Man Maths: Maybach 62

I think the word that best describes the Maybach’s appearance is ‘unfortunate’. The strange proportions, those enormous ugly headlights. It’s no looker, the poor thing, and hearts must have sunk in Stuttgart the moment they saw the Rolls-Royce Phantom, for the first time. That was how to do a vast, imposing limousine, not this.

The Maybach didn’t sell anything like as well as Mercedes-Benz had hoped. Richard Bremner explores the reasons why in his Blunder Buses story, which you can read here, but against a target of 1000 units per year, production collapsed to a low of just 44 cars before the model was culled in 2011.

Our sub-£40,000, 21-year-old Maybach 62 would have cost £281,380 before extras when new. Nearly a quarter of a million quid gone in a couple of decades – or a grand a month, every month, for over 20 years. Which almost makes this used example look like value, except I just don’t know who’s buying old Maybachs these days, even those that cost less than a new VW Golf R. I’d expect the running costs to be a trifle higher too.

Maybe this old bus could earn its keep a little while longer as a posh airport taxi – and to be fair to it, I wouldn’t mind being whisked from home to Heathrow in the quiet and calm of a long-wheelbase Maybach.

Free Reads on The Intercooler are freely available for all to read. The vast majority of our stories, including all of our feature articles, sit behind the paywall, only available to subscribers who get unlimited access to our ever-growing library of more than a thousand stories and close to two million words. 

Click here to start your 30-day free trial and gain full access to The Intercooler’s multi award-winning website and app.