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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.

Edmunds ranks the best used cars for 2013

When people ask us what car we would recommend for them, it's usually not easy to answer. To make a useful recommendation we must consider which of the numerous vehicle segments fits their needs best, and then choose one of the many vehicles offered in each segment. For some people, new cars don't meet their expectations of value, because they lose so much of it the moment they are purchased and driven off the dealer lot. For them, there's always the used-car market, where great deals can be found, but cars' histories of reliability and maintenance records - and perhaps that Certified Pre-Owned warranty - become ever-important factors playing into purchase choice.
To help out, Edmunds has done us the favor of assembling a list of the best used vehicles money can buy, covering model years 2006-2011, according to what it considers the most important criteria when shopping for used autos: reliability, safety, value and availability. That means unreliable, unsafe, super-expensive or limited-edition models don't appear on the list, but instead cars from each segment that are more likely to satisfy the general population.
There are some real goodies on the list, including but not limited to vehicles such as the capable Honda Fit, the cultish Honda Accord coupe (which can be had with a 240-horsepower V6 and a six-speed manual transmission some years), and the powerful Chevrolet Corvette. While Edmunds' choice of the Volvo C70 for best used convertible baffled us at first (not that it's a bad car), it redeemed itself by stating that the Mazda MX-5 still is an unofficial top choice if you don't require more than two seats.

Mercedes shows off more of the S-Class Cabriolet

Mercedes has been very much into teasing lately, providing various kinds of peeks at the recently revealed Mercedes-AMG C63, the coming 2017 E-Class sedan, and the S-Class Cabriolet. We've seen the least of that latter car but it could be the one we know the most about. The sixth member of the S-Class family after the standard sedan, the long-wheelbase sedan, the Maybach models, the Pullman, and the coupes, this one puts a fabric top on that two-door model and then lets owners take it off. After the sketched rendering from two weeks ago, this latest photo from Mercedes shows us pretty much what we're going to get, and since we're huge fans of the coupe it looks like we'll be huge fans of this, too. It will certainly come heaped with techno gizmos like heated armrests, and a set of Burmester speakers in the tonneau cover. In case you're wondering, those screen-looking things behind the front seat headrests are fans for the Airscarf neck warming system. The press release below has a bit on the history and demise of four-seater Mercedes droptops, which helps remind us why we should care about the trim being resurrected 45 years later. Related Video: The new S-Class Cabriolet: A star returns Stuttgart, Aug 25, 2015 - Coveted dream car of the 1960s meets star of the 2015 International Motor Show in Frankfurt: the new Mercedes-Benz S-Class Cabriolet is following in the tradition of the open-top S-Class (model series 111 and 112) from the period 1961 to 1971. Unmistakeable, exclusive design, fine materials with maximum high-class appeal in the interior and state-of-the-art technology in the S-Class characterise the concept behind both cabriolets. "After 44 years we can again offer friends of our company an open variant of the S-Class. The new S-Class Cabriolet symbolises our passion for individual and timelessly exclusive mobility, which we share with our customers", remarks Ola Kallenius, Board Member of Daimler AG, Mercedes-Benz Cars Sales. With the new S-Class Cabriolet Mercedes-Benz is setting itself the standard of building the most comfortable cabriolet in the world. When it comes to climate comfort the enhanced automatic wind protection system AIRCAP, the AIRSCARF neck-level heating system, the heated armrests, the seat heating also in the rear plus the intelligent fully automatic climate control ensure that this is indeed the case.