed. It’s almost… it’s almost as though it isn’t just his money that she sees. He’s obviously a man of discernment. Of taste. Of the world.
Quality.
See how this air ionizer works? Or how about a view of CCTV HQ through the panorama roof?
Yes, it’s a privileged world the Maybach travelers pass through.
Did you see any rickshaws on those streets? Any Toyota taxis? Any wayward cyclists or beaten VWs? Of course you didn’t. Because in Maybach, the world is a serene place for you and the focus of your most ardent desire.
This is the revamped Maybach. And in Beijing, China, is Maybach’s second chance.
Thanks to Mr. Combs, Rumors of Maybach’s Demise Continue To Be Greatly Exaggerated
By Gunnar Heinrich
SCORE another PR victory for Maybach Manufactur!
Daimler’s small but fiesty über-limo division received another celeb-rap-star endorsement from Sean “P.Diddy” Combs which continues to place Maybach in some pretty flash company.
According to a blog-from-a-blog-from-a-blog post @ Associate Content, Mr. Combs purchased a Maybach for his son on his 16th birthday. Trouble is, AC reported that the model was a Maybach Exelero – a one-off concept that Maybach has yet to produce for public consumption.
Until now? Judging by the price sticker of $360K, likely not. It seems that we have here, friends, is a classic game of telephone.
On The Street: Maybach 62S in New York
By Gunnar Heinrich
PROVIDING further evidence that, yes, Maybachs do still roam the Earth along with the rest of traffic, yours encountered a new black /black 62S in a recent soujourn to New York.
That the Maybach didn’t even have NY state livery tags, was a promising sign indeed!
Sadly, as night had fallen I wasn’t able to capture photographically the rare limo in all its W140-Sonderklasse-platformed glory. Yet, as I drove alongside the road yacht block for block (Carparazzo? Moi?), I took visual notes which I’ll impart to you herein.
The subtle changes of detail and trim on the Maybach 62S grant a surprisingly freshened appearance over your garden variety 57 or 62 of some years and even more miles. The black coat was as jet noire as a Steinway & Sons.
The 20″ alloys along with those distinctive taillights are a boon to the appearance,too. Unifying both lamps for an über sense of occasion, Maybach channels a little bit of Porsche Carrera with a horizontal red bar of LEDs.
Incidentally, one Maybach tail lamp can be had on eBay for $2,250.
I should mention the vehicle imparts a large sense of, well, mass.
From an E46 gen. BMW 3er’s drivers seat, my line of sight seemed on the same plane as the Maybach’s doorhandle, such was the limo’s apparent loft.
Few are to be seen outside metro areas, as Bentley Continental GTs and Flying Spurs and Crewe-era Royces reign supreme in the Constitution State. Looking back, yours has only personally spied Maybachs in urban areas (DC, NYC, Paris)
That said, Phantom to Maybach sightings that night in Gotham were a bit uneven: 4 to 1.
ADLX 00′s Reflections & 10′s Predictions
By Gunnar Heinrich | IMG Daimler, AG
RING out the old! Ring in the new!
As New Year’s approaches those of us on the East Coast, let’s reflect for a moment on the past ten and consider the next ten.
Geopolitically, it’s been a tumultous decade and indeed the same proved true for the auto industry.
For the luxury marques, apart from 2008-2009, it’s been mostly a boon – with the Germans going from strength to strength financially (despite loss in build quality for Mercedes and styling for BMW); the restoration of forgotten marques Bugatti and Maybach; the rebirth of the deluxe hatch in MINI; new heights in Italian performance with Ferrari and Lamborghini; and the rebirth of Maserati and Rolls-Royce.
Cadillac has restored some of its soul. And the 00′s will also likely be considered Aston Martin’s golden decade thanks to Dr. Bez’s leadership.
Looking forward: by 2020, automobiles will likely become roboticized – at least for highway travel in certain metro areas.
(In)famous Westcoast style car chases, for instance, will become more of a thing of the past as law enforcement will seek legislation empowering them to deactivate runaway vehicles remotely.
And, sadly, some of the great marques will fall to the wayside while upstart Korean companies like Hyundai grow stronger; forging entry into the luxury market just like Toyota, Honda, and Nissan managed 20 years ago.
Exciting times ahead, friends!
Maybach Sponsors LaChapelle Shock Art For Attention? Or Targeted Sales Pitch To One Customer?
- LA-based photographer David LaChapelle shoots stills for Maybach
- Dream sequence imagery mixed with decadence amidst despair designed to provoke
- Maybach p.r. team drifting? Or being clever with fewer resources?
By Gunnar Heinrich | IMG Maybach USA
HOW do you call attention to yourself?
In a Jersey Shore, have-your-15-seconds world, lacking definable talent or product must mean that you have to pin your “brand” to something spectacularly awful so that, you know, you can draw attention to yourself and whatever it is you’re selling.
So, to a point: the only thing missing in this Maybach sponsored photograph from David LaChapelle is a banner that – in art deco font – reads: “Buy a 2010 Maybach 57S now! Bitches!”
We have, I guess, everything else a super high-net worth individual should want in association with their car: gluttony, homoeroticism, pedophilia, destruction, societal decay, and the Maybach demon heroine (which may symbolize the Maybach customer) who somehow bridges the abyss between the flapper set and the depression-era bread liners.
Hey, that bag lady’s making off with the cake!
No worries, the revelers have already spent their load champagne.
If we buy the argument that art’s meant to provoke comment, then this endeavor’s succeeded. If it’s meant to somehow stimulate car sales, that’s less clear.
Or… here’s another thought:
Perhaps, this provoke-you-art-exhibition which will be showcased in Miami is really a highly targeted, expensive sales pitch to one particularly notable LA-based Maybach customer who as a highly visible philanthropist might fancy herself as the Maybach heroine?
It just so happens this customer is a very big collector of contemporary photography >>>
Thanks, John!
“Mercedes Maybach”
Might it have been the 62S?
By Gunnar Heinrich
WEDGED somewhere between accounts of Silvio Berlusconi’s feminine cohorts and Christopher Hitchens’ take on Monty Python, Vanity Fair posted one of the mag’s signature profiles on Wallis Annenberg, socialite-philanthropist-Maybach owner.
Here’s how VF described Ms. Annenberg, her canine compatriots, and her car:
“Reportedly worth $200 million herself, she is sitting in the backseat of her chauffeured Mercedes Maybach, along with her three Maltese- Muffet, Switters, and Coco.”
VF didn’t publish pictures of the Maybach (hopefully two-toned) nor did they account for whether the German limo was a 62, 62S, Zeppellin or 57, etc.
And why would they? What do any of those numbers mean, truly, to their core readership?
Referring to an S-Class Mercedes or a Mercedes SL, on the other hand, would register with far more people. So too, likely, for Maybach’s main competition – the Rolls-Royce Phantom.
Tellingly the story’s scribe, Bob Colacello, used “Mercedes” as the qualifier for “Maybach”. Indeed, what après tous would the designator “600″ have meant without the prefix “Mercedes-Benz”?
So, too, for Maybach. All these years later.
Maybach Idles
Zeppelin.
By Gunnar Heinrich | IMG Daimler, AG
WERE it not for music videos, Punk’d, and the Robb Report earlier this decade, mentioning the name “Maybach” would’ve registered with the American car buyer as strongly as it would’ve when citing those other high-brow notables Auto Union and Lagonda.
That is to say, it would’ve barely made a dent.
Certainly, the Maybach 62′s launch created a small media frenzy when it sailed into New York harbor aboard a Cunard ship in 2002. It was then positioned as DaimlerChrysler’s halo marque, a tribute to bespoke motoring that would carry the best technological and engineering facets of Mercedes-Benz forward into a ultra exclusive heir apparent to the (W100) 600.
But that media buzz had its fifteen. Depreciation has hit the marque as well as used car residuals. Daimler rivals Audi-VW and BMW are forging ahead with Bentley and Rolls-Royce, respectively. Poor Maybach, with all its lore, is left in the dust.
If you perform a Google search using the keywords “Maybach club” or “Maybach car club”, you get paid-for adlinks to Inside Line and your local Mercedes-Benz dealer. The M-100 club, a group of 600, 300SEL 6.3 and 450SEL 6.9 owners certainly haven’t extended their role to including Maybach 57 owners.
So there’s no fan base, official or otherwise. The sales numbers are too low. The clientele too rarefied or secretive. The Zeppelin, which debuted in Frankfurt, is a 57S (or 62S) that features a tweaked engine, a perfumed cabin air atomizer, and dark wood paneling.
This all leads us to ask: how long will Daimler let this noble marque idle?
Plug It In: Maybach’s Atomizer
Your Maybach interior, atomized.
By Gunnar Heinrich
SADLY, not a great deal has been written of Maybach’s latest Zeppelin flagship. That’s not a critique of the limo’s mass, mind.
The name “Zeppelin” has legacy roots that harken back to the original Maybach Zeppelin – a bespoke car of the 1930s which was to be found in limited quantities in the days of the Weimar Republic and was likely bought by paying ten or eleven carriages’ worth of Reichsbanknotes.
Part of the reason, I think, that so little has been writen of a car of such grand potential is that the Zeppelin is not all that different from the standard Maybach 57 and 62 – both of which are based (unattractively) on Mercedes-Benz craftsmanship and technological know-how circa 2000.
There is, however, one feature that does seem to set the Zeppelin apart from the past. The “Atomizer”…
It’s an interior fragrance bobble that allows you to have that new – éssence de votre choix – inserted in the car’s HVAC system as much as you wish and any time you wish. Beats the hanging tree by a Euro snob’s kilometer.
As an option, the Atomizer is yours now for only €3950 ($5240). The Maybach Zeppelin 57 and Zeppelin 62 are €406,000 and €473,200, respectively. Press info on the Atomizer following the jump.
Maybach Rumored To Sell Cars In March
By Gunnar Heinrich
DAIMLER, AG claims that part of the total figure for the co.’s auto unit sales for March is actual numbers from slow selling Maybach. Trouble is Stuttgart’s still mum on the marque’s hard figures – the division’s sales are lumped in with Mercedes. When it finally be revealed just what kinda bread Maybach brings to the table? Only Dr. Z knows for sure.
Maybach Manufactur Lives
Maybach 62
By Gunnar Heinrich
THE STORY goes like this: Mercedes-Benz makes an enormous super-luxury car that’s meant to carry heads of state, Hollywood’s A-List, and anyone else who’s willing and able to part with many thousands of dollars.
Essentially, it’s a Rolls-fighting limo with every gadget that Stuttgart can stuff in it.
The only trouble is this: the vehicle’s been on the market mostly unchanged for too many years, there’s an energy crisis, plus a weak economy, and Benz just introduced a new S-Class generation.
Sound familiar? It’s the story of the (W100) 600 which launched with great fanfare in 1963 and faded into history by 1981. Ironically, the over-the-top 600 was discontinued just a few years short of the Go-Go 80′s era of conspicuous consumption.
Maybach, a marque long extinct since the days of the Weimar Republic was meant to be the modern 600 and was resurrected by DaimlerChrysler in 2002 just at the right time.
THE GRAND NEW YORK DEBUT
Maybach’s world debut was fetted with a full court press covering a two-tone 62′s arrival aboard the QE II sailing into New York harbor. A majestic entrance, to be sure.
Today it’s mostly deck-chair shuffling as Mercedes’ super-luxury division has been all but forgotten by most of the media (and public) and upstaged repeatedly by new models coming from BMW’s revitalized Rolls-Royce and VW’s turbocharged Bentley.
Worse, exciting new Maybach designs that have appeared over the years like the Ocean Drive Concept and Exelero were either stolen by the Tri-Star or scrapped. It seems that time and again Maybach is being canabalized by Daimler to empower Mercedes.
Plainly, Maybach’s a division that’s been treading water quietly for some time now. And despite a recent influx of press releases posted on the auto blogosphere, there’s little indication that there’s anything new on the horizon.
Depreciation is sharp. And quality of fit ‘n finish and material appointments aren’t up to $300K snuff. In fact, they’re pretty much Mercedes quality circa 2003. Which was about the crappiest period of quality control in Benz’s long history.
All this contributed to what many suspect are sales numbers that never met quotas.
IT’S 2009, STUPID.
All that would be O.K. if this were 2005. But it’s 2009.
Car companies are cutting budgets, people, and waste to maintain profits. Maybach’s people should be (and probably are) fighting like mad to justify their marque’s existence.
The key here is to see if Maybach can a) produce a brand new model that dots all the quality i’s, massages all the backsides, and pampers beyond measure and b) justify its existence long enough to see past this recent downspiral.
Recessions give way to booms as booms give way to recessions. In other words it’s all cyclical. Maybach needs to hang in there long enough to get a better car to market.
