In 1997, I can clearly remember the date when I saw first pictures of future Mercedes which will be named as Maybach. Maybach was left sleeping for nearly four decades and Mercedes launched the brand with an electro shock which was done by old Mercedes S Class (W220). 
Finally Maybach was on production in 2002! The features and technology was beyond imagination like its price tag. At the same time, Rolls Royce was working on new Phantom and Bentley was refurbished by Volkswagen. So the competition was getting tougher! And Maybach revealed to market, however it was sharing too much in common with S Class. Actually Maybach was a stretched and pumped version of S Class. Or I can summarized it like this; Maybach is paint which was done by Botero.
Botero is well known painter who is expressing his ideas in terms of fat people and objects. He is exagratting the figures and objects to express the ideas. Maybach was like that, expressed the passion of Mercedes to go fight with Rolls Royce and Bentley with a S Class. It was basically a S Class with luxury.
And weirdly, current S Class is offering very similar features like Maybach and relatively cheaper! This also had impact on Maybach's sales performance. Despite its enormous engine power which can be used in World Rally Championship did not help Maybach to win! In UK last year, only seven Maybachs were sold. Just 7!
A few days ago Mercedes revealed a video for face lifted Maybach which will be introduced in China Motor Show. And the movie was took place in China with Chinese casting. This clearly Shows that, Mercedes is hopeless for Western market and they try their last chance in China. As matter of fact, Maybach is a great car but too expensive for a MercedesMercedes Website and NTV.com.tr
