The Maybach name is a foundational part of automotive history. It was, after all, Wilhelm Maybach, along with Gottlieb Daimler, who created the world's very first motorcar in 1886, the Daimler Motorkutsche, a stagecoach with a 1.5hp grandfather clock engine. From these unpromising beginnings, Wilhelm went on to help develop the Mercedes name into the symbol of elegance and quality it is today. His son Karl meanwhile, who'd inherited his father's engineering genius, wanted to go further, forming the Maybach brand in 1909. It specialised in sensationally luxurious automobiles, each one plusher and more powerful than the last, the series culminating in the 7.0-litre V12 Type 12 of 1929. World War II distracted the company into munitions work for Hitler's Germany after which, for six decades, the Maybach name lay in mothballs.
By the turn of the century though, the famous double-M badge had returned - and in appropriate pomp. Stung by BMW's purchase of Rolls Royce and the Volkswagen Group's takeover of Bentley, the Daimler Benz board felt that they too should be represented in the ultimate sphere of automotive manufacture - that of luxury limousines. And rather than buying a brand, they resurrected their own, the Maybach name synonymous with Mercedes from the very beginning. Bespoke '57' and '62' series limousines were launched but weren't popular and the brand was discontinued in 2011. For the 21st century's third decade though, the name was resurrected once again - as 'Mercedes-Maybach', a badge first applied to an ultimate version of the S-Class saloon and then to the car we look at here, an exotic version of the GLS large SUV.