When Mercedes-Benz announced the termination of its superluxury Maybach brand, Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche said succinctly, “It would not be sensible to develop a successor model for the current Maybach.”

Now we know why. After a seven year stint of Maybach production, the marque has only sold approximately 3,000 units. What’s more, CAR had calculated that Daimler lost an unfathomable $500,000 for each Maybach sold.

With an initial investment of $1.3 billion, Daimler created Maybach to challenge Rolls Royce for hyper-luxury supremacy. However, while Rolls Royce enjoyed record success in China, Maybach had only sold around 200 vehicles in 2011. While the absence of Maybach will be dearly missed by rappers and drug cartels alike, Mercedes-Benz had announced the revival of its Pullman limo by 2013, which should fill the void perfectly.

GALLERY: Maybach

[Source: CAR Magazine]

The Mercedes-Benz G-Class is a funky, but rugged luxury SUV from the German automaker, and it appears that it’ll be in production until at least the year 2020.

Mercedes-Benz’s parent company Daimler has come to an agreement with Magna Steyr to extend the production of its G-Wagen in Graz, Austria and was able to get more favorable conditions along with a better price from Magna. Daimler went so far as to threaten Magna that the company would move production of the G-Class to Hungary but it appears that Magna conceded to Daimler’s wants and production will continue in Austria.

The G-Class was originally designed to be a rugged off-roader and a light military vehicle for the German Army. The plant in Graz began production of the SUV back in 1979 and is currently the longest produced Mercedes-Benz in Daimler’s history. Last year, 7,200 G-Class vehicles were made, and this year the number is set to 8,500. Mercedes hopes to hit an annual production of 10,000 for their G-Wagen.

[Source: Automobilwoche]

This may not be the most exciting news ever, but it’s definitely one of the cooler things to look forward to in the world of automotive safety. Mercedes-Benz has just unveiled their new active seat belt buckle technology that is designed for the rear passengers.

Essentially the buckles are now power-deployed and emerge from the seats when the rear passenger doors are opened. They’re then illuminated to help ease the process of finding the buckle for the seat belt. For those that have kids or ever had to buckle in kids at night, they’ll know how helpful a simple illumination of the buckle will be for them.

Once the passenger is belted in, the buckle will retract in order to reduce the slack around the pelvis and thorax area. The tech also works in conjunction with the PRE-SAFE system, automatically tensioning the belt if an accident is imminent.

The German luxury automaker announced that the new belt buckles will be offered in an upcoming model, but didn’t specify which one. We wouldn’t be surprised to see it in the next-generation S-Class, which promises to have more technology and more efficiency.

GALLERY: Mercedes-Benz Active Seat Belt Buckle Technology

Rumors of a new Mercedes Benz SLC sports car by AMG  to rival the iconic Porsche 911 were sparked last year. Now, new information from Autocar sheds some light.

According to AMG boss Ola Kallenius, the expansion of the AMG line-up is greatly dependent to the sales performance of its specialized vehicles. “AMG is a financial company and runs with targets, just like every other company. These products can’t just be built for fun. We need a reasonable return to new fund projects.”

The past year for the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG coupe proved to be a successful one. Not only have the sales provided AMG a return, but the “technologically fascinating” SLS succeeded in establishing the brand among the supercar elite as well. To this, Kallenius said, “Could we grow the family? Probably, yes, but that is not a decision we’ve made at this stage. What is clear is that we have entered a segment with an overwhelming reaction from customers and fans — and many of them are entirely new customers to AMG — so it would certainly be the right strategy to grow the AMG brand.”

We expect an entry level stand-alone AMG sports car to be on sale as soon as late 2013. With a projected price tag of £80,000, the two-seat coupe will likely receive power from an all-new 5.4-liter twin turbo V8 nesting in a front-mid-engine layout. Performance is expected to contest the Porsche 911 Carrera S with a 0-62 mph acceleration of 4.5sec and a top speed of 180mph. Engine variants, coupes and roadsters are expected as well.

[Source: Detroit Free Press]

Recently BMW revealed its new M Performance Diesel models, the M550d, X5 M50d, and X6 M50d, all of which are powered by the German automaker’s new 3.0L six-cylinder, tri-turbo diesel engine with 381-hp and 546 lb-ft of torque.

Unfortunately none of America will get to experience the new powerplant since BMW doesn’t find them fitting in the US market, but it appears as though AMG doesn’t find performance-minded diesel engines fitting in any market. The high-performance division for Mercedes-Benz vehicles, AMG head boss Ola Kallenius recently said that they have no plans to follow its German automaker rival in producing diesel engines, saying that it would introduce too many compromises to its performance-focused lineup.

“The technology of performance gasoline engines is converging with diesel tech. Direct injection, downsizing and turbocharging are all having an effect. We looked at diesel a few years back, but petrol engines have obvious benefits of sound, weight, agility and response,” Kallenius said.

We’re not ones to argue, considering AMG has a new 5.5L V8 Biturbo powerplant that puts out 544 to 571-hp with up to 664 lb-ft of torque. You could say some of us subscribe to the belief that if you’re looking for pure performance, fuel efficiency shouldn’t be of concern.

[Source: Autocar UK]

Mercedes-Benz will debut the A25 AMG, based on the A-Series concept, shown above, at the Paris Motor Show in September and plants to pack a new turbocharged engine under the hood.

The company is enlisting help from its own High Performance Powertrains (HPP) affiliate, which focuses on building F1 racing engines for the Mercedes team, among others. The A25 will get a 2.0-liter, turbocharged four-cylinder which is based on the exisitng M271/M274 gas engine.

HPP called on its engine designers to come up with a product able to outshine the 2012 Audi RS3 Sportback’s 335-hp five-cylinder and the BMW M135i’s 316 hp straight six. Accomplishing that won’t be easy considering both the Audi and BMW can both bank on larger engine displacement to meet the mark.

This turbo 2.0L is also slated to find its way into CLC25 AMG and the CLC25 Shooting Brake AMG.

We’ll have to wait and see if Mercedes achieves the power that they are forecasting.

[Source: AutoCar]

This year, Mercedes-Benz‘s uber-luxury brand Maybach will go extinct, as the German brand could not see the potential for making a profit in the ultra high-end luxury car segment.

However, that does not mean the brand will vanish off the face of the Earth, thanks to a coach-building company called Xenatec. They take a four-door Maybach 57S and get rid of two of its doors. Since they kept the wheelbase the same as the donor car, they gave it longer doors  and a sleek coupe body to fill in the gap.

Mechanically the car remains standard because Xenatec wanted the car to be servicable by any Maybach dealer around the world. So while you’ll have the standard cars 6.0-liter, twin-turbo, V12 engine that produces 621-hp, you’ll now also have a sportier looking body to travel around in.

And how much would it cost to have this conversion done? It’ll cost as much as the original donor car. A Xenatec 57S Coupe will cost you a cool $940,000. That’s very nearly Bugatti Veyron money.

Despite the stratospheric price tag, Xenatec has sold quite a few of these uber-coupes through their three main distributors; the factory itself in Germany, a dealer in Saudi Arabia and an armor car firm in Russia.

Finding one of these rare exotics would thus be hard, but we have. A Xenatec Coupe is looking for a new home. It is listed for sale at an exotic car dealership in Dubai, U.A.E. According to the advert, it has no mileage on it. While it is sitting at a used exotic car store, the car is still new.

So while you can still get in touch with Xenatec and pay them to build you a coupe out of your donor 57S, a fully finished example is awaiting you in a desert oasis.

Afterall, we at AutoGuide get a fuzzy good feeling by uniting the rich with expensive cars.

GALLERY: Xenatec Coupe

[Source: Alain Class]

Mercedes-Benz already took the SL a step in the performance direction last year, but now the sporty Merc will get the AMG treatment which promises power and prestige aplenty.

The SL63 AMG will debut at this year’s New York Auto Show where we’re predicting it to be a bit of a show stopper. The car will be powered by a 5.5-liter twin-turbo V8 coupled to an AMG Speedshift Plus 7-speed automatic transmission that combines to produce 540 hp.

AMG products rarely fail to please and it sounds like this one will follow suit. We’ll bring you more during our coverage of the show.

Our photographers have just caught up with the soon-to-be-revealed Mercedes-Benz CLS Shooting Brake.

Spy photos of the unique wagon-styled-coupe that’s actually a sedan (or is it a wagon now?) show a nearly-completed vehicle, suggesting it could make its world premiere as early as the Geneva Motor Show in March. Mercedes has already announced plans for the CLS Shooting Brake to go on sale by the end of this year.

When it does arrive look for power to come from the brand’s new twin-turbo 4.6-liter V8 with a choice of either rear-wheel drive or all-wheel drive, and if we’re really lucky, a CLS63 Shooting Brake may also be in the pipe with a twin-turbo 5.5-liter engine and well over 500 hp.

GALLERY: Mercedes CLS Shooting Brake Spy Photos

We don’t even know what the final version of the newly refreshed 2013 Mercedes-Benz SL63 AMG looks like and people are already talking about how the first one to hit American soil will be auctioned off later this month.

On February 25, the Boca Raton Concours d’Elegance Gala in southern Florida will hold their sixth annual auction where one of the main vehicles headlining the event will be the 2013 SL63 AMG which has yet to be released. Among the other exotic cars joining the SL63 AMG on the auction floor will be the only 2012 Audi R8 GT Spyder that’s ever been treated to red livery and a Lamborghini Aventador LP700-4.

GALLERY: 2013 Mercedes SL Class

[Source: WorldCarFans]

Mercedes-Benz may have overestimated its latest commercial shoot’s seclusion and the public’s pension for sharing videos online.

A cyclist sporting a GoPro camera stumbled across a Mercedes-Benz video shoot and started recording right away. The shooter hit the jackpot by spying the all new Mercedes A-class without camouflage.

We saw the A-class concept at last year’s New York Auto Show, and the production version will bow this year at the Geneva Auto Show in early March.

It looks as though the production A-class shed a few of the sporty features we saw on the concept in favor of a boxier more consumer friendly design. The car we see in the video has a body kit and large alloy wheels which would lead us to believe that it’s probably the AMG sports package.

Watch the video after the jump and tell us what you think of the new A-class in the comments section below.

GALLERY: Mercedes A-Class Concept

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This is a fun advertising campaign, courtesy of Mercedes-Benz – and one that’s just for truck drivers.

To promote its new Actros truck model, Mercedes-Benz created ad stickers in the shape of a roof window showing the enthusiastic response of passengers (if the truck driver had been driving an Actros, of course). The unique part is that only truck drivers in raised cabs could see them. How’s that for target marketing?

A video shot in the Netherlands that features point-of-view of the ads through a truck driver’s eyes is available to watch after the jump. What do you think of this ad campaign? Let us know in the comments section below.

[Source: PSFK]

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