Mercedes-Maybach GLS: In The Olympus Of SUVs

2023 Author: Eric Donovan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-08-25 09:36

The location of its premiere was deliberately chosen: Guangzhou. Because China will be the main market for the new Mercedes-Maybach GLS.

This car is an important gesture and it comes at exactly the right time: while the Mercedes star is just losing its radiance and at the same time the Chinese market, the Swabians' biggest pillar, is beginning to weaken at a high level, the Swabians are literally bringing their most important customers in thick gift with.

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Because not at the home game at the IAA in Frankfurt and not at the auto show in Los Angeles, which is used to luxury, but at the trade fair in Guangzhou, the cloth of the new Maybach GLS, with the Mercedes from the second half of next year at prices, will probably fall far Compete against Bentley Bentayga and Rolls Royce Cullinan for more than 150,000 euros and want to leave bourgeois GLS competitors like the BMW X7 or the Audi Q8 behind.

Colossus for Croesus and Co

As a colossus for Krösus & Co, Mercedes has spruced up the GLS: From the outside, the 5.21 meter long thick ship sparkles with the new radiator grille in pinstripe design, with plenty of chrome in front of the fan grilles and around the windows like a Christmas tree on Christmas Eve and inside there is a luxury lounge with plenty of lacquer and leather.

Anyone who climbs up the electrically retractable steps into the Olympus of the off-road vehicle thinks they are in seventh SUV heaven. Because where up to seven seats have to be accommodated in the GLS, there are only four in the Maybach. With a 3.14 meter wheelbase, this is enough in the best case for more than 1.30 meters of legroom in the rear and creates space for extendable leg rests, with which the naturally air-conditioned lounge chairs can even be turned into loungers. In addition, there is of course a bar compartment and folding tables in the central console, a separate MBUX world for the backbenchers - and a feel-good program with ambient lighting and a specially composed room fragrance from the scent of the osmanthus blossom with a touch of leather and spicy tea.

Electric curtains

While the rule in the rear behind electrically drawn curtains and thick insulating glass cultivates idleness and is bedded on clouds by the Maybach mode of the predictive air suspension and its 48-volt points, the driver also finds it easy with this heavyweight. Because even if Mercedes breaks with tradition and installs only eight instead of twelve cylinders at the rear despite the 600, the four-liter turbo shouldn't have any problems with the Maybach for the mud: after all, it makes 558 hp and reaches up to 730 Nm Works. That is enough for 4.9 seconds from 0 to 100 km / h and at full throttle for 250 things. And in the fight against turbo lag and a bad conscience, there is even an electric e-booster as a mild hybrid component,which pushes a little when starting and otherwise depresses consumption through more recuperation and longer sailing phases - although with a standard value of 11.7 liters this has at best cosmetic value.

A bit more elegant than GLS

Extremely noble, but not exclusive and, despite all its performance, still more committed to reason than to excess - in the end the Maybach GLS is just an elegantly spruced up GLS and the Swabians have the chance to emancipate without at least a stretched body or the befitting V12 wasted by the bourgeois Benz. Which one can hardly blame them in view of the bankruptcy during the last Maybach comeback and the current somewhat tight cash situation.

But they hardly have to worry about the success of the heavyweight in the tuxedo. This is not only proven by looking at the figures for Cullinan and Bentayga, it is also shown by experience with the S-Class. In the meantime, every seventh copy of the star still carries the double M. And here in China the proportion is even larger, a Mercedes man justifies the premiere at the other end of the world. (SP-X)