Mercedes Is Building The Most Expensive Luxury Sedan In the World

In addition to the traditional lineup of premium hides, woodgrain accents, and plush carpeting, the S-Class Pullman will also feature a litany of must-have features for world's elite buyers including lounge-style seating and armor plating. At 21 feet long, the S-Class Pullman is nearly a foot and a half longer than the extended wheelbase Rolls-Royce Phantom and twice the cost as well.

Mercedes has yet to announce the powertrain options for its newest sedan, though it is expected that boast a lineup of the company's finest supercharged or naturally aspirated V8 and V12 powerplants. Since the S-Class Pullman will effectively cost nearly twice as much as the nearest comparable Rolls or Bentley, we expect the mad scientists from Stuttgart to include the best of their techno goody bag.

Mercedes had made plans to build an ultra-premium sedan as far back as the mid-'90s. Those plans were hastened when the company's German rivals, BMW and Volkswagen-Audi, gained control of Rolls-Royce and Bentley, spurring Mercedes to get its Maybach brand up and running.

Instead of designing and building a new car from scratch, the company based the car that would become Maybach on the venerable W140 S-Class Mercedes that debuted in 1991. While they were as opulent as their half-million-dollar price tags would suggest, the Maybach 57 and 62s already looked and felt dated by the time they hit the market in 2002, compared to rivals from Rolls and Bentley.

"[Mercedes] are trying to evoke the very famous old 600 Pullman that was used by people from dictators to John Lennon," an IHS automotive analyst told Bloomberg. "They want to show that Mercedes still stands for an absolute elite, luxury, and opulence. There's symbolic value to this kind of car."