Mercedes Maybach carries high price tag, higher hopes
NEW YORK, July 2 - German auto giant DaimlerChrysler AG <DCXGn.DE> relaunched its ultra-luxury Maybach brand on Tuesday with a motorcade down Wall Street, hoping to open the purses of the rich and powerful and whip up some enthusiasm for the company itself.
More than 60 years after the exclusive auto was taken off assembly lines, a black Maybach was shipped to the U.S. on the Queen Elizabeth II luxury liner, then flown by helicopter on Tuesday to a pier on the west side of Manhattan. From there, police escorted the auto to Wall Street in downtown Manhattan for its debut in an area synonymous with wealth.
The event started at the crack of dawn and lasted five hours as the car was driven through the streets of the city to the financial district. It stood in stark contrast to the scenes that unfolded in downtown Manhattan just a few months ago, after the September 11 attacks on the U.S.
And although the sunken U.S. economy, which tanked even more after last fall, has tamed many of the market's highest flyers, DaimlerChrysler thinks the rarity and exclusivity of the new Maybach will make the car a hot item for the richest of the rich.
The company says it plans to roll out just 1,000 mostly handmade Maybach sedans each year, beginning in 2003, at a price of around $300,000 apiece. That will put the Maybach roughly on par in terms of pricing and availability with the new Rolls Royce, which BMW AG <BMWG.DE> will start selling early next year when it acquires the rights to the super-luxury brand from Volkswagen AG <VOWG.F>
The Maybach, which was kept shrouded behind a screen of tinted glass at the Geneva car show in early March, went out of production in 1941. The car, which can be built to individual specifications, could pass as a longer, sleeker version of the S-Class sedan built by DaimlerChrysler's profitable German luxury unit Mercedes-Benz. The Maybach brand will be part of that unit, according to DaimlerChrysler.
Braking, suspension and display features unique to Mercedes-Benz vehicles are even more advanced in the Maybach. The sedan also comes with rear recliner seats with telescoping footrests, two flat-screen television monitors, and surround sound for each passenger. A DVD player, television receiver and cordless phone with Internet capability are also standard equipment.
It will go on sale in the United States next spring, but the company says it will begin production this fall at its site in Sindelfingen, Germany.
DaimlerChrysler, which has been blasted by industry watchers over steep losses at its U.S. Chrysler arm, is not expecting the Maybach to become a mass-produced cash cow. But the car, named after the creator of the first Mercedes, could help shore up DaimlerChrysler's position in the luxury car market.
