Mercedes rolls out bespoke luxury with Sindelfingen studio

Hand-stitching a steering wheel takes four to eight hours. Less time is needed for a leather-only wheel and more when leather is combined with wood or Piano Black. In a year, they use as much thread as the distance from Earth to the Moon and back (767,000 km). Sheets of leather are inspected for the tiniest flaws and damages. Seats can be personalized in terms of colour and pattern and fitted to the body shape.

All this takes place at the Manufaktur factory in Sindelfingen, Germany. Under this name, a Mercedes-Benz division focuses on personalizing luxury Mercedes, Maybach, AMG, and G-Class models. On an area of 1,200 square metres, 200 artisans work there. During the opening of the Manufaktur Studio, I had the opportunity to observe their work up close.

It is no secret that luxury car brands earn the most by fulfilling the wishes of customers who want their cars to stand out. This could be an unusual paint colour, a wheel pattern, or the interior's configuration. Mercedes-Benz is expanding its Manufaktur division with additional production techniques and personalization options.

They are following in the footsteps of brands like Bentley and Rolls-Royce, which base their business model on this. - Bespoke personalization brings us significant profits, although even the basic version ensures a reasonable margin. It's just that no one orders the basic version - said Rolls-Royce CEO Torsten Müller-Ötvös to money.pl in 2023.

There are stories, among others, about ordering paint to match a favourite lipstick or pearls from a family collection. Nothing stops anyone from having decorative elements made of salmon leather on the dashboard if the client is a fish breeder. Or have a constellated zodiac sign on the headliner above each seat for each child and spouse.

Mercedes-Benz is taking this path, although brand representatives prefer to talk about a return to their roots rather than imitating others. They often recall that the first car in Mercedes history was made to the special order of Austrian businessman and diplomat Emil Jellinek. It was intended to be a light automobile capable of winning a race in Nice and defeating French machines. Wilhelm Maybach designed it. The orderer required that the car be named after Jellinek's daughter, Mercedes.

In 2025, the Maybach S-Class configurator will feature as many as 50 new paint colours. In total, there will be over 80 to choose from. Although a growing number of people want to stand out on the road, the black S-Class will not disappear from the roads.

The Manufaktur Studio opened in Sindelfingen, also implements matrix assembly line technology. The vehicle moves on an autonomous trolley from station to station, where custom-made interior elements are manually assembled. The hood can be decorated with a mosaic of Maybach emblems thanks to PixelPaint, a "printer" for car bodies. In the future, other designs will be added to the offer.

Good lighting, cameras, and Artificial Intelligence help detect even the smallest flaws in leather sheets intended for upholstery production. Insect bite marks, scars, and burns result in disqualification. However, the raw material is not discarded - defective parts are cut out and used, for example, to produce gadgets and small leather accessories.

Leather can cover the steering wheel, dashboard, seats, door sides, and headliner. Individual elements are cut by machine - using either a conventional blade or high-pressure water. The latter method is more precise. The leather is applied to structural elements by hand.

Characteristics of luxury Maybach and Mercedes models are the leather pillows on the rear captain's seats. The sewing work is done inside out. An opening is left through which - after turning the right side out - filler is inserted, and the pillow is hand-sewn so that it is invisible.

Personalization within Manufaktur may include embroidering or hot-stamping emblems or patterns on the headrests. A catalogue of ready-made designs or your own - a signature or family coat of arms - can be chosen.

The Maybach S 680 starts at approximately 352,000 CAD. An embroidered brand logo on headrests and floor mats costs approximately 2,180 CAD. A leather package covering Nappa leather seats, headliner, and dashboard covers, adding leather pillows, is over 13,500 CAD.

Painting the body in one of the Manufaktur colours costs approximately 2,100 CAD to 10,000 CAD. The two-tone painting of the Maybach S680 costs nearly 26,400 CAD. In 2025, another 50 new colours will be added to the palette. There is no additional charge for one of several Manufaktur steering wheels, for example, finished in leather and wood.

The most expensive Mercedes-Maybach is the special edition S680 Virgil Abloh, named after the late designer. The limited edition of 150 copies was owned by DJ Khaled and Alicia Keys, among others. It costs almost 500,000 euros (approximately 717,500 CAD).

However, the new Manufaktur Studio is not only about a larger catalogue of colours and accessories; Mercedes wants to create the "ambiance" of buying a luxury car. Again, following the example of Rolls-Royce and Bentley, it offers an experience related to, among other things, visiting the factory and watching how the car is made. This is especially important since personalization extends the waiting time by several months. As representatives of Manufaktur Studio convince, customers with special wishes are willing to wait.