A Maybach costs more to book than an S-Class: 750 ₾ against 500 ₾ for an airport transfer. The honest reason is not the badge. It is the rear seat. The Mercedes-Maybach S-Class W223 shares the engine and the dashboard with the long-wheelbase S-Class. What it does not share is the rear cabin, which has been engineered as if the driver were a hired extra and the entire car existed for the back row. For a chauffeur service that puts the guest in the back row, this is a relevant distinction.
Everything below is what Mercedes-Benz lists for the model in the Maybach S-Class launch release. Some of it is optional equipment, so ask when you book which of it the car has.
The 18 centimetres
The Maybach S-Class has a wheelbase 18 centimetres longer than the long-wheelbase S-Class, and Mercedes-Benz says the extra length entirely benefits the rear. The release puts effective rear legroom at 49.4 inches against 43.9 in the S-Class, about 14 centimetres more where the guest sits. That is not a marketing number; it is the difference between sleeping on the airport-to-hotel transfer and not.
For an 11pm arrival, a guest who has been in the cabin of an aircraft for nine hours, the 18 centimetres is the most useful 18 centimetres in the inventory of luxury cars.
The Executive seats
The rear seats are not the same seats as the front. The two outer rear places are Executive seats: the backrest reclines to 43.5 degrees, an electrically extending legrest has a calf massage function, and neck and shoulder heating works through the seat heating, which is the difference between warm and warm in the right place.
The seats have a diamond pattern with a double seam, and virtually every surface around them is Nappa leather, the roof lining included.
The Maybach drive mode
A real feature, not marketing copy. The Maybach has a MAYBACH setting among its DYNAMIC SELECT drive modes, one the ordinary S-Class does not have. It softens the accelerator, shifts gear less often and pulls away in second gear, and the air suspension is set up for comfort on every seat. A guest in the rear seat reading a phone does not have to put it down at every traffic light.
The driver feels it as a less responsive car. The passenger feels it as a smoother car. The mode is correct for chauffeur work and incorrect for spirited driving, which is how the car is meant to be used.
The comfort doors
On request, the Maybach can be fitted with electrically operated comfort rear doors (Mercedes-Benz). They open and close with little force, even on a slope, and can be worked from the driver’s seat, from the rear screens or from a switch in the roof lining; with Blind Spot Assist on, a door will not open into traffic coming from behind. The mechanism replaces the awkward reach-and-pull of a normal car door for a guest in evening dress.
This sounds gimmicky and it is, slightly. It is also the kind of detail a guest notices on the first arrival. The doors are an option, so ask when you book whether the car has them.
The cabin environment
Three small things together do more than each alone.
Ambient lighting, from 253 LEDs, with two colour themes the S-Class does not get: rose gold white and amethyst glow. After dark it is restful without being clinical.
Active road noise compensation, which works like noise-cancelling headphones: the Burmester bass speakers play counter-phased sound that cancels low-frequency road noise. Useful for a guest who has spent two days in taxis.
An automatic belt extender in the backrest of each Executive seat. Mercedes-Benz says Maybach rear passengers are the first in a saloon to get one, and nobody has to twist out of a reclined position to reach the belt.
What the Maybach is for, and what it is not for
The Maybach is for transfers where the rear seat is the experience: airport to hotel, hotel to event, long evening returns, multi-hour comfort over distance.
The Maybach is not for the bumpy stretches of the Georgian Military Highway above Kazbegi. For those, the V-Class is correct: higher ride, more flexible, more luggage. For Gergeti Trinity itself, the climb from Stepantsminda is on foot or by local taxi. The job of the booking is to match the car to the route, not to upsell to the most expensive thing for every trip.
The fleet has four cars: Maybach for the rear-seat-is-the-product transfer, Maybach EQS for the same brief on an electric drivetrain, S-Class for the executive transfer where a slightly tighter cabin is acceptable, V-Class for groups and rough roads. The Maybach is one of the four. For anyone hoping to drive a car like this themselves, luxury car hire in Tbilisi covers what the self-drive market actually has.
A short closing note
When the brief is a transfer where the trip is the trip (long enough to relax, formal enough to matter, important enough to be remembered), the Maybach is correct. Booking-side, name the car on the brief, with any of the options above that matter; every fare is confirmed in writing before the car is dispatched. booking@soitblack.com, or send the dates through.