Maybach (Daimler, 2002-2013)
From Invertopedia, the encyclopedia of how things fail
Maybach was a super-luxury car brand that Daimler revived in 2002, after the name had not been on a production car since 1940[2]. Daimler hoped to sell 1,000 cars a year, but annual sales slumped to about 200[2]. In November 2011 Daimler said it would not be sensible to develop a successor model, and the brand was shut down after what Fortune called almost a decade of losses[1][2].
What happened
| Late 1990s | Mercedes passes when Rolls-Royce and Bentley come up for sale.[1] |
|---|---|
| 2002 | Maybach launches with a goal of 1,000 cars a year.[1][2] |
| Nov 2011 | Daimler says it is shutting down the Maybach brand.[1] |
The kill shot
Daimler wanted a Rolls-Royce rival without a Rolls-Royce past, so it borrowed an old engineer's name and an aging S-Class chassis, then charged up to $1.4 million. The wealthy did not buy it.
Fortune said Mercedes took an aging S-class chassis and put an elongated body on it; prices from $350,000 to $1.4 million[1]. Reuters reported the brand enjoyed no strong standing among the discriminating wealthy[2]. Daimler had even stopped publishing monthly Maybach sales figures[2].
The inversion
A name you revive is not a history you own. If buyers pay for pedigree, price the product for what it is until the pedigree exists.
What survived
Daimler later sold Maybach models based on the Mercedes S-Class, and in 2019 it sold a record 12,000 of them, with China the most popular market[3].
References
- ^ “Mercedes puts Maybach out of its misery”. Fortune / CNN Money, Nov 28, 2011. Prices, the stretched S-Class chassis, the Rolls-Royce and Bentley backstory, closure.
- ^ “Daimler pulls plug on loss-making Maybach - report”. Reuters, Nov 25, 2011. Sales goal and slump, 1940 production gap, industry view, S-Class replacement.
- ^ “Luxury carmaker Maybach has high ambitions for China”. BBC News, Nov 20, 2020. Maybach's later life as a Mercedes trim.