MERCEDES-BENZ set the starting price of the Maybach S-Class sedan at €134,100 (RM583,450), including value-added tax, and began taking orders for the would-be challenger to Rolls-Royce and Bentley.
The Maybach, which is longer than the standard S-Class, will reach showrooms in February, the division of Stuttgart, Germany-based Daimler AG said on Monday in a statement.
Numerous exclusive details underline the car’s ambition to lead the chauffeured-car segment, Mercedes said.
The manufacturer is reviving Maybach as a sub-brand to regain an ultra-rich clientele as Daimler chief executive officer Dieter Zetsche pushes for Mercedes to overtake BMW and Audi in luxury-car sales by the end of the decade.
An attempt in 2002 to restore the 1930s-era Maybach marque as a stand-alone brand was halted a decade later after the cars failed to attract buyers.
Mercedes fell behind Munich-based Bayerische Motoren Werke AG’s namesake brand in premium-car deliveries in 2005, and Volkswagen AG’s Audi unit has outsold Mercedes since 2011.
Mercedes is using the Maybach to target buyers of BMW’s Rolls-Royce nameplate and Volkswagen’s Bentley marque. — Bloomberg
This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on December 18, 2014.