V240

Every one of the 437 mm that separated it from the W240 Maybach 57 was spent behind the B-pillar. On a 3,827 mm wheelbase, the rear compartment carried seats that reclined almost flat, a switchable electro-transparent panoramic roof, four-zone climate control, folding tables, a refrigerator, a 21-speaker Bose system and a second set of instruments repeated in the roof liner so that the passenger never had to ask how fast or how far. An electrically opaque partition and a B4 armoured Guard package were both on the options list. Where the 57 was a car an owner might drive, the 62 assumed a chauffeur.

The 62 arrived with the 5.5-litre twin-turbo M285; the 62 S of 2006 brought the AMG-built 6.0-litre version with 612 PS and 1,000 N·m, and the 2010 facelift lifted that to 630 PS. Around it grew the most extravagant cars of the revived marque — the 22 open-topped 62 S Landaulets, and the Zeppelin package with its 640 PS engine and silver champagne flutes. It was never a volume business: 1,550 of the 3,321 Maybachs built were 62s. The last series-line Maybach left Sindelfingen on 17 December 2012, while the Public Archive records final 240.177 production through February 2013.