MAYBACH 62

Nicholas Rufford

You know the credit crunch? It’s not happening in Maybachland. In the first four months of this year, sales of the luxury limousine exceeded those for the whole of last year. (Mercedes, which makes the car, refuses to say how many it sells because it wants each customer to feel as though they own a limited edition).

We shouldn’t be surprised by this. Some of history’s most luxurious cars were custom-made in Depression-hit America. In the 1930s, William Randolph Hearst and Howard Hughes drove creations made by Duesenberg, upholstered with ostrich leather and inlayed with rainforest amber.

Likewise, the most popular trim in the range-topping Maybach Landaulet is ivory with gold fittings. It’s really a land yacht – a Sunseeker on wheels. The retractable roof folds back only above the passenger compartment so the chauffeur is never on show, like the man below in the engine room.

If you are a journalist trying to borrow a Landaulet, the Maybach people will say in a slightly amused way: “We don’t have any in Europe. Most of our customers are in Asia or the Middle East.” What they can supply is the car in the picture – a Maybach 62. At £300,000 it’s half the price of the Landaulet but still lavish. Its name denotes its length – 6.2m (20ft 3in) – which is more than two Smart cars and its turning circle is as wide as both sides of a dual carriageway.

My car came with Colin, who wore a grey chauffeur’s uniform and cap. “Drive on, Colin,” I said at one point. “Yes, m’lady,” he replied without the ghost of a smile. He explained that chauffeurs never laugh – it’s undignified. If their client cracks a joke they reply: “Too right, sir,” or “Madam, you’re absolutely right.”

Inside the rear cabin of the Maybach are a fridge and mini silver champagne goblets, and – something that the Phantom doesn’t have – buttons for heating or cooling your seat or massaging your buttocks. It also features an SOS button in case you find yourself in distress, and a matching Maybach mobile phone with which you can call a 24-hour concierge service.

“Each customer has a personal liaison manager who is like the ultimate PA,” says Zak Tyler, Maybach’s sales manager in the UK. “If you need to organise a private jet or book a restaurant or theatre tickets, your manager is always on hand. Mariah Carey was recently in Britain promoting her new album. She has a Maybach 62 in the United States so we loaned her a car to use here. We look after our clients as if they were our family.”

The Maybach is distinctive in another respect – most customers never drive it. If you phone to arrange for a test drive, Mercedes will check your credentials, then send a car round with a chauffeur, on the assumption you won’t be getting behind the wheel yourself.

Felix Dennis, the publishing tycoon, is regarded as the classic Maybach customer. “I don’t drive,” he says, “and I don’t intend to.” For the record, Dennis has never killed anyone by pushing them off a cliff, as he indicated in a recent interview, then retracted, and he certainly hasn’t stuffed any dead bodies into the capacious boot of his Maybach (or into the boot of his Phantom – he has both). Our lawyers asked me to point out that to suggest such a thing would be absurd.

So is buying a car with a V12, 550bhp twin-turbo engine that you will never drive. It may weigh nearly three tons but the Maybach is remarkably agile. On the Bedford Autodrome racetrack (go to www.timesonline.co.uk/hotlaps for a glimpse) it performs a little bit like that television commercial that showed an overweight man – actually a gymnast in a fat suit – doing back flips. Hoof the throttle and the Maybach will sprint to 60mph in 5.4sec, faster than a Porsche Boxster 2.7. It stops surging ahead when it reaches 155mph only because of an automatic speed limiter, and I don’t mean Colin. It’s programmed into the engine management unit.

The marketing spiel insists the new Maybach preserves the spirit of the original – a luxury marque in the first half of the last century. But I’m afraid that’s a little bit like saying Burberry check is the choice of the English country set. It may have been once, but you and I know it isn’t now.

The truth is, the Maybach is new money. It doesn’t contain an ounce of heritage (unlike the Rolls which, with the BMW Mini, is a successful fusion of British design flair and German attention to detail; designed by Brits, refined by Fritz). In every other respect, though, the Maybach is the superior car and exposes the Phantom for what it is, a rather prim and stately slowcoach.

ROLLS-ROYCE PHANTOM

Jason Dawe

The enormous radiator and narrow headlamps of the Phantom look almost cartoon-like. Then there is the car’s sheer size. At 19ft long, the Phantom is 4ft longer than a Volvo estate and one of the most imposing vehicles on the road. The mere sight of the Phantom in other drivers’ rear-view mirrors turns them to jelly.

This reaction is produced not just by the thought of a 2½ton vehicle bearing down on them, but also by the Rolls’s surprising swiftness. Yes, the Phantom has a fair turn of speed and unlike Nicholas Rufford’s “new money” Maybach it employs nothing so crude as turbochargers to boost power. Instead, Rolls-Royce sticks with the tested method of installing a massive engine – 6Ç litres.

Unlike previous Rolls-Royces, however, this Phantom has V12 power rather than a burbling V8. The effect is turbine-smoothness, ample power and a discreet exhaust note. Prodding the throttle sees the Phantom gather speed rapidly. Aerodynamics limit it to 149mph, which some oligarchs may find unacceptable if a Maybach burns past them on the autobahn, but for British roads it’s more than sufficient.

The Phantom provides no rev counter, no doubt considering that to gaze at such an instrument would seem vulgar. Instead it informs the driver of the percentage of power being used and therefore how much is left in reserve, a novel touch but one that I could find no useful application for.

Sitting up front I absolutely loved this car. The heavy chrome vents, green art-deco-style interior lights and sheepskin mats induced an enormous sense of wellbeing.

Then I discovered the sat nav. Housed behind the wonderful cream-faced analogue clock, it appeared to lack the anticipated touchscreen functions. Closer inspection revealed that the Phantom was endowed with a BMW iDrive. Either I am the most technically inept person on the planet or I am speaking for the silent majority when I confess that I find iDrive ineffective, complicated and frustrating.

None of this matters on a racetrack. There is only one direction to drive in and that is straight ahead. At full throttle. When you push the pedal deep into the carpet you expect the Rolls to act affronted that you should demand it do something as indelicate as a racing start. But it is not so graceless. Instead it simply propels you effortlessly forward, although I was disappointed it didn’t go so far as to do a wheelspin. Tearing around the corners in such a large car is a surreal experience, and it was clear this was not territory that it felt comfortable in.

So what about being chauffeured? Rolls-Royce does not like the term “suicide doors”, for obvious reasons, so the rear doors are described as “rear-hinged coach doors”. By whatever name, they make entry and exit easy, and once inside, you press an auto close button.

Things get a little disappointing from here. Rear headroom is at best adequate; if you are much over 6ft it is decidedly tight. It’s the same with the seatback tables. Folded down, they catch your knees and would be virtually impossible to work on with a laptop. Admittedly this is the standard wheelbase Phantom and not the extended wheelbase version that is a truer competitor to the Maybach 62. But at £269,500 you have every right to expect a rear seat that works as well as the one in a Renault Mégane Scénic.

And at the risk of sounding churlish I felt a little let down by the in-car entertainment, which used “multitask rotary controller” and required the body of a contortionist to access the underseat DVD loading mechanism. Such shortcomings would be acceptable in a car costing less or having been designed in an age when such technologies were not anticipated. In a car as freshly conceived as the Phantom these are careless. Build quality is not as good as an Audi A8 or a VW Phaeton and owners would have every right to feel a little short-changed.

But get behind the wheel, gaze down that gorgeous bonnet, wriggle your bottom into those soft leather seats and whether you are cruising at 100mph or sitting in traffic you just know you are in control of the world’s most desirable luxury car.

Vital statistics

Model Maybach 62
Engine 5513cc, 12 cylinders, twin turbo
Power 550bhp
Transmission Five-speed auto
Fuel consumption 17.8mpg (combined)
Acceleration 0-60mph: 5.4sec
Top Speed 155mph (limited)
CO2 emissions 383g/km
Road tax band G (£400 for 12 months)
Price £303,180
Rating
Verdict Quick, comfy, but Burberry check

Model Rolls-Royce Phantom
Engine 6749cc, 12 cylinders
Power453bhp
Transmission Six-speed auto
Fuel consumption 18mpg (combined)
Acceleration 0-60mph: 6sec
Top Speed149mph
CO2 emissions377g/km
Road tax band G (£400 for 12 months)
Price£269,500
Rating
Verdict Beautifully retro but poorly finished

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