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News of June 26, 2002

Maybach - A new star is born

Photos: DC

From Sindelfingen via Southampton to the world premiere in New York

• Voyage aboard the luxury liner "Queen Elizabeth 2"
• High-end luxury with ground-breaking Mercedes technology
• Some 330 staff work in the Maybach Manufaktur at the Sindelfingen plant
• Hand-crafted for top quality and perfection
  .

Sindelfingen - The countdown to the world premiere of the new Maybach has begun: the very first of the exclusive high-end luxury Saloons leaves the Maybach Manufaktur at the DaimlerChrysler plant today. The roll-out of this prestige vehicle marks the start of an eight-day journey which will take it first to the English port of Southampton and then on to North America aboard the luxury liner Queen Elizabeth 2.

As the United States will be the biggest market for this exceptional vehicle, it is only fitting that New York should have been chosen as the location for the world premiere of the Maybach 62 on the morning of July 2, 2002. During the Atlantic crossing, the high-end luxury Saloon will be protected by a special glass container on the sun deck of the Queen Elizabeth 2, one of the world's most luxurious cruise ships and currently the only great ocean liner in regular service between Europe and America. This voyage recalls the golden era of the original Maybachs in the 1920s and 30s when fashionable society would travel to the US in style aboard the QE2's predecessors.

After an absence of more than 60 years, the luxury car brand is returning to continue the tradition established by the legendary Maybach models of the past. Together with Mercedes-Benz, Maybach was regarded as representing the elite of German vehicle manufacturing from 1921 to 1941. The years ahead are set to see a return to this status quo.

The time-honoured name "Maybach" is returning as a separate brand in its own right within the DaimlerChrysler Group. The new high-end luxury Saloon being presented by the Stuttgart-based auto maker is distinguished by its exceptional spaciousness, supreme quality and exclusive style. In the field of technology, the Maybach benefits from the ground-breaking innovations developed by its sister brand, Mercedes-Benz, which has been setting world-class standards for safety, comfort, reliability and durability for years. Technological tours de force from Mercedes, such as the high-performance electrohydraulic brake system Sensotronic Brake Control (SBC™) or the electronically controlled AIRMATIC DC (Dual Control) air suspension have undergone further development for the Maybach and are included as standard equipment. An exceptionally smooth twelve-cylinder power plant which has an output of 405 kW/550 hp and maximum torque of 900 Newton me-tres is at work under the bonnet of the new Maybach. This newly developed unit, which offers more power and torque than any other series-production saloon engine in the world, has everything it takes to deliver superior driving performance.

New Center of Excellence at the heart of the luxury car brand

DaimlerChrysler is currently setting up the Centre of Excellence (COE) at the Sindelfingen site in the immediate vicinity of the Maybach Manufaktur facility. This will in future be at the heart of the luxury car brand and is where Maybach customers will be offered comprehensive help and advice. Further Maybach Centres are to be established in Europe, Japan, Hong Kong and the United States. Here, customers can meet with their Personal Liaison Manager (PLM), who will be on hand at all times to assist them with any questions they may have about the car. The Maybach approach to customer care services is therefore also entirely new.

The styling and appointments of every Maybach Saloon are the result of intensive discussions held between the customer, the customer's Personal Liaison Manager and the designers and engineers of the high-end luxury brand. Each and every vehicle is therefore built practically as a one-off on the basis of specific customer requirements.

High technology meets traditional craftsmanship in the Maybach Manufaktur

Set up by DaimlerChrysler at its Sindelfingen plant, the Maybach Manufaktur covers an area of 21,000 square metres and has a workforce of some 330 highly skilled staff who are responsible for building the exclusive cars. With their knowhow and expertise they ensure that the Maybach Saloons are the epitome of perfection in every respect and that even the most exacting customer requirements can be turned into reality. From autumn 2002, an average of five Maybach Saloons will leave the state-of-the-art Manufaktur every day.

Production of this luxury car is characterised by a marriage of high technology and traditional craftsmanship which creates ideal conditions for attaining the highest levels of precision and perfection. This new prestige car therefore represents a continuation of the tradition established by the Maybach vehicles of the twenties and thirties whose bodies were also hand-built with the greatest care. High technology plays a particularly dominant role at the bodyshell stage, notable examples being the use of lasers to weld the aluminium doors, an automatic "roll-hemming" system and state-of-the-art industrial robots which weld the 600 or so bodywork bolts. These processes, which have not been used in the car production sector before, have been specially developed for the Maybach Manufaktur.

The vehicle assembly process is divided between 21 build stations, each of which is staffed by a team of two to four employees operating as a self-managed work group.

Luxury-car "Manufaktur" situated at DaimlerChrysler's biggest plant

The Maybach Manufaktur is integrated in the Mercedes plant at Sindelfingen, from whose infrastructure it benefits. With a total workforce of more than 32,000 and covering an area of some two square kilometres, the plant - which was established in 1915 - is the largest facility in the DaimlerChrysler Group. The auto maker produces about half a million passenger cars belonging to the Mercedes C-Class, E-Class, S-Class and CL-Class model series here each year. The plant has close ties with the Mercedes-Benz Technology Centre which is staffed by over 8000 designers and engineers who create and develop tomorrow's Mercedes vehicles.

World premiere of the high-end luxury car on July 2, 2002 in New York

Carried by a truck which has been specially developed for Maybach deliveries, the first Maybach leaves the Manufaktur in Sindelfingen on June 24, 2002 for Southampton on the south coast of England where it joins the passengers and crew of the Queen Elizabeth 2 on June 26, 2002. With the Maybach on its sun deck, the luxury liner sails for New York at 5 p.m. (local time) the same day.

The Queen Elizabeth 2 is scheduled to enter the Hudson River on the morning of July 2, 2002 and will dock at one of the Manhattan piers at about 6 a.m. (local time). Shortly thereafter, Jürgen Hubbert, the DaimlerChrysler Board Member responsible for Mercedes-Benz, smart and Maybach will present the high-end luxury Saloon to the world for the first time.

(June 24, 2002)

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