After a two-year hiatus, the girls from Sex and the City are back, and they’ve brought a few new friends with them. No, it’s not a few dozen pairs of Jimmy Choos (although, they do make an appearance). Sharing the screen with these 40-somethings is Mercedes-Benz’s ultra-luxurious Maybach line.

Fitting right into the exclusive lifestyle of style icons Carrie, Samantha, Charlotte and Miranda, the all-new E-Class Convertible, the S400 Hybrid Sedan, the G-Class SUV and Maybach sedan are going along for the ride this time around as the ladies escape from New York.

“Based on the success of the first movie and its ability to attract trendsetters and style-makers, Sex and the City 2 is a natural fit for Mercedes-Benz,” says Steve Cannon, Vice President of Marketing, Mercedes-Benz USA. “The movie provides a great stage for us; it showcases our new eco-friendly flagship S-Class, ruggedly sophisticated G-Class and ultra luxury Maybach line in their natural elements. It also perfectly positions the new E-Class Convertible just as it arrives in showrooms.”

Mercedes is also promoting the E-Class Cabriolet in an ad campaign that partners with the movie, sporting the tagline: “Stylish Enough for Carrie, Luxurious enough for Charlotte, Smart enough for Miranda and fast enough for Samantha.” And if you get it silver, the E-Class will go with every outfit.

Read the complete Press Release after the jump:

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Xenatec is a German-based company that often times fulfills special vehicle requests of a particular nature. This can range from stretching an Audi R8 to bullet-proofing your Rolls-Royce Ghost. Whatever may be the case, Xenatec clearly has the expertise, knowledge and engineers to safely take on the task of heavy chassis modification. So it’s no surprise that Xenatec will be heading the limited edition production of the Maybach 57S Coupe.

Only 100 of these bad boys will be produced, making it extremely limited for the extremely luxurious and extremely wealthy. Priced at slightly over $800,000 depending on the conversion, this exclusive Maybach has been widened and the roof lowered compared to its original 57S form but kept the same length (5.7-meters). The vehicle will still be powered by the same power plant, a 6.0L Twin Turbo V12 that pumps out 612-hp, shooting the sedan to 62-mph in five seconds flat. We don’t expect the overall performance to change by much in the coupe altercation.

Giving it an overall sleeker look, the lower roof and longer doors may be what Maybach needed all along to move along some more vehicles. But hey, as far as we’re concerned, Bentley and Rolls-Royce still have our attention. We’ll have to see this one in person before we crown a new king.

GALLERY: Xenatec Maybach 57S Coupe

[Source: Autocar]

This author has loved hip-hop music since the tender age of 3, when Digital Underground’s “The Humpty Dance” caught my attention. I didn’t really understand the lyric “I once got busy in a Burger King bathroom” but it had a fat bassline and a character from a nursery rhyme, and that was enough for me.

In the same way that rock and roll groups mythologized American muscle in the 1960′s, rappers have taken to lionizing the automobile in all its forms, whether it’s an East Coast rapper like Jay-Z rapping about Maybachs or Jaguars, or Snoop Dogg cruising through Long Beach, California in one of his famous 1964 Impalas.

Recently, the Southern United States has had a stranglehold on the hip-hop scene, and their love of American muscle has seen a resurgence of interest in rear-drive American cars. For those with money, a new Dodge Charger or a classic muscle car is the must have ride. But not everyone can afford a new car, and so ordinary folk turn to cars like the Chevrolet Caprice, Mercury Grand Marquis or 1980′s G-Body General Motors cars and customize them with cartoonish 24inch rims and custom lift kits.

As with any fashion-driven culture, huge chrome rims are now out of style, and the new trend is “swangas“, the street term of wire wheels from a 1983 or 1984 Cadillac. Since the wheels were made for a rear-drive offset, they tend to poke out on many of the front-drive vehicles that are affordable to young people, like Oldsmobile 98s, Cadillac Devilles or Buick Park Avenues. While automotive purists may scoff, the “poke” aesthetic is a signature look of the “swanga” movement.

Houston rap group “Block Boyz Click” released a video, imaginatively titled “Ridin Swangas”, and the song is a decent, if amateurish attempt to capture the slowed-down, soulful styles of fellow Houstonians UGK, the video is chock full of truly ghetto American iron that should have been consigned to the junkyard long ago. Aside from the aforementioned cars, sharp eyes will also spot a Chrysler LHS, Buick LeSabre and Pontiac Bonneville.

The artistic merits of the song may be a matter of opinion, but we happened to enjoy the use of some under-appreciated Rick Wagoner-era General Motors machinery, rather than having the (rented) supercar du jour being driven at a snails pace, with a blinged-out hand gripping the wheel at 12 o’clock. Long live the ingenuity and resourcefulness of the Dirty South. Keep swangin on ‘em, H-Town. Check out the official video after the jump.

[Source: Cardomain blog]

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If you’re like us, you probably forgot all about Maybach when you saw the new interior of the Audi A8L, set to debut at the upcoming Beijing Auto Show. Apparently the folks at Maybach were equally impressed and have decided to “refresh” their current lineup for next year. You’d think that “refresh” would mean the platform has been upgraded so it no longer rides on an 11-year old S-Class chassis, but unfortunately, we aren’t so lucky.

Production will continue on the 57, 57S, 62 and 62S limousines with a handful of cosmetic, interior, and electronics tweaks to justify the undoubtedly astronomical price tag. All models get new grilles, including a different grill for ‘S’ models, and additional sound dampening to keep road noise down. ‘S’ models also get a few extra ponies squeezed out of the V12, now up to 630-hp.

Inside, passengers get a divider to separate themselves from their drivers, and optional 19-inch monitors in back instead of the standard 9.5-inch units, wireless internet, quilted leather, Swarovski Crystal trim, plus an optional perfume atomizer from the Zeppelin. Of course technology has been improved, with available wireless internet now available.

The updates to the Maybach lineup are minimal in a halfassed attempt to maintain some interest in the models before Mercedes admits its mistake and eliminates the brand by 2014.

GALLERY: 2011 Maybach Models

The Chinese-luxury market segment is continue to grow at an exponential rate. Many new-age Chinese entrepreneurs are affluent and distinguished, looking towards enjoying the finer things in life, which naturally includes automobiles. Many luxury vehicle owners are working hard in penetrating the market in China. Even Porsche debuted the Panamera in Shanghai, knowing how important luxury sedans are to the affluent Chinese. Interestingly enough, French auto manufacturer Citroen is focusing on this segment and attempting to beat out the luxury German manufacturers.

The Citroen Metropolis is longer than a Mercedes-Benz S-Class and wider than a Maybach, two attributes that are actually very important to the affluent Chinese market. And much like the hype of today, the Metropolis is environmentally-friendly with an electric motor powering it at low speeds delivering zero emissions at Shanghai city speeds. For the freeway, a 2.0L V6 contributes 272-hp, and both the electric and V6 engine are able to work together to the harmonious tune of 460-hp.

Suspension-wise, the car floats and ride comfortably with Citroen’s Hydraactive suspension. This system compensates for loads and lowers at higher speeds increasing mpg and aerodynamic efficiency.

For now, the car is just a concept, but we expect to hear more about production details when the Citroen Metropolis officially debuts at the Beijing Auto Show later this month.

GALLERY: Citroen Metropolis

Resurrected in 2002 as a way for Mercedes to take on rival BMW’s newly acquired Rolls-Royce brand, Maybach has been a sales flop and now Mercedes appears ready to finally admit as much. According to a report by AutoExpress, Mercedes will give the Maybach models a slight update (set to be revealed at the Shanghai Auto Show) this year before winding the brand down towards 2014.

Why 2014? Well, that just happens to be the year that the next-generation S-Class is due out, meaning that Mercedes will then look to take some S-Class models further up-market. The 2014 S-Class should also get some impressive technology and AutoExpress claims it will be one of the most technologically sophisticated machines ever built. The rather tabloid-like outlet is also reporting that Mercedes has even approved the Human Machine Interface (HMI) as seen on the F800 Style concept. The HMI system works somewhat like something you might have seen in the Tom Cruise film Minority Report, using a screen and a camera to turn hand movements into actions, such as zooming in on a map with just a gesture of the hand.

Sound a little too futuristic? Well, 2014 is still a long way off.

[Source: AutoExpress]

With its debut at the Dubai Motor Show as a “Design Study,” Maybach shocked the world by announcing, shortly afterward, that it would in fact build the 62S Landaulet. This bizarre creation is a genuine limousine (stretching a foot longer than even the Rolls-Royce Phantom) and yet it features a retractable rear roof. This way, passengers can enjoy the sun while the driver can stay focused at the task at hand.

The bizarre design keeps the metal roof structure at all times, so from a side perspective it always looks like a standard sedan/limousine. From behind or on top, however, it is possible to see that the material rear roof folds away behind the passenger compartment.

Driver and passenger compartments are also distinguished by the color of materials used. The driver compartment is filled with glossy black Stromboli leather with piano black accents. As for the passengers, they sit surrounded by Seychelles white leather, with white velour carpets.

The Landaulet is powered by a twin-turbo Mercedes V-12 that makes 612hp at 4800 rpm and 738 ft-lbs of torque at 2000 rpm.

Maybach has not released how many models will be built but the 62S Landaulet is expected to sell for $1.35 million.

Maybach 62S Landaulet

Official release after the jump:

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