S 500

STORY

The Mercedes-Maybach S-Class is the car that re-established Maybach after the standalone brand's mid-2000s failure. Rather than a separate model line, Daimler relaunched Maybach in 2015 as the ultra-luxury pinnacle of the S-Class range, debuting the S 600 at the Los Angeles and Guangzhou shows before the Geneva production reveal. Built on a stretched wheelbase, it added a longer, more formal cabin and a level of hand-finishing above any ordinary S-Class.

It matters because it defined the template for the whole revived brand: chauffeur-first packaging, First-Class rear seating that reclines like a private jet, and the two-tone paintwork and Manufaktur bespoke program that became Maybach signatures. At the top sits the V12-powered S 680, a car that pairs the hand-built M279 biturbo twelve with silence, isolation and materials that place it directly against Rolls-Royce and Bentley.