Michael Teo Van Runkle/SlashGear
On for the time being at Monterey Automotive Week, Maybach debuted a brand unique two-seater convertible for the first time within the unique millennium. Dubbed the SL 680 Monogram Collection, the latest and finest from the enviornment’s premier German luxury imprint—if we good aquire Bentley and Rolls-Royce being owned by VAG and BMW, anyway—rounds out the lineup in a section that possibilities trust apparently been clamoring for Maybach to occupy.
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Mercedes-Maybach invited me to preview the unique SL in Malibu the week sooner than Monterey kicked off in earnest, in precisely the roughly a sun-soaking wet setting the build presumptive gross sales figures will congregate. Even on the starting up gape, the SL 680 carries the torch of veteran luxury and opulence that made Maybach considerable, however also continues to expose how the Mercedes-Benz influence grows stronger and stronger. So, most of my questions for the Maybach crew on hand centered around precisely how the SL 680 differentiates from the SL 63 AMG, and now the AMG GT, all of which budge on the identical shared platform.
A acquainted recipe, refined
<img src="https://www.slashgear.com/img/gallery/2026-mercedes-maybach-sl-680-monogram-series-first-look-the-best-sl-ever/a-familiar-recipe-refined-1723658653.jpg" data-slide-url="https://www.slashgear.com/1642892/2026-mercedes-maybach-sl-680-monogram-series-convertible-first-look/" data-post-id="1642892" data-slide-num="1" data-slide-title="2026 Mercedes-Maybach SL 680 Monogram Series First Look: The Best SL Ever?: A familiar recipe, refined" width="780" height="438" alt="2026 Mercedes-Maybach SL 680 Monogram Collection engine bay factor"/>
Michael Teo Van Runkle/SlashGear
I not too long within the past drove a mannequin one year 2023 SL 63 AMG on a quintessential California boulevard hotfoot from Los Angeles to San Francisco, then Monterey, and succor. The 800-plus miles of cruising, city existence, and canyon carving left me somewhat shocked that, for what I had thought to be a huge tourer, the AMG SL positively leans toward the sportier facet of the equation. Wasn’t that the GT’s job right here in 2024? I figured the GT also can merely silent budge less assailable and the AMG also can merely silent soften up the suspension and steering for added of the aged-college cruising ethos.
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Now we earn the answer: The Maybach may per chance perhaps be the handiest huge-tourer in line with that SL chassis. Determined, the identical twin-turbocharged 4.0-liter V8 lurks beneath the hood, striking out the identical 577 horsepower and 590 lb-ft of torque by means of the identical 9-trip computerized transmission and all-wheel pressure device. But otherwise, the Maybach variants obtained a important engineering makeover to scuttle with the extra obvious beauty enhancements.
Extra chrome however handiest two colors
<img src="https://www.slashgear.com/img/gallery/2026-mercedes-maybach-sl-680-monogram-series-first-look-the-best-sl-ever/more-chrome-but-only-two-colors-1723658654.jpg" data-slide-url="https://www.slashgear.com/1642892/2026-mercedes-maybach-sl-680-monogram-series-convertible-first-look/" data-post-id="1642892" data-slide-num="2" data-slide-title="2026 Mercedes-Maybach SL 680 Monogram Series First Look: The Best SL Ever?: More chrome but only two colors" width="780" height="438" alt="2026 Mercedes-Maybach SL 680 Monogram Collection entrance dwell factor"/>
Michael Teo Van Runkle/SlashGear
The expected chrome originate little print stood out the 2nd I rounded a orderly rock and the red SL caught my peek, however then a re-analysis published further work to refined out some of the mannequin’s few angular aspects. The nostril and facet sills now sync up, whereas the rear diffuser transitions to body colored to emphasise extra flush traces at some level of the originate. A gloomy intake grille with refined Maybach lettering in nearly calligraphic illumination—nearly not doable to capture in lustrous sunlight—transitions to a extra placing gloomy hood, in this case featuring Maybach logos stamped in Graphite Grey after the unique paint gets hand sanded for added depth.
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The Maybach SL will advance in handiest two color schemes, the “Crimson Ambiance” on present in Malibu as well to a “White Ambience” that technically employs Manufaktur-particular Moonlight White Magno pearlescent paint. Both hoods match in Obsidian Gloomy Metallic, and the categorical tone I purchased up finish and non-public with, witnessing some refined color shift in varied lighting, is called Garnet Crimson Metallic.
A staunch two-seater two-door
<img src="https://www.slashgear.com/img/gallery/2026-mercedes-maybach-sl-680-monogram-series-first-look-the-best-sl-ever/a-true-two-seater-two-door-1723658655.jpg" data-slide-url="https://www.slashgear.com/1642892/2026-mercedes-maybach-sl-680-monogram-series-convertible-first-look/" data-post-id="1642892" data-slide-num="3" data-slide-title="2026 Mercedes-Maybach SL 680 Monogram Series First Look: The Best SL Ever?: A true two-seater two-door" width="780" height="438" alt="2026 Mercedes-Maybach SL 680 Monogram Collection chrome windshield surround and logo on convertible high"/>
Michael Teo Van Runkle/SlashGear
The grille and gloomy hood then lead by means of to the matching convertible high, in gloomy cloth also with Maybach logos in every single build—a theme develops, for these outlandish whether or not this SL is, essentially, a Maybach at all. That is, if the chrome windshield surround would not sound the alarm. But despite the indisputable truth that the superfluous vivid splendid never hits dwelling for my private taste, the gloomy veteran for the grille, hood, mirrors, and convertible high substances mixed to kind a horizontal waterline which, alongside with some of the rounder nostril and tail originate substances, essentially emphasize the SL’s overall attraction.
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Michael Teo Van Runkle/SlashGear
I’m not a convertible man, most incessantly, however fragment of why I find the Maybach SL’s originate coalesces greater than the AMG comes down to the dedication to follow two seats handiest in preference to a 2+2 structure. On the succor of the entrance seats, a pair of carpeted parcel cupboards that presumably lurk beneath every other SL’s leather-essentially based entirely seat cushions now hews extra closely with actuality: No one, even little childhood, suits neatly within the backseats of an SL. It is no dealbreaker, being precisely the case with the Porsche 911, which technically satisfies the aged familial requires despite the indisputable truth that each person fervent knows the categorical truth.
Exquisite a bit of extra legroom helps
<img src="https://www.slashgear.com/img/gallery/2026-mercedes-maybach-sl-680-monogram-series-first-look-the-best-sl-ever/just-a-bit-more-legroom-helps-1723658655.jpg" loading="lazy" data-slide-url="https://www.slashgear.com/1642892/2026-mercedes-maybach-sl-680-monogram-series-convertible-first-look/" data-post-id="1642892" data-slide-num="4" data-slide-title="2026 Mercedes-Maybach SL 680 Monogram Series First Look: The Best SL Ever?: Just a bit more legroom helps" width="780" height="438" alt="2026 Mercedes-Maybach SL 680 Monogram Collection cockpit factor"/>
Michael Teo Van Runkle/SlashGear
Switching to a devoted two-seater structure essentially solves one among my important complaints in regards to the SL that I drove as much as the Bay Device and succor.