Daimler to axe Maybach range after disappointing sales

PanARMENIAN.Net - German industrial firm Daimler is to axe its luxury Maybach range after disappointing sales.

The German carmakers relaunched the Maybach brand almost a decade a year but shockingly low sales means the Maybach range will be shelved in favour of further additions to its Mercedes-Benz marque.

Maybach's cost a pretty penny, setting buyers back more than 300,000 euros, but Daimler only sold 200 of the cars last year - roughly the same number as in 2009. Financial Times suggests that total sales are only about 3,000 since the brand was revived in 2002.

Daimler intended to sell 1,000 Maybach's a year, but clearly fell well short of that target. In the future, the only way car buyers will be able to get their hands on a Maybach is through used car dealers.

The company will now fully concentrate on offering a range of Mercedes' to the lower-priced section of the luxury market, charging around 100,000-300,000 euros.

Chief executive Dieter Zetsche commented on the ditching of Maybach: "We have had full discussions within the company about which path in the luxury segment was the most promising. We came to the clear conclusion that the sales chances for the Mercedes brand were better than Maybach's.

"It would not be sensible to develop a successor model for the current Maybach," BBC News quoted him as saying.

General distributor for Daimler AG in Armenia, Avangard Motors LLC is operating Maybach sales in the country.