Maybach 62 S news - Lose £350 a day... - 2009

With all the spare cash floating merrily round the economy at the moment, we’re sure it’s a question you’ve asked yourself: what’s the quickest way to lose all my money on a car?

Short of, y’know, actually setting fire to it. Or lending it to Cristiano Ronaldo. Well, we’ve got the answer.

Buy a Maybach 62S.

Invest in one of the dictator-spec luxury saloons and it’ll shed – ready for this? - £350 per day during the first year. According to research by Parker’s, the £345,800 62S loses a whopping £216,600 in its first 12 months, leaving its value at just £129,200 – or just over 60 per cent of its original price.

£350 a day! How brutal is that? Wander sleepily down to your heated underground garage in the morning, click the Maybach’s fob and wham! £350 down the drain. Every day. Ouch.

Maybe it’s no less than you’d expect from something as absurd and ostentatious as the 62S. The bad news is that even the more sensible limos are leaking money just as precipitously – worse, in fact, in percentage terms. The Merc S600, for example, loses 47 per cent of its value in the first year, while the BMW 7-Series is worth just 49 per cent of its original list price.

Want to avoid the depreciation deluge? Don’t buy a car. Or, if you have to, go for a Rolls Royce Phantom Saloon, which loses a mere £71,550 of its value in the first year – or just 24 per cent of its £298,900 list price. Top value, that is.

Who said we don’t do sensible consumer advice?