Mercedes-Benz has confirmed the end of the Maybach brand.
Mercedes-Benz USA made the announcement with the publication of their updated pricing list, which noted the discontinuation of all Maybach models.
Mercedes has decided to cease production of the ultra-luxury Maybach series in 2013. The Maybach, which was widely derided as a pretentiously overpriced S Class with pricing in the $300,000 area, fared badly in comparison to established luxury brands like Rolls-Royce and Bentley.
Initial retirement rumblings surfaced last year, and at that point, auto fans knew it was game over.
It was a weird twist in marketing, then, that the Maybach was only selling a few hundred vehicles a year despite all the free attention and material adulation.
There were many rap songs, rap names, rap labels, and rap videos devoted to this car, but in the end, it was only a beautiful ideal rather than a realistic goal.
Who knows? Maybe the spotlight was really hurting the company's reputation.
This is a taboo subject, and with good reason: race relations in the United States are very fraught.
But more "refined" consumers tend to avoid rap, and hip-hop wasn't exactly raised in the affluent suburbs.
Maybach Music is the ultimate appropriation of upper-crust elegance since rap's long-lasting embrace of its street origins.
And maybe it was too much for the privileged, image-conscious.01 percent, who stayed with the Rolls Royce.
Maybe there's more cause to rejoice about the demise of this brand than just its ostentatious excess.
Maybach, like many other traditional German firms, was a crucial supplier to the Nazi state during World War II, especially in the production of tank engines.
In the end, the Allies attacked the main factory as part of a larger operation against the Nazis' industrial infrastructure.