Tag: Maybach

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Cars

A good looking Maybach :O

If you are interested on cars, you would probably know about Maybach. Mercedes’s ultra luxury brand which has a worse sales performance than any wheeled vehicle on earth! Since it was on market, it was not able to reach a sustainable sales performance. After the Rolls Royce Phantom introduced on market, Maybach’s market share shrunk more and more! Main problem was Mercedes’s mentality, they thought that; if we put millions of chips and technology and ignore design, we can sell it. Unfortunately, customers of ultra luxury segment do not care that much of your sophisticated technology as you predicted!
As the years have passed, Maybach situation became worse and worse. Mercedes recently discussed to shut down the brand in future, may be! While these rumours are around, a company in Germany designed a coupe version of Maybach. And they transformed the most boring ultra luxury car into something really looking good :) The boring looking Maybach changed totally by turning into a coupe. Mercedes should have released this model years ago and save the brand!
In my opinion, it is one of the best looking luxury coupe on market! And I am sure that Maybach coupe will have much better sales performance than the normal Maybach. Honestly, any car which is selling more than 200 per year has better performance than Maybach!
Pictures are taken from;
Mercedes and Worldcarfans Websites
Categories
Cars

Fat Maybach

In 1997, I can clearly remember the date when I saw first pictures of future Mercedes which will be named as Maybach. Maybach was left sleeping for nearly four decades and Mercedes launched the brand with an electro shock which was done by old Mercedes S Class (W220). Finally Maybach was on production in 2002! The features and technology was beyond imagination like its price tag. At the same time, Rolls Royce was working on new Phantom and Bentley was refurbished by Volkswagen. So the competition was getting tougher!
And Maybach revealed to market, however it was sharing too much in common with S Class. Actually Maybach was a stretched and pumped version of S Class. Or I can summarized it like this; Maybach is paint which was done by Botero.
Botero is well known painter who is expressing his ideas in terms of fat people and objects. He is exagratting the figures and objects to express the ideas. Maybach was like that, expressed the passion of Mercedes to go fight with Rolls Royce and Bentley with a S Class. It was basically a S Class with luxury.
And weirdly, current S Class is offering very similar features like Maybach and relatively cheaper! This also had impact on Maybach’s sales performance. Despite its enormous engine power which can be used in World Rally Championship did not help Maybach to win! In UK last year, only seven Maybachs were sold. Just 7!
A few days ago Mercedes revealed a video for face lifted Maybach which will be introduced in China Motor Show. And the movie was took place in China with Chinese casting. This clearly Shows that, Mercedes is hopeless for Western market and they try their last chance in China. As matter of fact, Maybach is a great car but too expensive for a Mercedes

Pictures are taken from;
Mercedes Website and NTV.com.tr

Categories
Cars

Bentley flew to Maybach in Russia

I think many people watch the video how a Romanian Maybach owner repaired his car by himself.

And now in Russia; a Bentley Continental Flying Spur flew to a Maybach 62 and they had a crash. Not a big one but they crashed :)

Here is the video from WorldCarFans

Categories
Fashion

Iconic Mercedes

When we remember the old Mercedes models from 1920s to 1960s. We could see that exquisite design and engineered beyond their era. Mercedes also know this very well and in every five years they reveal a “new” model which is exactly based on old iconic model. And sometimes they ruin that iconic models, they did it once with Maybach and once with SLR. I have better expectations from SLS Gullwing!

For me there are three great Mercedes models; first one is SSK, second one is 600 Pullman and the last one is 300SLR. I think the Pullman is more famous than its owner whole over the world. Nearly every well known politician, rock star, fashion designer, very very rich people owned one of them. The fascinating thing about the 600 Pullman was; when you push a button to close the window you don’t hear any electric motor noise, because it was controlled by hydraulic! Like an airplane, Pullman’s every single detail was moving by hydraulic. And it was built in 1963.
300SLR was also fascinating car; its design, reliability, ground breaking engine technology (direct injection, which is now available with VW’s FSi engines) and its performance. I don’t want to mention about economy and environmental side effects. When it was built in 1955, no one on earth had been to moon. Phone was a very luxury device, there was no fast food and also no starbucks! And Mercedes built that car in that era.
The SSK is one of the best looking cars. And producing nearly 300 horsepower from 7.3 lt engine in 1928. There is no need to say more!
And let’s come today; last one decade did Mercedes revealed something iconic? I am sure some of you will say, Maybach, my uncle’s S Class, my father’s S Class, my classmate’s uncle’s brother’s son’s S Class. Unfortunately, neither your relatives S Class nor Russian billionaires Maybach is not iconic. S Class is a contemporary car which satisfies the needs of customers. I am not a fan of S Class, I would rather choose CL or SL. Maybach was disaster, nobody denies this! It was based on old S Class and which looks like old S Class. And after new S Class it even looks older! Maybach was great brand in 1940s but they could not manage do it again.
The last and the best Mercedes is the G Wagon! For thirty years; it is still the best off roader, looking seriously cool, extremely robust in any terrain, Range Rover looks like Paris Hilton’s small dogs when you put beside G Wagon. But it is hard to drive as a result of being a proper off roader.

Mercedes SSK, 1928
Wikipedia
Mercedes 300 SLR, 1995
Wikipedia
Mercedes 600 Pullman, 1963
Wikipedia
Mercedes G Wagon, Since 1979
Mercedes
Categories
Cars

Pilates for Luxury Segment

Pilates is a very popular physical fitness exercise. This exercise helps to strech your muscles, increase your concentration, control your breathing, better precision and more. I am not an expert on this, however I know that if you could manage to do it, it is good to do it.
In last decade; automotive companies also started to do pilates for luxury segment. However their pilates was not like the normal one! Instead of calming yourself and developing your physical health, this pilates made them more angry and agressive.
The ambition to jump luxury segment has some reasons; some brands desire to have a flagship model to strength their brand image and develop high technologies for flagship and transfer to other models (VW Phaëton model), some brands wanted revive a died brand and increase their market (Mercedes Maybach model), some brands extend their brand to extend it, even though they knew that they will fail(Renault VelSatis, Peugeot 607) and lastly some brands shift their brand image into luxury by revealing a new model (Hyundia model).
All of these models did not work as we all know that. Phaëton is an excellent car with very sophisticated technology but it didn’t sell much but its structure is used for Bentley Continental Family which is very rational in economic terms. Mercedes Maybach was great project and introduced great cars which look likes old Mercedes S Class (W220) from outside and also from inside, despite the space age technology, it could not race with Rolls Royce or Bentley. Renault VelSatis was great looking and that was all, Peugeot 607 was a try to jump to a new segment and failed. However Hyundai made some success with Genesis in US market and that motivation gave more motivation and they will introduce a car for international market to compete with S Class, BMW 7 Series and Audi A8 and that is called Equus. Okay, Equus might be selling very well in Asia but the world is not Asia.
In general; a car company cannot go up into higher segments, the brand is mostly stuck on the segment which was emerged. Mercedes is always a luxury brand despite A Class, Rolls Royce is always super luxury brand, Peugeot will good price, good looking brand and Hyundia will be remembered with their Excel and Accent. It is nearly impossible to go up in automotive industry, even Mercedes spent lots of money and failed. Yes, Lexus made it but only in US. Even in Japan, their people don’t buy it because they don’t perceive Lexus as luxury brand.
These companies did brand extension, strecth the cars for upper segments, increase concentration, control your breath. The result? Not a good way of relaxing like Pilates. Don’t strecth too much.
The best solution is to focus on increasing quality, better design and extend brand to lower segments. If the company has know-how and money like VW, go head introduce car like Phaëton. It won’t hurt you, unless try not to do that.
EuroNCAP, www.euroNCAP.com