For even more bling, you also get Maybach badging on the lower air intakes on the front bumper, additional chrome on the lower edge all around the body, and rose-gold accents within the headlight clusters.
Step inside the Maybach GLS (aided by electric running boards that deploy in less than a second) and you’re met with wall-to-wall white Nappa leather that’ll have you wondering if you’re inside a giant Birkin handbag. Naturally, as with the exterior, you can opt for various colours inside courtesy of Mercedes’ Manufaktur personalisation programme.
You also get the same upgrades as in the facelifted GLS, such as Merc’s latest MBUX user interface accessed through three 12.3-inch displays, but it’s the luxurious extras that help set the Maybach apart. These include the optional ‘Executive Seat’ recliners in the back, which turn the vast 5.2-metre-long GLS into a mere four-seater, but also feature new massage functions and even the ability to massage your calves.
The standard GLS’s 390bhp mild-hybrid diesel engine probably wouldn’t cut it for most Maybach buyers, so there’s the same 600bhp 4.0-litre twin-turbocharged V8 as in the old Mercedes-AMG GLS 63. Here, it gets a new mild-hybrid system that, it’s claimed, “fills every gap in the power delivery with seamless, instantaneous precision, enabling coasting, recuperation and an almost imperceptible start-stop function”. Even with the Maybach expected to weigh more than the Mercedes, the GLS 680 should still sprint from 0-62mph in around 4.5 seconds.
Considering that the most expensive version of the Mercedes GLS (the GLS 450 d Exclusive Premium Plus) costs a fiver under £105,000, we can presume the Maybach will sit closer to the £150,000 mark if it does make its way to the UK.
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