Some will pine after the uber-luxurious German brand, others will rejoice in it and most won’t even care about Maybach but there’s something sad about its death.
Mercedes, or rather the higher ups at Daimler, are now trying to justify why killing Maybach was better than the other options available on the table.
Justification is to come through figures and no matter which model you liked, be it the Maybach 57, 62, S models or the Landaulet, you’re in for a shock.
According to their figures, thanks to constantly missing sales targets and a very high development cost, Maybach would end up losing some $438.000 per unit.
It’s amazing to know that despite this Maybach kept on going for several years and will continue to live on until next year.
By the time the plant closes down for good (or another half a decade or so) Maybach will have produced a total of 3.000 units.
What could you expect at annual sales ranging between 150 and 300 units? The sluggish sales are half the indication.
Customer satisfaction levels of Maybach owners are through the roof and Mercedes did gain quite the image boost from running the show.
By 2013 when the brand is consigned to the history books, again, Mercedes will produce a replacement, only this time it will run in a different flavor.
Mercedes will make a very high end version of their already established S Class saloon. While they’re at it, they’ll be reviving their old Pullman brand.
Hopefully on this enterprise we won’t hear 10 years from now that they’ve lost 1.33 billion dollars.
