Andy Kalmowitz / Jalopnik While most of the automotive world isn't terribly interested in sedans anymore, they've still got their place when it comes to big, luxury limousines. There's just something about getting into the back of a luxobarge that can't be replicated in an SUV or crossover, no matter how big or expensive they are. That's exactly where the 2027 Mercedes-Maybach S-Class comes to play. Like the standard W223 S-Class, the Maybach is getting a pretty comprehensive refresh for 2027. There are styling tweaks, more tech up front, upgraded comfort in the back, revised powertrains, even more customization, and a whole slew of lit-up three-pointed stars. While this is far from a ground-up redesign of the Maybach S-Class, it does a lot to keep the big Benz relevant as its competition — in both sedan and crossover form — continues to pound at the door. Taking on the battle Stateside? Two gas burners in the form of a revamped twin-turbocharged V8 and U.S.-exclusive twin-turbocharged V12. God bless America. Full Disclosure: Mercedes-Maybach flew me out to Nice, put me up in a couple of amazing hotels and paid for all my food just so I could check out the new 2027 S-Class (and something else I'm not allowed to talk about yet). The drivers and the driven Andy Kalmowitz / Jalopnik In a Maybach, the star of the show is almost always whoever is sitting in the back, and that's why this 215.9-inch sedan has seats that rival even the best that Lay-Z-Boy and every premium airline has to offer. They can massage you, heat you, cool you, recline you to a near horizontal state while moving the front passenger seat out of the way, and remind you that you truly are better than everyone else. Of course, there's even a refrigerator between the two seats with silver-plated Robbe & Berking champagne flutes if you want to turn your business lunch into an entire afternoon out of the office. On the front seatbacks are a pair of 13.1-inch touchscreens (that also have iPhone 5–sized touchscreen remotes in case you're reclined too far back) that'll allow rear passengers to adjust the power sunshades, climate controls, media apps, the seats themselves, and other infotainment functions. Because the rear passengers are such titans of industry, there are even cameras built into the screen's bezels for taking video conference calls on the go. Mercedes-Maybach While their operation is very slick, I've gotta say, the 31.3-inch screens found in the back of the BMW 7 Series and Mercedes-Benz VLE are a step above the S-Class's dual-screen setup. (Both screens are the same size and resolution, so now I need to know if they share a supplier, but that's for another story.) The two rear seaters also get a wireless charging pad to share, some normal cup holders that are far too far away from the seats for easy use, and leather-wrapped speakers. Plus the 31-speaker, 1,690-watt Burmester 4D audio sound system is optimized for back-seat passengers, with exciters in the seats. Getting in and out is a cinch too, because even if the driver fails at his duties of opening and closing your door, a simple button push will do it for you. While being driven in this peaceful serenity through the south of France, I had time to think about the important things in life: trickle-down economics, the average price of jet fuel, my secretary's goddamn name and, of course, if my name will be in the next tranche of Epstein Files released. This was only possible because the Mercedes-Maybach S580 did such a wonderful job of isolating me from the world outside. I didn't have time to look at the Riviera, and I felt no need to. My other senses were occupied by the smell of rich leather and the feel of a fabulous massage working the never-ending stresses of my day out of my back. Mercedes-Maybach Helping in all of this was the S580's Maybach drive mode, which is tuned to make the car's ride even more geared toward rear passenger comfort — a notch up from Comfort mode, even. Every single bump is dispatched like an unruly houseguest at an Upper West Side dinner party: swiftly and silently, like they were never even there in the first place. While most folks who shell out the over $200,000 it takes to buy a Maybach S-Class are going to want to sit in the wonderfully voluptuous rear seats, there are the rare few who care about driving and, well, that's too bad. A sports car this 5,335-pound beast is not. In terms of steering directness, it punches ever-so-slightly above its weight class, but there's almost no feel whatsoever. Why would there be? I'd honestly be a bit shocked if there was. Try as the Airmatic suspension might, it rolls quite a bit in the corners, but you already knew that was going to happen, and the big brakes do an admirable job of hauling in the ample power. Though, it must be said they require a lot of travel on the pedal — probably because Maybach engineers don't want drivers to make the owners accidentally spill their drink during a jerky stop. I get it. Something I do not get, though, is Mercedes' decision to drop the steering wheel-mounted paddle shifters in favor of a manual transmission mode that is operated by pushing or pulling on the column-mounted gear selector. It's something we first saw on the CLA hybrid, and while almost nobody is manually shifting a Maybach, its action is goofy to say the least. Andy Kalmowitz / Jalopnik And every once in a while I did want to downshift, because the engine is a real peach. While it may only be the base motor, the revamped M177 Evo twin-turbocharged mild-hybrid 4.0-liter V8 still produces a more-than-healthy 530 horsepower and 553 pound-feet of torque — enough oomph to rocket to 60 mph in just 3.9 seconds and continue to an electronically limited top speed of 130 mph with the help of a 9-speed automatic transmission and standard 4Matic all-wheel drive. This motor is very good, and it's the cheaper and the quicker of the two available for sale in America, but you'd have to be a poor or a fool to get it, because any Maybach buyer worth their salt needs to put on their big boy pants and step up to the now-U.S.-exclusive V12-powered S680. Everywhere else in the world, the S680 is now powered by a hopped-up version of the M177, but not in God's country. Here, we get a twin-turbocharged 6.0-liter V12 making 621 hp and 664 lb-ft of torque. The V12 is slower to 60 mph by four tenths of a second compared to the V8, but who gives a rat's ass? Sure, the V8 is great, but if you're getting a flagship luxury sedan and a V12 is available, there's really only one way to go, and the V12 has an identical top speed, all-wheel-drive system and transmission to the V8. Room for the help Mercedes-Maybach While the performance driving might not be all it's cracked up to be, the waftability of the Maybach S580 is still top-notch, don't you worry. Front seat occupants get the same sort of massaging functions as the rear, and while they can't drink champagne (legally), there are plenty of techy gizmos and gadgets to futz with. The Maybach gets all of the same updates we saw on the regular S-Class refresh, including the company's MBUX Superscreen that is made up of three entirely separate displays tethered together by a slab of piano black plastic: a 12.3-inch gauge cluster, a 14.4-inch horizontal center infotainment touchscreen and a 12.3-inch passenger display. I did notice a bit of lag in the gauge cluster as the needle rose and fell, but overall, the MBUX system is fairly easy to use thanks to the company's MB.OS platform. I will admit the dashboard isn't as pretty as the standalone center display and digital gauge cluster the previous car had. That system did a better job of highlighting the dashboard trim of the S-Class. It's also a bit annoying that this flagship vehicle doesn't come with Mercedes' latest screen tech: the seamless Hyperscreen we first saw in the GLC EV. Despite the increased screenage, Mercedes also decided it would be a good idea to add back some physical buttons and switches to the Maybach S's interior. That's why there are now a couple of toggles on the steering wheel and a row of nicely weighted capacitive touch buttons below the center screen that control the drive modes, the camera, bring up the climate control menu, activate the voice assistant, turn the screen on and off, and adjust the volume. Right in the middle of all that is a hazard light switch in case one of the many systems inside this car decides to take a day off. Below all of that are a set of wireless charging pads that definitely won't make your phone hot, and a cavernous center console that your driver can store your jewels in. Mercedes-Maybach It's a nice place to be, and that niceness is only increased by the fact there are 199 individual LEDs with 64 color options to choose from. Nobody does ambient lighting like Mercedes, and even though it's not for everybody, it sure as hell is for me. The tech doesn't stop there, either. Your driver — let's call him Klaus — has access to all sorts of driver aids meant to make his life that much easier. Rear-wheel steering is standard, which makes an unwieldy boat like this far easier to manage. There's also Mercedes' excellent suite of driver assist systems, including MB.Drive Assist Pro 2 with a City Pro function. It's not going to ship at launch, but the system is supposed to enable seamless point-to-point navigation when it becomes available with an over-the-air update. Buyers better hope it does; otherwise, all those cameras and sensors sticking out around the S-Class are gonna look a bit silly. Also silly (but also pretty cool) is the Car-to-X tech that lets this car talk to other Mercedes products about road conditions ahead, and thus optimize its suspension to be ready for whatever treachery lies in its path. Mercedes-Maybach The tech isn't the only reason the Maybach S-Class is such a lovely place to spend time, either. Material quality, as you may have imagined, is top-notch. Just about everything that looks like metal is metal, everything that looks like leather is leather, and even the plastic feels high-quality. There's a bit too much piano black for me, but you can't win 'em all. There are even a slew of neat trim options, like the new-for-2027 Natural Grain Brown Amber Wood with a herringbone pattern, and who doesn't love a herringbone pattern? Star Student Andy Kalmowitz / Jalopnik There's no getting around the fact we're in an SUV-dominated world, so it makes a hell of a lot of sense that Mercedes-Maybach would do everything it can to capture people's attention with its styling. Now, Maybachs have never been subtle. I know this firsthand — I got a chance to go for a ride in a 1934 Maybach Zeppelin DS8 (don't look up its history), and that 8.0-liter V12-powered convertible was anything but subtle. Still, the S580 might give it a run for its money with the new tweaks Maybach's designers bestowed upon it. Up front, the Maybach gets a new grille with vertical slats that is 20% larger than it used to be, and it's even got an illuminated surround. Fantastic. Not so fantastic is the black grille surround we first saw on the regular S-Class and E-Class; it just looks cheap to me. Still, everything else works, including the twin stars in each of its embiggened headlights, complemented by new rose gold accents. Above the grille is an illuminated three-pointed star, which will stay on during driving only in the U.S., and the lower bumper intakes are now filled to the brim with Maybach logos à la the Maybach SL. Unfortunately, these are made of plastic and not metal for woke "safety" reasons. It's called roadkill, not roadpeace, dammit. Andy Kalmowitz / Jalopnik The sides of the S580 aren't drastically different from the outgoing car. It's still incredibly dramatic and very easy to tell this is something other than a normal S-Class thanks to the massive rear door and added quarter window in the C-pillar. After all, its 133.7-inch wheelbase is 7.1 inches longer than the standard S-Class, which is already the long-wheelbase model. Still, there are some new things, like fresh 20- and 21-inch forged wheel designs (you're wasting your money if you don't get the monoblocks) with weighted three-pointed stars that won't spin. There are some more changes out back as well, but it takes an eagle-eyed viewer to spot them: reshaped taillights with three star-shaped elements apiece flank the license plate cutout, and the bumper has been reshaped ever-so-slightly. Still, there's no denying the 2027 Maybach S-Class is quite a bit more in-your-face than the Maybachs that came before it. Some may miss the demure looks of the old car, but it's hard to buck design trends, and, at the very least, this one doesn't feel sinister (unlike the '34). Andy Kalmowitz / Jalopnik As ever, buyers can tailor their Maybach S-Classes to look however they want thanks to the automaker's extensive Manufaktur customization program. No matter how nasty, Mercedes-Maybach will do pretty much whatever you ask of it when it comes to exterior and interior personalization. There are over 150 exterior paint colors and 400 interior colors to choose from, and if cost isn't an object, it'll match whatever color you bring them to the best of its ability with the Manufaktur Made to Measure program. For 2027, the company has even introduced a few new color schemes for folks to choose from off the shelf, including Manufaktur Black Sparkling with glass-flake clearcoat and Manufaktur Verde Silver Magno. That black color is especially striking in the sunlight. Inside, new color combinations include Manufaktur Carmine Red/Black, Lake Green/Black, Corn Yellow/Black and Tobacco Brown/Black. An S below the rest Andy Kalmowitz / Jalopnik I know that at this point you've got your wallet out, and you just want to know how much the Maybach S580 is going to cost you in cold, hard cash. Well, I can't tell you. I'd like to, but Mercedes-Maybach hasn't rolled out pricing as of yet. I'm sure it will very soon, as the car is expected to hit dealers in the U.S. in summer 2026. I'm not sure if you've gone outside recently or looked at a calendar, but it's very much summer 2026. In any case, I cannot imagine it'll be cheap. The 2026 S580 starts at $208,500, including destination, and the S680 will set you back $245,750, so expect a bit of a bump from those prices. Plus, no Maybach is ever really base, and prices quickly get out of hand depending on options. Just for fun, I built a 2026 version of the Manufaktur Olive Green tester I drove in France, and it came out to just a tick under a quarter million bucks. Andy Kalmowitz / Jalopnik Here's the thing, though: The Maybach S-Class is actually a good deal. Its closest competition, the Bentley Flying Spur, starts at $254,850, nearly fifty grand more than the current S-Class. Hell, something like a Rolls-Royce Ghost starts north of $370,000, and it comes with much less stuff. I'm telling you, the Maybach S is a bargain, all things considered. Sure, it looks a bit more pedestrian than those cars, but you don't lose out on anything once you're inside. While Mercedes-Maybach may have gotten rid of a bit of that subdued look the old car had, there's no doubt it's the most under the radar of the three, so if you're a captain of industry who is looking to save a few bucks and make sure your minions know it, perhaps the Maybach S580 is for you. Have a glass of champagne on me; you've earned it.