Smashing start to Maybach

GENEVA 7 March 2002: So, what do you do when your carefully orchestrated unveiling falls apart in an embarrassing crash of champagne glasses? You say: ‘we planned it that way’, said DaimlerChrysler board member Jurgen Hubbert at the behind-glass launch of the company’s new luxury brand Maybach in Geneva.

Not so new, maybe ... the name of the new car that goes on sale in Europe in the autumn revives a name that hasn’t been around for more than 60 years.

The glass crash came when two of 12 women carrying a glass of champagne lost their loads. Since they were representing each of the 12 cylinders in the Maybach engine, that was a figurative misfire.

But the omens apart, the Maybach is set to go on sale in the autumn with all cylinders firing, at some 550bhp, or pretty well impossible to comprehend on Irish road situations.

Never mind, the Maybach may be just what plutocrats want. It's the image, stupid. And the behind-glass launch might mean it is designed for untouchables?

But putting it behind an unphotographable, untouchable glass screen, is something of a goldfish bowl exercise. And when the glass breaks ... isn’t it lucky it wasn’t a mirror?

©2002irishcar.com

March 2002