Coupe, Blk On Blk, Sunroof, 6 Cyl., Auto Trans., on 2040-cars

Auto blog

The most or nothing: Mercedes-Maybach S650 Cabriolet pushes the luxury limits

After the introduction of the Mercedes-AMG GT Roadster at the Paris Motor Show this fall, we informed you that Mercedes-Benz has a convertible conundrum, a surplus of drop-tops that seemingly threatens to self-cannibalize within the brand's ever-proliferating lineup. Benz's head of design, Gorden Wagener, who spends much of his time in Southern California, argues it's not a problem: Each convertible, in its ideal construction, would intrinsically vanquish any issues. "The bad is the enemy of the good," he said, not exactly quoting Nietzsche. Now, the three-pointed star brand has upped the top-down ante, with the unveiling this week at the Los Angeles auto show of the Mercedes-Maybach S650 Cabriolet, a vehicle so opulent, it sits in price and position atop the uber-luxury brand's current top-of-the-line offering, the $247,900 Mercedes-AMG S65 Cabriolet. View 24 Photos "Mercedes-AMG is our performance brand so it's all about performance stuff," says Wagener in a one-on-one interview on the roof of a Beverly Hills mansion just before the new car is unveiled. "Of course, Maybach has power, too, but it's the ultimate in luxury. So it's more on that side. And for me in the interior, it's the haute couture of the automobile, so we tried to up that a little more with details. And on the exterior, it's a more superb appearance up front, more chrome, more rich, and of course we tried to up that branding even more. The S-Class is the best car in the world, we consider, I always thought we could raise the Mercedes brand. And it's the same with the S convertible." Why does Mercedes-Benz need a flagship atop its flagship? Because, when climbing the mountain of automotive luxury there is always the customer who, when he or she reaches the pinnacle, wants more. A car brand, especially one with deep pockets and luxurious heritage like Mercedes, can always further gild the automotive lilies, creating a step up for those for whom the brand's motto, The Best or Nothing, is a literal life credo. "It's always our job to make it better," Wagener says. "Each little detail, the wood, the wood under cover of the cabriolet, the leathers. All the super luxury details that make a luxury car into a super luxury car. The key is to make a modern luxury design and not a traditional luxury design. There is definitely a market for traditional luxury, but we always wanted to have Mercedes, Maybach in particular, as a modern luxury car.

Brabus 800 Roadster is a power-mad aristocrat

If we're being completely honest, we haven't exactly been in love with the aesthetics of the sixth-generation Mercedes-Benz SL-Class. It's mostly a front-end issue, with its glowering eagle-eye headlamps and upright, dinner-plate-sized Three-Pointed Star coming across to us as overwrought. That's particularly troublesome for a roadster whose history has of the most elegant designs of all time in its back catalog. Somehow, the new R231 generation's brash visuals seem more at home on this Brabus 800 Roadster to us.
That's probably because the high-dollar German tuner has turned up the wick on the SL's visuals even further, with carbon fiber bodywork, a more aggressive aero kit, matte hood scoop and complex two-finish wheels. It's all-the-way committed to its brashness, in other words - and justifiably so. Anything with 800 horsepower and 1,047 pound-feet of torque has earned the right to look however it wants, right?
Brabus started with the SL65 and its not-exactly-underpowered 6.0-liter twin-turbo V12, and went to town, fitting their own turbocharger and intercooler system, along with a less-restrictive exhaust system with driver-selectable sound levels and new engine electronics. The result is a 3.7-second 0-62 mph time, an electronically limited top whack of 217 mph... and one seriously compromised toupée.

Mercedes CLA a sub-$30k car no more

To be honest, the sub-$30,000 Mercedes-Benz CLA was more a theoretical than a real thing. Squeaking in at $100 below that magical threshold, not counting a $925 destination charge, snagging a CLA anywhere near $30k meant exercising extreme self-control with the options catalog. Perhaps with that thinking in mind, Mercedes is set to effectively scrap the entire idea, with Cars Direct claiming the price on a new CLA is set to increase by about five percent, to $31,500. Adding 4Matic all-wheel drive brings the starting price to $33,500. Even the hot CLA45 AMG is getting a price bump, from $47,450 to $48,500. Frankly, it's impossible to miss where Mercedes is coming from with this move, if it actually happens. The CLA has been one of 2014's unmitigated success stories, selling so well that Mercedes has struggled to keep up with demand. Considering that, a modest price hike is to be expected.