Mercedes-Maybach GLS 600
Why 4.7: A GLS with the wheelbase left alone, the rear seats replaced by two reclining chairs, and E-Active Body Control that leans the body into corners so the passengers stay level. 550 hp is present and almost entirely beside the point.
Layout
Natural habitat
Ride comfort
Sound
The M177 biturbo is audible under full throttle, and a faint eight-cylinder swell does reach the rear seat. But the whole car exists to keep it out — active mounts, double glazing, a 48-volt system smoothing the restarts. Silence is the specification, not a side effect.
8-cylinder · turbocharged · 6,500 rpm redline · rated 3.7 / 10 for engine sound
Market value
Median asking price, good condition · €149k (2021) → €118k (2026), trending down · illustrative data
Child seats · ISOFIX
Two ISOFIX positions on the outer rear seats, the outer pair being the ones the standard covers.
The rear anchors are the supported route — the manual points child seats there, and front-passenger ISOFIX is the exception rather than the rule. A belt-mounted seat up front needs the airbag off, and cars with a rear row don't always fit a deactivation switch, precisely because the rear seats exist.
Derived from production years and seating layout, not a per-car source. ISOFIX was standardised as ISO 13216 in 1997, required on new EU model types from 2011 and on all new EU cars from 2014.
The long version
Mercedes built the Maybach GLS for the markets where the executive SUV replaced the executive saloon — China first, then the Gulf and the United States — and the engineering brief is legible from the options list: a refrigerator between the rear seats, a curve-tilt function borrowed from the S-Class, and acoustic glass thick enough that the V8 is a rumour. It scores the way the Maybach S-Class does and for the same reason. Mileage is low, because a car with a chauffeur specification does short, deliberate journeys rather than long ones. Retention is comparatively high, because these are bought by people and companies who keep a vehicle until it stops being current rather than trading it against the next allocation — there is no waiting list to profit from and no auction interest to chase. That combination gives it the odd shape of a trophy-shelf car that still beats several performance SUVs on the index: nobody drives it much, but nobody flips it either.