Maybach is a German automotive brand with a history in producing opulent and ultra luxurious cars during the 1920s and 1930s. Originally founded by Wilhelm Maybach in 1909, the Maybach company originally began as a manufacturer of zeppelin engines, then it expanded to producing automobiles in 1921. Automobile production ended due to WW2, when the company produced many of the engines used in tanks by the Third Reich. After the war, the company continued to build engines, but no automotive production resumed. Maybach was purchased by Daimler in 1960, using the name occasionally on special limited Mercedes S variants. In 2003, the Maybach brand was revived and released the 57 and 62. Based on the W140 S-Class, these cars were created to compete with Rolls Royce and Bentley, but they never matched sales expectations, and in 2012 they exited production. In 2013, Daimler announced that Maybach would no longer produce cars, and they rolled the brand into the Mercedes-Benz family, appearing as a vehicle designation for top of the line luxury variants, much in the same way AMG applies to performance models.