Rich line up for the Maybach

MAYBACH engines powered the huge Zeppelin airships that once prowled over London but now DaimlerChrysler is scouring the West End for a new sales centre for its Maybach limousine, writes David Thomas.

The carmaker has already taken around pounds 1.5 million in deposits from customers for the luxury giant that goes on sale in Britain next spring.

Positioned as a standalone brand with no obvious links with Mercedes-Benz, Maybach will be marketed and sold in Britain through a London-based team of "personal liaison managers".

Aimed at buyers of the Bentley Continental and Rolls-Royce cars, Maybach production at the plant in Stuttgart will be around 1,000 a year.

Priced at pounds 200,000 for the standard model and pounds 250,000 for the long-wheelbase version, the 5.5-litre Maybach is aimed at "ultrahigh net worth individuals", who are likely already to be Mercedes customers.

"Our research shows that there are some 8,500 such individuals around the world who fall into this category," said Mercedes spokesman Rob Halloway.

"And their numbers are expected to grow over the next few years."

The last Maybach car was the DS8 Zeppelin, built in the 1930s by Carl Maybach and named in honour of the famous airships, powered by engines made by his father, Willhelm Maybach, an engineer who worked on the first-ever Daimler-Benz car in 1901.

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