Holiday Gift Idea: The 2021 Mercedes-Maybach GLS 600
Mercedes-Benz has been committed to building many of its vehicles in North America for some time, and has bestowed an important and ultra expensive new version of the GLS upon its plant in Alabama. At around $200,000, it will be the most expensive passenger vehicle produced in the United States. It’s an on-trend holiday gift for your spouse in The Current Year!
Mercedes is currently building its first mass-produced Maybach-branded SUV (that G-Wagen doesn’t count), and wants a supply on dealer lots for the holiday shopping season. A pinnacle trim on the GLS, it transforms the luxurious family SUV into an ultra-luxurious family SUV and supplements its Mercedes badges with Maybach ones. This is a key difference to the pure Maybach models of the early and mid-2000s, as those sedans were not considered Mercedes models, and did not wear any Mercedes badging. With this new Maybach trim, Mercedes is aiming a little lower while still aiming out of reach of most consumers. Think CEO instead of sheik.
The plant assigned to build the new GLS is Mercedes’ Vance, Alabama facility, which presently builds both versions of the GLE and the standard GLS. The Maybach GLS has technically been in production since September but experienced some delays to market earlier in the year as the plant shut down entirely due to COVID-19.
Base price on the GLS Maybach is $161,550, but the one you want with all the options ends up just shy of $200,000. As you’d expect, there’s special paint, an interior of heightened vulgarity, and more impracticality for which you will pay extra. Buyers can order the third row of seats removed, and have the space instead function as a partition between the second-row captain’s chairs and a reduced cargo area. Wheels and grilles with hundreds of spokes and a two-tone paint job are also present. A 4.0-liter biturbo engine is standard, which makes 550 horsepower and rockets the GLS to 60 in 4.8 seconds.
It’s speeding to your local Mercedes-Benz showroom in December, so plan your finance accordingly.
[Images: Mercedes-Benz]
Interested in lots of cars and their various historical contexts. Started writing articles for TTAC in late 2016, when my first posts were QOTDs. From there I started a few new series like Rare Rides, Buy/Drive/Burn, Abandoned History, and most recently Rare Rides Icons. Operating from a home base in Cincinnati, Ohio, a relative auto journalist dead zone. Many of my articles are prompted by something I'll see on social media that sparks my interest and causes me to research. Finding articles and information from the early days of the internet and beyond that covers the little details lost to time: trim packages, color and wheel choices, interior fabrics. Beyond those, I'm fascinated by automotive industry experiments, both failures and successes. Lately I've taken an interest in AI, and generating "what if" type images for car models long dead. Reincarnating a modern Toyota Paseo, Lincoln Mark IX, or Isuzu Trooper through a text prompt is fun. Fun to post them on Twitter too, and watch people overreact. To that end, the social media I use most is Twitter, @CoreyLewis86. I also contribute pieces for Forbes Wheels and Forbes Home.
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One can be assured that those who can afford one of these chariots gives not one damn what any of you under-asseted losers think about it. Of course, those who can afford a new Rolls Royce Ghost look down on this thing as the tinny cheap and vulgar crossover for the nouveau riche that it undubitably is.
If they don't offer that interior in magenta crushed velour fabric it would be such a shame.