Maybach 57/62
Ratings
2 stars
Summary
Not recommended. If there's a point to this vast, bloated super saloon we've yet to spot it.
Review
You'd have to be massively rich and extremely eccentric to seriously consider buying a Maybach - this is a car that looks set to go down in the history books as a costly misjudgement.
Designed and built by Mercedes, the Maybach shares some of its components with the previous generation S Class. Including, perplexingly, most of the stuff that the driver actually gets to touch, including the steering wheel and instrument display.
Not that you're meant to drive a car like this yourself, of course. Maybach buyers are reckoned to be more likely to employ a chauffeur and to spend most of their time in the unarguably sumptuous rear seats.
Which is a good place to be - not least because you don't have to endure the car's grossly obese styling while spending time back there. From the outside even the Maybach's mother would have difficulty loving it - vast, awkward and vulgar. It's certainly got plenty of road presence, but it completely lacks the elegance and class of a Rolls Royce Phantom or Bentley Arnage.
Buyers who do find themselves in the driver's seat will enjoy a suitably wafty dynamic experience and masses of performance from the amazingly smooth V12 engine. The Maybach is supremely comfortable at everything from urban trundling to a flat-out blast down the Autobahn. But although it's happy to be hustled around corners at a fair old lick, it's clear that neither the car or the occupants are likely to enjoy the experience.
Ratings Breakdown
Styling
1 star
Designed to appeal to its core demographic of Russian Mafiosi ? big and vulgar. To the rest of us it looks awful ? like a 1990s Hyundai on steroids.
Handling
3 star
Composed and unflappable under pretty much all dynamic tests, although happiest when being wafted along on a nice, straight road.
Comfort
5 star
The ultra-smooth ride and excellent insulation against road and wind noise make this one of the quietest and smoothest ways to travel on the planet.
Quality & Reliability
4 star
Well assembled and with lots of very expensive materials in the cabin, but previous generation S Class switchgear jars in something this expensive.
Performance
4 star
More than rapid enough, thanks. The silken V12 gives creamy-smooth urge from walking pace upwards.
Roominess
4 star
Even the short wheelbase
Running Costs
1 star
Frankly, scary. You could run a medium-sized country on what it takes to keep Maybach on the road for a year
Value for money
1 star
In this part of the market buyers tend not to be too worried about a car's pricetag. Yet it's still hard to see the Maybach as being good value considering the far more impressive Rolls Royce Phantom costs very similar money.
