Mercedes is developing a new range-topping model - report

As long as it's design is completely different from a normal Mercedes, it's all good.

what could top an S CLASS though

make a CL or (new to-be-released) SL based coupe with a Maybach badge and price it around the ?150k mark. it'll sell the Xenatec is a gorgeous thing (far more desirable than the Limousine imho) but at that price? especially with the old school technology. you'd be better off in a CL63 anyway.

A Bentley rivaling Merc is a stupid idea... its a long established institution that Merc competes with BMW, Audi, Jaguar etc. Bentley is in a different league, not necessarily for any tangible reason, but the brand image is much more exclusive. An 'entry' level Maybach is what MB needs to compete with the Flying Spur. They'll need to ditch most MB styling cues though... no one wants to pay double (or more) for a MB lookalike, as evidenced by the Maybach 57/62 abysmal sales.

There's more to just building a car when you are competing in that range. for one, these owners would not want their car to be serviced alongside lowly B or C class, and would want white glove service in delivery and service. That's not happening in your average dealership. Perhaps in some customized AMG / Maybach service centres.

The S-Class is THE S-Class. There should NOT be EVER another saloon model wearing the three-pointed star that is above the S-Class. That would be like saying all of a sudden there is someone higher up in the hierarchy in heaven than God. But what this article seems to be wanting to say is that they want to make a "four door coupe" based on the S-Class...so they can charge people more for something wearing a sexier skin...but based on the same mechanicals of the S-Class. What would you call it? CLS is already taken. SLS is already taken. S-Class Coupe? They did call the C-Clas hatchback a coupe...so we already know Mercedes has a very liberal definition of what a coupe is.

Months ago Georg Kacher suggested that this would be one of the many iterations of the forthcoming S Class (222). Now this is supposed to be some type of different line altogether? Dubious marketing sense knocking down the S from the top of the Mercedes heap. Unless Maybach is being rolled back into the Mercedes Brand, and this is the first of the Mercedes Maybachs