2006 Maybach 57S front

It's not that the original Maybach was an especially sensible buy to begin with, but having a mere Mercedes S-class beating a $330,000 sedan built to be the world's best just won't do. So Maybach took the powertrain of the top-of-the-line Mercedes S65 – the 6.0-liter V12 with 604 horsepower and 738 pounds-feet of torque – dropped it in the shorter of the two Maybachs, and called it the 57S (the S stands for "special"), a sedan that can hit 60 MPH in under 5 seconds and reach 172 MPH. The rest of the car is still a greatly-enhanced S-class, but at least that $370,000 now buys Mercedes' best instead of its second-best.