On this day at Monterey Car Week, Maybach debuted a new two-seater convertible for the first time in the new millennium. Dubbed the SL 680 Monogram Series, the latest and greatest from the world's premier German luxury brand—if we discount Bentley and Rolls-Royce being owned by VAG and BMW, anyway—rounds out the lineup in a segment that customers have apparently been clamoring for Maybach to fill. Mercedes-Maybach invited me to preview the new SL in Malibu the week before Monterey kicked off in earnest, in exactly the kind of a sun-drenched setting where presumptive sales figures will congregate.
Even at first glance, the SL 680 carries the torch of traditional luxury and opulence that made Maybach famous, but also continues to show how the Mercedes-Benz influence grows stronger and stronger. So, most of my questions for the Maybach team on hand centered around exactly how the SL 680 differentiates from the SL 63 AMG , and now the AMG GT , all of which ride on the same shared platform. I recently drove a model year 2023 SL 63 AMG on a quintessential California road trip from Los Angeles to San Francisco, then Monterey, and back.
The 800-plus miles of cruising, city life, and canyon carving left me quite surprised that, for what I had thought of as a grand tourer, the AMG SL definitely leans toward the sportier side of the equation. Wasn't that the GT's job here in 2024? I figured the GT should ride firmer and the AMG should soften up the suspension and steering for more o.