Auf Wiedersehen: Daimler to Pull the Plug on Maybach Brand

During the past decade or so, many carmakers have looked into their past to shape their future: the BMW Group's new Mini, the Fiat Group's 500 and the Volkswagen Group's Beetle are among the most well-known examples. But as Mercedes-Benz found out the hard way, not all second comings prove successful.

And now, only a decade after resuscitating Maybach, Daimler is ready to accept defeat and stop producing the $350,000 luxury limousine when the next generation of the Mercedes-Benz S-Class hits the market in 2013.

“It would not make sense to develop a successor model”, Daimler Dieter Zetsche said in an interview with German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. “The coming S-Class is in such a way a superior vehicle that it can replace the Maybach.”

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SPIED: Big Daddy 2014 Mercedes-Benz S-Class Draws Closer

Once almost a lone player in the luxury segment, Mercedes-Benz and its S-Class have been challenged directly over the past years by numerous rivals ranging from the Lexus LS and the Audi A8 to the rejuvenated Jaguar XJ and even the Porsche Panamera.

But the Stuttgart-based automaker is holding on and is now readying a new and improved successor to its S-Class limousine that will also be known under its internal codename, W222.

Scheduled to arrive in the market in the 2013 calendar year, the W222 is based on a new platform architecture and will be offered in both short- and long-wheebase derivatives as well as with the choice of rear- or all-wheel drive.

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