Well guys, seems the recession is only going to affect us normal folk, as Mercedes Benz owned luxury car maker Maybach, have just announced new versions of both the 57 and 62 limousines, aimed firmly at the super rich.
Not sure what these look like? Well if you’ve ever seen Dragon’s Den, or perhaps ‘X’ Factor, Simon Cowell and Theo Paphitis both have Maybach’s and other mega rich owners include, Bernie Ecclestone, Theirry Henry and Madonna, to name but a few.
Before you rush to get your cheque book out so that you can rub shoulders with other Maybach owners, you should know that you will need a fairly healthy bank account, as prices in Germany start at £365,000 for the 57 and £425,000 for the 62 (notice they say ‘start at’).
This is all a bit silly really, but the new Maybach Zeppelin models will get a tweaked 6.0-litre twin-turbo V12, developing 631bhp, which is 28bhp more than the standard car, so clearly there will be a one-upmanship thing going on here if you own the up-rated car and get down to comparing numbers with some other rich fat cat.
Other changes include new aerodynamic wing mirrors, lambskin carpets, diamond-quilted cushions and a partition screen, so you don’t have to socialise with the chauffeur. Oh and by the way, the Champagne flutes that come with the new car will be Zeppelin-inscribed. Can’t believe there are options, well there are and one of them is a perfume atomiser (like you get on a Citroen C4), which owners can fill with their favourite fragrance and dispense at the push of a button. That little option is £3500.
If you are like me, you might think that level of decadence is disgusting, but it gets even more so when you look at how this thing depreciates. CAP Motor Research publishes figures to indicate the values of used cars and this is going to shock you!
Suppose you are fed up with your Maybach 62 and decide to sell it at 12 months old, having done 20,000 miles in that first year. Well 12 months ago, it would have cost you £344,770 when you purchased it new but today, the CAP trade auction value for the car is shown at £143,600 and if you sell it this way, that means in just 12 months, you’ve lost an amazing and obscene £201,170, and that works out to £16,764 a month, or £551 a day, or £22.96 for every hour of every day, 365 days a year.
OK, if you are loaded and don’t have any social conscience, well maybe this car is for you but in a difficult world where many awful things are happening, which could be put right or avoided for just a few quid and that peoples lives really could be changed, its unbelievable to think however rich you are that such selfishness exists by spending such a ludicrous amount of money on a product that no one can justify.
So will you be impressed as the fat cat in the Maybach goes past, I think not, as it’s as crass and outmoded as the ‘shell suit’. At least, however the ‘shell suit’ hides your modesty and keeps you warm and only costs about fifteen quid and whilst you think you look stylish wearing it, we all know better and we can have a good laugh at you, but then, maybe the Maybach owner isn’t that different and maybe we should be having a good laugh at him, for although he’s probably not wearing a ‘shell suit’, he has just as little style and looks just as un-cool, but unlike the guy in the ‘shell suit’, he’s spending a kings ransom to do it.
Still if none of that bothers you, well the cars are available in the UK in March 09 and you can already get the complimentary shell suit from most Sunday markets.
