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Maybach Coupe Teased by Mercedes-Benz | Autoblog Minute

It looks like a new two-door Maybach is on it?s way. Mercedes teased the internet this week with a Facebook post featuring a picture of a red two-door coupe. Maybach Mercedes-Benz Autoblog Minute Videos Original Video autos

Why we can't have better headlights here in the U.S.

It wouldn't be a European auto show if we weren't teased with at least one mainstream vehicle we can't have here. At the Geneva Motor Show last week, the small but vocal contingent of shooting-brake buffs lamented that the Mazda6 wagon won't be coming to our shores, although they can take comfort in the fact that the vehicle won't get the torquey 250-horsepower 2.5-liter turbocharged gasoline engine we'll get here. Mercedes-Benz also announced a new headlight technology in Geneva that likely won't be available here anytime soon. It's just the latest in a long line of innovative and potentially lifesaving front-lighting solutions that the federal government doesn't allow in this country due to outdated standards — and a current lack of leadership at the U.S. Department of Transportation. Mercedes-Benz's new Digital Light system that debuted in Geneva uses a computer chip to activate more than a million micro-reflectors to better illuminate the road ahead. The Digital Light headlamps works with the vehicle's cameras, sensors and navigation mapping to adjust lighting for the given location and situation and to detect other road users. The Digital Light technology also serves as an extended head-up display of sorts by projecting symbols on the pavement ahead to alert drivers to, say, slippery conditions or pedestrians in the road. And it can even project lines on the road in a construction zone or through tight curves to show the driver the correct path. Digital Light will be available on Mercedes-Maybach vehicles later this year, although like any technology it's bound to trickle down to less expensive vehicles. That is, if we ever get it here in the U.S. Audi, a leader in automotive lighting, has repeatedly run into snags trying to bring state-of-the-art car headlights to the U.S. The German luxury automaker's recently introduced matrix laser headlight system, which performs many of the same trick as Mercedes-Benz's Digital Light, also isn't legal on U.S. roads. And five years after the introduction of its matrix-beam LED lighting, which illuminates more of the road without blinding oncoming motorists with brights by simultaneously operating high and low beams, Audi still can't bring that technology to the U.S. either.

Maybach name to be resurrected for long-wheelbase S-Class

Maybach was an audacious idea - a Mercedes-Benz that could truly do battle against Rolls-Royce - that ended up being a catastrophe, thanks to lackluster sales. After a 10-year stretch that was punctuated by nothing more exciting than the stillborn Exelero and Jay-Z and Kanye West attacking one with a blowtorch, we thought Mercedes was done with the resurrected brand.
Instead, rumors crept out back in October that Mercedes would once again revive Maybach for its top-of-the-line, long-wheelbase S-Class. Now, it looks like the next Maybach will arrive by the end of 2014, according to a report from AutoWeek. Situated above the current top-of-the-line S-Class, the S600, AW reports that it will do battle with the likes of the Bentley Mulsanne, Rolls-Royce Ghost and Land Rover Range Rover Autobiography Black LWB and will be priced at $250,000 to $300,000.
We reached out to Mercedes about this, and while there was no official comment, there also wasn't anything resembling a denial. That, along with the aforementioned past reports, makes it seem fairly likely that we could be seeing the Maybach badge back on the road before too long. To us, though, the return of Maybach seems like a rather poor choice. Considering the brand's limited success and Mercedes' long history of limos (Pullman or Grosser anyone?), we can't say we'd agree with this call.