When a $337,000 Rolls-Royce Dawn drop-top isn’t quite exclusive enough, I present to you the new, $320,000 Mercedes-Maybach S650 Cabriolet.
How exclusive? Well, just 300 will be built for worldwide consumption, with a mere 75 destined to find their way to our Land of the Free.
If it kinda looks familiar, what you’re seeing here is one very gussied-up Mercedes AMG S65 Cabriolet – list price around $250,000 – with enough bling to have made the late, great Liberace swoon.
Yes, it’s magnificent in a kitschy kinda way, especially in the retina-searing Zircon Red paintwork of the car we show here. Check out the Swarovski crystal headlights, those massive 20-inch saw-tooth forged alloys, the lashings of chromium stripping. And Maybach badges galore.
Bodily changes to warrant the Maybach differentiation are disappointingly few. Up front, there’s a new bumper with a lower section seemingly filled with black-painted chain-link fencing from a Hoboken junkyard. And that’s about it.
Thankfully, the interior has been reworked to part-justify the elevated sticker. The quilted, perforated and contrast-piped leather that adorns the front and rear seating is nothing less than spectacular. The wood veneer that flows around the dash and into the doors is a masterpiece in craftsmanship.
And just in case you, or your passengers forget what you’re driving, there are Maybach logos embossed in the seat backs, on the backs of the head restraints, on the steering wheel, on the rear a/c vent panel, on the polished door tread plates.
And, come nighttime, when you open one of the Merc’s massive barn doors, naturally a Maybach logo is projected onto the floor beneath.
Does the word ‘overkill’ come to mind?
Pop the trunk and there, like gifts on Christmas morning, is a set of exquisite, exclusive leather travel luggage crafted from the same leather as your Maybach’s interior. The set comprises a couple of large travel bags and two ‘lifestyle – as in gym – bags. You also get a key ring made of the same fancy nappa leather.
Other high-zoot baubles include a car cover made of high-end diamond-quilted fabric that matches the color of your car’s soft-top, adorned, naturally, with the all-important Maybach emblem.
Mechanically, the Maybach S650 utilizes all the weaponry of its AMG S65 sibling. That means it features the same AMG-tuned 6.0-liter twin-turbo V12 that cranks out 621 horseys and an insane 738 lb-ft of torque.
Pedal to the metal – if you feel so inclined – and 60mph will appear from standstill in just 4.0 seconds. Top speed? A hair-raising, literally, 155mph.
Mercedes makes a big deal over the fact that this Maybach drop-top will only be offered in three color treatments – Zircon Red with a porcelain/black interior, Cote d’Azur Blue with porcelain/saddle and, my favorite, the very nautical Diamond White with porcelain/yacht blue.
My question, however, is that if you are handing over a non-trivial $330-grand, wouldn’t you expect to be able to pick any color combination you wanted? What happened to the word ‘bespoke’ here?
Which is probably why I’d opt for the majestic new Rolls-Royce Dawn any day of the week and take my pick from 44,000 paint colors.
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