Logos à Go-Go

Mercedes-Maybach SL680 HIGHS: Cushier ride, elevated exclusivity, enhanced snob appeal. LOWS: A Louis Vuitton handbag becomes a car, pooch-perch rear seats are gone, cleaning the white carpet (or having to doff your shoes).

- Joe Lorio

LIKE GRAINS OF SAND ON A BEACH or lifestyle influencers on social media, the double-M logos on the Mercedes-Maybach SL680 are seemingly uncountable.

It's as if a designer handbag has taken automotive form. A cynic might say that the strenuous branding is because the $227,350 Maybach SL is not all that different from a mere Mercedes-AMG SL, which ranges from $113,700 to $209,050. But the cynic would be wrong.

There's more to this car than its branding, extensive though it may be. Those Maybach Ms are imprinted on the fabric roof, they form a mesh that fills the lower air intake of the front fascia, and (as an option) they tattoo the long hood. Look around the car, and you'll discover others here and there, kind of like how you keep finding red Solo cups half full of beer days after a blowout house party.

First, there are other visual distinctions. A restyled nose incorporates the Maybach subbrand's toothy grille. The SL680 also gets special wheels, 21-inchers in either a monoblock design or the 36-spoke pattern seen here. And there are subtle detail changes as well.