What's all this about?
The ultra-luxe version of the Mercedes-Benz S-Class - which is sold under the Mercedes-Maybach name - has been treated to some minor visual primping. Including a grille modelled on a pinstripe suit.
Say what, now?
That grille, first seen on the exquisite behemoth that was 2016's Mercedes-Maybach 6 concept car, is said to take inspiration from a posh 'whistle and toot', because the thin vertical struts look like pinstripes and they help to accentuate the car's front end.
Fair enough. What else has changed?
You can have your Mercedes-Maybach S 650 (we don't get the V8 S 560 models in the UK), in a two-tone paint finish, a classic M-M theme. Or you can have your dark-coloured Maybach S with the double clear-coat treatment, in which the second coat is applied by hand by specially trained varnishers (whatever they are; we just tend to slap on Ronseal with a two-inch brush when something needs varnishing...). Not enough for you? Then luxuriate in the new two-tone interior colour schemes, which are Armagnac Brown/Black and Savanna Beige/Black, with the Exclusive Nappa leather upholstery now able to be finished in copper-, gold- or platinum-coloured topstitching.
Anything else on the visuals?
There are four designs of 20-inch alloy wheels, one of them new and another being the 20-hole rim as seen on the Mercedes-Maybach S-Cabriolet.
OK, you said earlier about the M-M S 650 - can you remind me of its engine?
Sure can. Technically, it's a Mercedes-AMG unit, but as we're under the Mercedes-Maybach umbrella here, we perhaps should have kept that quiet. A 6.0-litre, twin-turbo petrol V12, this leviathan churns out 630hp and 1,000Nm, enough to propel the hefty S 650 from 0-62mph in 4.7 seconds. Punchy.
Have you got anything more to add about this opulence on wheels?
Not much. Although we can say the revised Mercedes-Maybach S-Class, pinstriped-suit-grille and all, will be on display at the Geneva Motor Show in March. And if you're thinking this is a small-selling machine, you'd be surprised; since the Mercedes-Maybach launched in 2015, more than 25,000 examples have been delivered to customers worldwide - and more than one-in-ten of total S-Class sales in 2017 were of the Mercedes-Maybach variety. The key markets are China, Russia and the USA. Where the oligarchs live, apparently.
Matt Robinson - 13 Feb 2018