Mercedes-Maybach Pullman S600 limousine to debut at Geneva auto show

EXCLUSIVE NEW LIMOUSINE TO DEBUT ON THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF PULLMAN MODEL

   Mercedes-Benz has unveiled the first images of the 2016 Mercedes-Maybach Pullman S600 limousine prior to its debut at the Geneva motor show next month. The four-door, six-seat model has been in development for the last year and a half, and like its immediate predecessors it will offer 2+2+2 seating complete with a middle row of rear-facing seats.

    Positioned above the Mercedes-Maybach S600, the Pullman will be powered by the 6.0-liter V12 found in the S600 -- good for 523 hp and 612 lb-ft of torque. Like its predecessors, the Pullman will be offered in unarmored and armored form, with the heavier version expected to provide VR9-level ballistic protection, as on the factory S600 Guard model. The unarmored version should start at around $567,000, or half a million Euros, while the armored version is likely to start at around $1 million, as with previous-generation Pullmans.

    "Quite apart from providing stately and stylish seating for high-ranking passengers in the comfort and spaciousness for which it is famed, the new Mercedes-Maybach Pullman is of course the embodiment of exclusivity at its highest level," said Ola Källenius, member of the Daimler AG Management Board responsible for sales and marketing of Mercedes-Benz cars. "One can sense the significance and greatness of it in every detail."

PHOTO BY MERCEDES-BENZ

    Perhaps the biggest surprise is that the new Pullman will use an architecture similar to that which debuted on the Mercedes-Maybach S600, including a re-engineered rear section with redesigned rear doors. Previous versions from the W140 generation through the W221 generation of the Pullman, which this model is replacing, used rear doors and frames borrowed from the long-wheelbase S-class models with an inserted middle-row section from the B-pillar backwards.

   The new Mercedes-Maybach Pullman S600 will be 21.3 feet long, which will make it 3.5 feet longer than the Mercedes-Maybach S600 that made its stateside debut at the Los Angeles Auto Show last December. The new limousine will also be 3.9 inches taller than the standard S-class, for extra headroom.

   When it comes to the interior, no expense will be spared and the forward-facing row of rear seats with integrated calf cushions will be able to recline by 43.5 degrees. Leather will cover just about every surface of the interior, and the Pullman will also have a powered partition window separating the passenger compartment from the driver. The partition window will be able to turn opaque at the press of a button, while a Burmester 3-D surround-sound system will provide the soundtrack.

PHOTO BY MERCEDES-BENZ

    Even though the Pullman traces its history back to the 1965 model, the limousine took a hiatus after the original car went out of production in 1980. A new model based on the W140 S-class debuted in 1994 and has been offered in the S-class range ever since. In addition to the Pullman, other coachbuilders and armorers like Trasco, Carat Duchatelet, Caro, Rijck, Brabus, Binz and Cloer have offered their own stretched version of the S-class, though none that were exact analogues of the Pullman. Brabus has been offering short S-class-based stretched limousines since the 1990s, dubbed Brabus Business Sedans, that have offered a wide range of luxury and infotainment amenities. Brabus recently debuted the Brabus Business Lounge, a Mercedes-Benz Sprinter-based private jet on wheels that starts at around $350,000.

    Deliveries of the 2016 Mercedes-Maybach Pullman S600 will begin in early 2016.