Maybach Car Manufacturers

The Maybach brand of ultra-luxury automobiles is really a story in two parts, but each part is linked inseparably to Daimler and the Mercedes brand.
Maybach is a limited-edition brand of ultra-luxury automobile marketed by Daimler-Benz. Maybachs are known for living-room-sized passenger cabins, immense power and large price tags. The Maybach brand of ultra-luxury automobiles is really a story in two parts, but each part is linked inseparably to Daimler and the Mercedes brand.

Wilhelm Maybach and Gottlieb Daimler first teamed up in 1876. Together they made Nicholas Otto's four-stroke engine design a production reality. When Daimler left Otto's company in 1880, his trusted assistant, Maybach, soon followed. Together, they built Daimler Motoren Gesselschaft and launched the Mercedes brand. But following Daimler's death in 1900, Maybach's relationship with DMG management soured. In 1907 he left DMG and in 1909 he founded Maybach-Moternenbau GmbH.

Initially, Maybach's company confined its production to diesel and gas engines. But in 1921, Wilhelm and his engineer son, Karl, introduced a 70-horsepower automobile at the Geneva Motor Show. In the years that followed, the brand built a number of opulent and well-received automobiles, including the 200-horsepower V-12-powered Type Zeppelin DS 8 of 1929 and the Type SW 38 Limousine of 1936. But the Maybach brand's time on the automotive stage was brief--production of automobiles ceased by 1941, and the company turned its attention to providing engines for the war effort and commercial purposes.

Maybach Car Manufacturers
Founded
1909
Headquarters
Stuttgart, Germany
Founder
Wilhelm Maybach
In 1997 Daimler-Benz resurrected the Maybach name as a model designation for a luxurious concept car that was unveiled at the Tokyo Motor Show. When the concept became reality, Daimler-Benz decided to distinguish the car from the Mercedes-Benz brand and market it as a Maybach.

The current Maybach automobiles are hand-made in Germany by Daimler AG. Five models are offered, ranging from the merely extravagant Maybach 57 to the magnificent 62S and open-top Laundaulet. The more sporting S models come equipped with a 6-liter V-12 that develops 604 horsepower with help from a bi-turbo induction system. Of course, the other models are anything but underpowered; all Maybach engines develop well over 500 horsepower. Like their historic predecessors, Maybach automobiles offer expansive accommodations, extremely luxurious accoutrements and outstanding performance. Equally outstanding are the six-figure price tags, but the stickers are in keeping with the quality of the merchandise. Today's Maybach brand provides finely crafted, well engineered transportation for an exclusive clientele.