I like Kanye West. In fact, I took a serious liking to his music recently when I played his recent album, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, which is quite an intriguing piece of music. It’s filled with contrasting emotions – happy, hopeful, cheerful, as well as angry, and aggressive. The overriding theme, however, is of dark thoughts and depression – as suggested by the title.
The album does portray, quite clearly, that the artist is a complex individual dealing with his own inner demons – despite being a brilliant musician, songwriter and performer. And this, perhaps, somewhat explains his rather public shenanigans on occasion. Here’s a man who, despite all the success, fame and riches, has personal issues that he, at times, struggles to deal with – sometimes in public. And that makes me appreciate the man and his music even more. He has that real world, honest appeal – as opposed to the traditional celebrities with their well-oiled PR machinery and their carefully cultivated image.
You’re probably asking why a self-ordained automotive nut is writing about music when he, admittedly, doesn’t know much about the subject. Well, here’s why. Incident one was when I accidentally overheard a gentleman from Mercedes India say that they’ve only been able to sell one Maybach since the brand’s re-launch. And that set me thinking, since I recalled that their main competitor, Rolls-Royce, sold 80 cars in India last year. Incident two, the real trigger, happened a week or so ago where I stumbled upon the latest video by Kanye & Jay-Z called Otis from their latest album. |
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Now, for those who haven’t watched the video (search for it on YouTube), the basic concept is that Kanye and Jay-Z take a Maybach, and hack it down to their own version of the car. A questionable decision no doubt, but, in essence, what they do to the car is hack the roof off to make it a convertible, remove the doors (to make it a better getaway car I presume), mount the boot lid on the front of the car, and (of course) mount the bonnet grille on the back. And, just to make it even more absurd, they throw in a couple of sideways mounted wings on the boot and give it a crude, handmade body kit with wheel arch extensions.
Add to that some nice aftermarket rims, flamethrowers spitting out 10-15 feet flames and four leggy models in the back seat having a giggle as the car’s thrown around, and what you have is an instant attention-grabbing visual. Is it beautiful? Hell, no. But, more importantly, is it effective? Oh, hell, yes. There’s no way any human being, especially one with an interest in cars or music, would give this video just one look and forget about it. No sir, an average petrol-head is going to replay this at least a few times. I know I did!
But, once the novelty of the visuals, models, the ‘pimped’ Maybach, the excellent video, and the music wears off, it stirred a larger debate in my mind – which led me to write this article. What was it that made Maybach unsuccessful despite the promises and expectations when the project was conceived over a decade ago? Well, you see, even in those days of my automotive knowledge infancy, I didn’t think it was a good idea for Mercedes to try and push its way into the absolute top-end of luxury cars simply by resurrecting a prestigious, but defunct-for-decades, brand. Resurrections like those are always a tough task, especially when you have top-flight competition like Rolls-Royce and Bentley to contend with. Just ask Bugatti – to resurrect that storied brand, Volkswagen sells a car that costs them millions more in making than what they sell it for. But, in those days of record earnings at Mercedes, I suppose they thought it was a good idea.
But today, as we already know (being geniuses in hindsight), it seems that Mercedes’ plan for a Maybach was flawed from the start, and failed as a result. The major problems were that the car looked too similar to the S Class, and was way too expensive for a car that was viewed as a tarted up S Class. And due to its timid styling, it always seemed to play second fiddle to the imposing Phantom. Of course, you could say that the Maybach won out on the subtlety index, but then people buy these cars to make a statement – so being subtle isn’t really an advantage.
The problem was that the well heeled customer is looking for a bespoke car, and not one that shares so many visible components with an existing product. BMW realized early on that Rolls Royce had to be special, and feel completely handmade – so all components from BMW, and there were quite a few, had to be hidden away or modified in a way as to maintain the exclusivity.
Above all, though, I think what the Maybach really lacked was character, and that special allure that all exclusive cars have – and that’s where the Phantom destroys the competition. It has that old-school hand-built British charm, with its thin rim steering wheel, art-deco lighting, a power meter instead of a rev counter, and an aura that clearly communicates to passengers that it was designed for just one purpose – to epitomize luxury.
The more pertinent question today, though, is – is there still space for an attempted Maybach resurrection? Rumors abound about a partnership with Aston Martin to produce a hand-made car and reestablish the brand (again). But there are bigger challenges facing them today than even a decade ago.
Today, they have to deal with an unsuccessful product. And, as a result, a brand which lacks the kudos in its segment – rebuilding perception, especially in that segment, won’t be easy. Secondly, they need to make sure the car they produce is completely different to what either Mercedes or Aston manufactures – so as to not make the same mistake twice. There’s no doubt the fact that Mercedes has the pockets, as well as the resources, to produce a bespoke car to beat the best of them and claim the top spot. But, after decades of successfully producing luxury cars with a wider appeal, does it have the vision and determination to build a car specifically for the über rich? |
Well, therein lays the challenge – to resurrect and reinvent yourself (like Kanye did by apologizing in public, not to mention gestures like auctioning the above mentioned Maybach for African drought relief), which is never easy. Of course, there’s also the once bitten, twice shy syndrome – not to mention the fact that there’s a lot of money at stake. So, the question is – will Mercedes go all out to outdo itself? Well, the future of Mayback hangs in the balance!
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