Remember the Maybach? You should, since it only went away in 2012. The ultra-luxe arm of Mercedes-Benz never quite hit the sales numbers it was shooting for. In its ten year run, just over 3,000 units found their way into presumably high-end garages. Automakers like Bentley and Rolls-Royce can now hit that sales tally on a yearly basis with relative ease. Heck, the Lamborghini Gallardo found 14,002 buyers in its ten year run. Still, the Maybach 57 and 62 were certainly luxurious rolling passports to the high life... and they may be coming back.

According to Australia's Carsguide, the chief engineer of the Mercedes-Benz S-Class has confirmed that the Maybach name will be attached to a long wheelbase version of the sedan, expected to be called an S-Class Maybach. It will wear the three-pointed star up front but it will have Maybach touches everywhere else. This means champagne wishes and caviar dreams at the disposal of those riding in the sure-to-be-legendary rear seats.

The lengthy S-Class has already been spied out and about. In fact, it's been spotted testing on the Nürburgring, which is fairly ridiculous but at least lets us know the car might just be able to provide thrills in the same manner it provides comfort. Regardless of its 'Ring time, we believe this is a much better approach to producing a Maybach product. It can be priced lower than the competition from Rolls and Bentley, yet offer up quality, performance and technology that is on par with those rivals or even better.

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