The Mercedes Maybach, classic or dud?

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I saw one of these on the A1 when I was driving home one day last week:

http://web.syr.edu/~geriley/maypage2.html

An unusual sight, even in London, I'd guess, and moreso up here in grim northland.

It was the stretch version, which according to the review I found on the Daily Telegraph's website (where else? Har) costs 281,000 uk pounds, IE 1/2 million dollars.

It seems a lot of money to pay for something that looks EXACTLY like an overgrown Rover 75! I mean to the point where you wonder if they just obtained a set of Rover 75 blueprints and multiplied all the dimensions by 1.8 or something.

Dud.

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Tuesday, 20 September 2005 10:20 (twenty years ago)

Jesus Christ it's hideous!

― tissp! (the impossible shortest specia), Tuesday, 20 September 2005 10:22 (twenty years ago)

Also, it sounds like a really low-rent hooker.

― tissp! (the impossible shortest specia), Tuesday, 20 September 2005 10:23 (twenty years ago)

But blimey:

Horsepower: 550bhp@5250rpm

(Although it is very heavy)

― tissp! (the impossible shortest specia), Tuesday, 20 September 2005 10:24 (twenty years ago)

What's wrong with its eyes?

― The Brocade Fire (kate), Tuesday, 20 September 2005 10:25 (twenty years ago)

I mean, Headlamps?

― The Brocade Fire (kate), Tuesday, 20 September 2005 10:25 (twenty years ago)

It's like a fly, or an Imp from Doom 3

― tissp! (the impossible shortest specia), Tuesday, 20 September 2005 10:26 (twenty years ago)

utterly dud. jesus wept. what is it, a merc especially designed for people with no aesthetic sense whatsoever?

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Tuesday, 20 September 2005 10:30 (twenty years ago)

DUD DUD DUD

There a couple that park by work. They are enormous, ugly, massively inefficient and deeply offensive.

― Ed (dali), Tuesday, 20 September 2005 10:49 (twenty years ago)

so dud. that coupe concept they had knocking around the motor shows is pretty impressive in a cartoonish gothic sort of way.

― deaf leopard (haitch), Tuesday, 20 September 2005 10:53 (twenty years ago)

That coupe is hideous. It looks like the took the worst bits of the chrysler crossfire and the alfa brera and kind of splurged them together into one horrid whole.

the only super-fancy concept thing I liked was the bugatti eb218, and they went and dropped it in favour of the stupid veryon.

All these cars are basically dodos, really, though, aren't they? The only thing the brands had going for them was some kind of struggling atrist/artisan type cobbblers, and now that yr bugatti or bentley is just a tarted up vw, or yr rolls = a bmw, or yr maybach = related to an airport taxi, it's meaningless. I don't know why they bother, seeing as they're all going to lose shitloads of money on these cars anyway.

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Tuesday, 20 September 2005 11:10 (twenty years ago)

Also, "heritage" was the usp wasn't it, but that basically ceases to be when VAG or BMW or DC is pulling the strings, feh.

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Tuesday, 20 September 2005 11:12 (twenty years ago)

I did see an all-black one here in DC over the summer time (mid June, I think) and the solid color cleaned its looks up a bit.

It is a pretty badass waste of money. So...Clud? Dussic?

― Big Loud Mountain Ape (Big Loud Mountain Ape), Tuesday, 20 September 2005 12:01 (twenty years ago)

Dud. But I do like the Coupe. It looks like the batmobile.

― Kv_nol (Kv_nol), Tuesday, 20 September 2005 13:50 (twenty years ago)

I've seen the Mercedes McLaren SLR around and it's significantly better looking

http://www.edmunds.com/media/roadtests/spinaroundtown/mercedesbenz.slr/04.mb.mclaren.slr.f34.500.jpg

― Elvis Telecom (Chris Barrus), Tuesday, 20 September 2005 16:26 (twenty years ago)

Mercedes McLaren

I keep misreading that as "Malcolm McLaren." Now I know he has long-standing ties to fashion design, but from there to automobile design is a pretty big jump.

― j.lu (j.lu), Tuesday, 20 September 2005 16:36 (twenty years ago)

The Maybach Exelero concept is interesting: http://www.weblogsinc.com/common/images/0760091566609755.JPG?0.45030327882443843

The new one is way too much, but of course very nice inside. The old real pre-war Maybach's were gorgeous.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Tuesday, 20 September 2005 20:36 (twenty years ago)

http://www.weblogsinc.com/common/images/0760091566609755.JPG?0.45030327882443843

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Tuesday, 20 September 2005 21:07 (twenty years ago)

http://www.jarrodw.com/files/6000SUX.jpg

― don't be jerk, this is china (FE7), Tuesday, 20 September 2005 21:10 (twenty years ago)

They are enormous, ugly, massively inefficient and deeply offensive.

Oddly in LA Maybach's not really offensive because of the massive Escalade/Yukon/H1 etc etc crazies. They're less popular now, but still too common.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Tuesday, 20 September 2005 21:12 (twenty years ago)

I saw Jay-Z's parked outside the 40/40 Club walking on my way to the train one day. He's got a curtain in it and everything. Fucking dud because you're rich, alright we get it.

― Candicissima (candicissima), Tuesday, 20 September 2005 21:15 (twenty years ago)

OTM.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Tuesday, 20 September 2005 21:15 (twenty years ago)

I saw one parked in the tiniest space at the Westside Pavilion. Who takes a Mayback to a mall and then doesn't valet?!

― the son of dean cameron (dr g), Tuesday, 20 September 2005 21:16 (twenty years ago)

How do you think they got that rich???

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Tuesday, 20 September 2005 21:17 (twenty years ago)

If I had all the money back from every valet I've used I'd have like 40 bucks!

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Tuesday, 20 September 2005 21:18 (twenty years ago)

Hideous. Especially when you could "just" pay the extra £300K and have one of these instead.

http://www.stefanopasini.it/images/03-Bugatti%20Veyron.jpg

― Si.C@rter (SiC@rter), Tuesday, 20 September 2005 21:23 (twenty years ago)

Very good point.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Tuesday, 20 September 2005 21:29 (twenty years ago)

Best VW ever.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Tuesday, 20 September 2005 21:32 (twenty years ago)

What's wrong with its eyes?

http://www.hollywood-diecast.com/truckster.jpg

― I think I may need a bathroom break? (wetmink2), Tuesday, 20 September 2005 21:38 (twenty years ago)

Ew, the round multi-headlamps make it look like a spider. A great big hulking hairy tarantula.

― Laurel, Tuesday, 20 September 2005 23:07 (twenty years ago)

Unanswered Questions

― M. V. (M.V.), Tuesday, 20 September 2005 23:20 (twenty years ago)

wtf that bugatti is horrible!! all these cars are apparently for people with their good taste removed. the bst car on this page is that boxy thing with wood in it!

― ambrose (ambrose), Tuesday, 20 September 2005 23:33 (twenty years ago)

It's looks are not exactly my favorite, but I do like the 1001 hp.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Tuesday, 20 September 2005 23:35 (twenty years ago)

that boxy thing with wood in it!

by the way, that's the Wagon Queen Family Truckster from National Lampoon's Vacation. It had 8 headlights as a joke before the Maybach actually did it. Kind of like the Onion with Gillette's 5-blade razor.

― I think I may need a bathroom break? (wetmink2), Wednesday, 21 September 2005 00:36 (twenty years ago)

"No matter how cynical you get, it is impossible to keep up."

--Lily Tomlin

― M. V. (M.V.), Wednesday, 21 September 2005 00:40 (twenty years ago)

The production version's lights do not look quite as Family trucksterish.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Wednesday, 21 September 2005 05:05 (twenty years ago)

The SLR's proportioned kinda funny with that far too long hood, and spending that much on a sporty car that doesn't have a manual transmission is kind of offensive, but as my friend Darren pointed out when we were discussing the new SLK 55 AMG, who wants a stick shift in such a car? It just makes it more difficult to get your cock sucked while driving. Darren wanted me to call my band DINKBOFFIN so he's obviously got a one-track mind.

― Bryan (Bryan), Wednesday, 21 September 2005 05:14 (twenty years ago)

This Audi concept - the Nuvolari Quattro from 2003, is currently my dream car (I don't know if they ever made one that actually runs though). You can see how elements of the design have been incorporated into the entire Audi line.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Wednesday, 21 September 2005 05:17 (twenty years ago)

whoops, forgot link:
http://www.audiworld.com/news/03/geneva/nuvolari/content.shtml

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Wednesday, 21 September 2005 05:18 (twenty years ago)

I hate the wheels on that Audi. I drove next to a BMW 645 or 650i today that had almost identical wheels - 19 or 20". They just look weird, outsized and cartoony on almost any passenger car.

All the Bugattis and Maybachs and McLarens are indefensibly ugly and attention-gathering. For my supercars, I'll drool on Ferrari's offerings.

― milozauckerman (miloaukerman), Wednesday, 21 September 2005 05:22 (twenty years ago)

I'm sure there would be different wheel offerings! Big wheels are all the rage these days - just stay away from chrome, unless, like an old Ferrari, the wheel is spokes.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Wednesday, 21 September 2005 05:23 (twenty years ago)

No car, for any amount money, has ever bettered the good old

http://www.automobile-sportive.com/guide/porsche/997s/997s-design.jpg

Though the new (cheaper) Porsche Cayman comes close.

― milozauckerman (miloaukerman), Wednesday, 21 September 2005 05:29 (twenty years ago)

That picture isn't exactly "good old"!

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Wednesday, 21 September 2005 05:31 (twenty years ago)

And yeah, the Cayman looks sweet, but how different will it be from the new Boxster?

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Wednesday, 21 September 2005 05:32 (twenty years ago)

The upcoming VW Eos is really beautiful:
http://www.vwvortex.com/artman/publish/volkswagen_news/article_1526.shtml
but maybe too "chick" for me I suppose (although I hope my chick gets one so that I can drive it too!).

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Wednesday, 21 September 2005 05:37 (twenty years ago)

The Cayman is basically just the Boxster with a top, so it should be faster and better handling. Also: trunk space.

― milozauckerman (miloaukerman), Wednesday, 21 September 2005 05:41 (twenty years ago)

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