Share

  • Pinterest

The 2019 Mercedes-Maybach sedan will debut at the Geneva motor show next month. Engine choices remain the same, but the freshened luxury behemoth, debuting in late summer 2018, gets a new grille, new two-tone paint options and new wheels.

Starting in front, the new vertical bar grille “is inspired by a pinstripe suit” and was cribbed from the Vision Maybach 6 coupe that premiered at Pebble Beach in August 2016. The exterior styling isn’t quite as wild as that concept, but Mercedes is bringing the two-tone paint scheme back, something that made the Maybach Maybach, as opposed to the Mercedes-Maybach, stand out, even in a six-figure crowd.

The new Maybach is available in nine color combinations, as well as with a double clearcoat for dark-color options. The second clearcoat, according to Mercedes, is “applied by hand in the Maybach Manufaktur by specially trained varnishers.” Sweet gig if you can get it.

Well-heeled buyers get three choices of wheel, including the spoked job that came on the first Maybach S-Class Cabriolet.

The updated Maybach gets 10 extra inches of length over the standard S-Class, with more room for rear (coddled/shuttled) passengers, who also get (capital E) Executive seats with footrests, heat, ventilation and all of the good stuff.

As for the engines, not much has changed. The S560 comes with a 4.0-liter turbocharged V8 making 463 hp and 516 lb-ft, while the S650 gets the V12 making 621 hp and 738 lb-ft. Those are good for 0-60 sprints of 4.8 and 4.6 seconds, respectively.

Our sales numbers don’t break out Maybachs versus S-Classes, but Mercedes says since the relaunch of the Maybach in 2015, the company has delivered more than 25,000 Maybachs and in 2017 one out of every 10 S-Classes sold was branded with the big M.

We’ll get a better look in March in Geneva.