Mercedes-Benz just planted a flag on one of the most expensive stretches of retail real estate on the planet. The brand opened Mercedes-Benz Studio Los Angeles in Beverly Hills this week, bringing its global brand-studio concept to the United States for the first time and using the occasion to world-premiere the new Mercedes-Maybach GLS.
The Studio is not a dealership. There are no sales towers, no finance offices, no rows of cars baking under California sun. It is part showroom, part lounge, part bespoke tailoring shop, designed to pull wealthy buyers and curious onlookers off the sidewalk and into the Mercedes-Benz ecosystem without the transactional pressure of a traditional retail environment.
Los Angeles joins a growing network of 18 such studios spanning four continents, from Munich to Tokyo to Toronto. But the Beverly Hills location carries extra weight because of what sits inside it: the first MANUFAKTUR Made to Measure Hub in the United States, and only the second in the world after the Center of Excellence in Sindelfingen, Germany.
That detail matters because the U.S. accounted for more than 40 percent of global MANUFAKTUR demand in 2025. Americans are Mercedes-Benz’s single biggest audience for extreme personalization, and until now they had to do it remotely or fly to Germany. The new hub offers private, one-to-one appointments where customers can handle leather swatches, debate paint finishes, and spec a vehicle down to the stitching with a product expert in the room.
Mercedes-Benz is also extending the MANUFAKTUR Made to Measure portfolio this month to include the AMG SL and AMG GT Two-Door Coupe. That gives buyers of those performance models access to hundreds of exterior colors and interior treatments previously reserved for the brand’s ultra-luxury tier.
The Maybach GLS world premiere served as the Studio’s marquee opening act. Mercedes-Benz calls it the pinnacle of its luxury SUV family, a private sanctuary on wheels with a commanding presence and extensive bespoke options. Nearly every Maybach customer already selects an average of three MANUFAKTUR options, and the new GLS launches with an expanded portfolio that includes full leather interiors extending to the roof liner.
That single component, the largest MANUFAKTUR piece, is hand-assembled by one craftsperson using up to 20 precisely cut leather sections. It is currently one of the most requested features among Maybach buyers.
The strategic play here is unmistakable. Mercedes-Benz is borrowing from the playbook of fashion houses and watchmakers, brands that long ago figured out that the richest customers don’t want to shop where everyone else shops. They want an appointment, a private room, a glass of something cold, and the feeling that their taste is being taken seriously.
Planting that experience in Beverly Hills, surrounded by Hermès and Rolls-Royce and the Waldorf Astoria, is a deliberate statement about where Mercedes-Benz sees itself in the luxury hierarchy.
Adam Chamberlain, president and CEO of Mercedes-Benz USA, framed it as complementary to the existing dealer network rather than competitive with it. The Studio enables “robust storytelling and personalization opportunities for customers outside of a more traditionally sales focused dealership setting,” he said. Dealers still schedule the appointments and close the deals.
The opening also lands during the brand’s “140 Years of Innovation” anniversary campaign, which is currently sending three S-Class sedans on a transcontinental journey to 140 locations worldwide.
Whether a brand studio in Beverly Hills moves the sales needle or simply burnishes the badge is a question Mercedes-Benz is betting it already knows the answer to. When four out of every ten bespoke orders on the planet come from American buyers, you stop making them browse a configurator on a laptop and build them a room instead.
Share this Story