The resurrection of Maybach under the Mercedes-Maybach sub-brand was a late?and mildly controversial?decision. The long-wheelbase version of the Mercedes-Benz S-class could have been launched as just that. Instead, a group of executives, including chief designer Gorden Wagener, lobbied hard to bring back the Maybach moniker, resulting in the Mercedes-Maybach S-class. That was despite the somewhat disastrous run of the Maybach 57 and 62, behemoths built upon the platform of the W140 S-class between 2002 and 2012. As a stand-alone brand, Maybach never came close to meeting its production targets.
Launching Mercedes-Maybach in November 2014 as a more luxury-oriented sub-brand parallel to the performance-minded Mercedes-AMG variants, however, has been a smashing success. Priced within reach of the standard car, the longer Maybach models (stretched nearly 10 inches beyond the length of the Benz-branded S-class sedans sold here, which are themselves the “long-wheelbase” models in Europe) have proved especially popular in the United States, Russia, and China. Parent company Daimler already has decided that the brand will be expanded to further segments: think next-gen GLS.
Now that Mercedes-Maybach is established, Daimler has decided that it needs its own face. So here, revealed ahead of its public unveiling at the upcoming Geneva auto show, is the 2019 Mercedes-Maybach S-class, complete with a fresh and brand-specific grille of vertical slats similar to that used on...