Mercedes-Maybach GLS 600

The Maybach name once sat on hand-built limousines for people who never touched the wheel themselves. Mercedes revived it as its most senior badge, and the GLS 600 is where that idea meets a modern SUV. Under the bonnet is a 4.0 litre biturbo V8 with EQ Boost mild hybrid, 557 horsepower moving nearly three tonnes to 100 km/h in 4.9 seconds. The pace is there when you want it. People choose this car for everything around that pace.

Step into the rear and the GLS stops being a car and becomes a room. Two reclining executive seats face a refrigerated console, four zones of climate hold the temperature where each passenger likes it, and the Burmester 3D system fills a cabin built to keep the outside world out. The soft-close doors seal with a single quiet thud. Up front the V8 is almost inaudible at a cruise, which is the entire point of a car like this.

Dubai is where the Maybach earns its keep. This is the airport collection to a Palm Jumeirah villa, the slow approach to a hotel forecourt in DIFC, the board dinner in Business Bay where the arrival sets the tone before anyone speaks. The 22-inch wheels and obsidian-black paint read as serious from a distance, and the air-conditioned, sealed cabin shrugs off the summer heat that punishes lesser interiors.

For most visitors the maths is simple. You need a flagship for a weekend, a wedding or a run of meetings rather than a multi-year commitment with the depreciation that comes attached. We deliver the GLS 600 to your door, full of fuel and detailed, and collect it when you are done. The price you are quoted includes the car in full, so the only thing left to decide is where you are being driven.