Rolls-Royce Cullinan Series II vs Mercedes-Maybach GLS 600, The Ultimate Ultra-Luxury SUV Comparison

There are two distinct philosophies at work in the ultra-luxury SUV market — two fundamentally different answers to the question of what an automobile costing between $174,350 and well above $400,000 should provide its owner. The first philosophy, embodied by the Mercedes-Maybach GLS 600, holds that ultra-luxury is best delivered through the fusion of cutting-edge German engineering, the most sophisticated driver assistance technology available in any production vehicle, extraordinary rear passenger comfort and the democratic accessibility — relative to its competition — of a product whose development costs are shared across the broader Mercedes-Benz platform family. The second philosophy, embodied by the 2025 Rolls-Royce Cullinan Series II, holds that ultra-luxury is fundamentally a craft proposition — that the finest materials, the most exclusive provenance, the most completely bespoke ownership experience and the quietest, most serene cabin environment ever fitted to an SUV body justify a price premium of more than double the Stuttgart alternative and that buyers at this level of the market understand, intuitively and immediately, why every pound of that premium has been invested wisely. This comparison examines both automobiles with the thoroughness that buyers investing this level of capital deserve, identifying where each leads, where each concedes and which buyer, ultimately, each vehicle is designed for.

Gallery: Rolls-Royce Cullinan Series II vs Mercedes-Maybach GLS 600

Design and Visual Identity: British Monumentality vs. German Expressionism

The Rolls-Royce Cullinan Series II is the most substantially updated version of the world’s most exclusive series-production SUV since the original Cullinan’s 2018 introduction — bringing a comprehensively redesigned front fascia whose most distinctive feature is a new V-shaped graphic above the lower air intakes that Rolls-Royce’s designers describe as evoking the bow of a yacht cutting through water. This Yachting-inspired design gesture is simultaneously the most practically aerodynamic and the most symbolically resonant change in the Series II’s exterior update — connecting the world’s most prestigious SUV to the world of private maritime travel through a visual reference whose elegance is apparent to those who understand it and whose authority is apparent to everyone else. New draping DRL signatures frame updated headlights with genuine three-dimensionality, and the updated rear treatment adds crease lines sloping toward the wheels and a gloss-black lower bumper section contrasting with bright stainless steel exhaust surrounds and bumper inserts. The new 23-inch alloy wheels — each milled from a single billet of aluminium in a three-dimensional seven-spoke design available in part or fully polished specification — are among the most visually spectacular standard alloy options ever offered on any production vehicle, and their availability in the new Emperador Truffle exterior paint — a contemporary solid grey-brown inspired by luxurious brown marble — creates a combination of understated visual drama appropriate to a vehicle of this status.

The Mercedes-Maybach GLS 600’s exterior is, by contrast, a more expressively decorated interpretation of luxury SUV presence — a vehicle that announces its status through the visual richness of its large chrome grille, its distinctive Maybach mesh badge treatment and its two-tone exterior colour combinations that pair contrasting upper and lower body colours in a manner that is unmistakably, deliberately and confidently opulent. The GLS foundation beneath the Maybach’s enhancements is itself an attractive SUV design whose proportions are more conventional and more palatable to buyers whose aesthetic preferences trend toward the understated — and the Maybach’s decoration of that foundation, while effective at communicating the car’s status, cannot claim the monumental, handbuilt visual authority of the Cullinan’s Architecture of Luxury aluminium spaceframe body. Between these two design philosophies — the Rolls-Royce’s cathedral-like proportion and handbuilt presence versus the Maybach’s expressive, jewelled German luxury — the choice is not one of better or worse but of fundamentally different aesthetic ambitions and fundamentally different aesthetic audiences.

Powertrain and Performance: V12 Effortlessness vs. V8 Intelligence

The Rolls-Royce Cullinan Series II is powered by Rolls-Royce’s N74 twin-turbocharged 6.75-litre V12 engine — a powerplant of legendary status in the ultra-luxury world, producing 600 horsepower and 664 pound-feet of torque in standard Series II specification, with Black Badge variants delivering 592 horsepower and 664 pound-feet of torque through a separately calibrated performance map that prioritises a darker, more assertive character over the standard car’s majestic effortlessness. The V12’s character in the Cullinan is not primarily one of acceleration drama — though the 5.0-second zero to 60 miles per hour time is perfectly adequate for a vehicle whose primary identity is grand traversal rather than rapid transit — but of the creamy, seamless, seemingly bottomless torque delivery that only a large-displacement twelve-cylinder engine can provide. From the moment the accelerator is engaged, the Cullinan responds with a silence and a smoothness whose combined effect is best described as the automotive equivalent of effortless — a vehicle that consumes distance without appearing to make any effort whatsoever in doing so.

The Mercedes-Maybach GLS 600’s twin-turbocharged 4.0-litre V8 produces 550 horsepower and 538 pound-feet of torque, assisted by a 48-volt mild-hybrid EQ Boost system that contributes an additional 21 horsepower and 184 pound-feet of torque during acceleration from rest — filling the turbocharged V8’s delivery curve from the very moment of throttle application with an immediacy that the turbochargers alone cannot provide. The result is a 0-60 time of 4.8 seconds, a figure that betters the Cullinan’s by a meaningful margin but whose performance advantage is essentially irrelevant in the context of how both vehicles are actually used by their actual owners. The Maybach’s V8 is a sophisticated and thoroughly accomplished powertrain whose output and its character of delivery are entirely appropriate to a vehicle at this price level. It is not, however, a V12, and the qualitative difference between eight and twelve cylinders in smoothness, mechanical refinement and the sensation of effortless power at low rpm is perceptible to every experienced driver who has sampled both — a difference that Rolls-Royce buyers consistently rank as one of their primary purchase justifications.

Interior Luxury: The Decisive Dimension

The interior of the 2025 Rolls-Royce Cullinan Series II is the most comprehensively updated aspect of the Series II programme and the area in which the car most clearly and most emphatically establishes its leadership of the ultra-luxury SUV category. The new Illuminated Fascia — a first for any Rolls-Royce production model — creates a luminous dashboard panel of extraordinary visual presence, available in multiple colour configurations that transform the cabin’s atmosphere dramatically between daytime and nighttime use. A new Clock Cabinet replaces the previous analogue clock with a more architecturally prominent timepiece housing, and new rear-seat technology interfaces control independent rear Wi-Fi hotspots for streaming content to the individual rear screens — a practically relevant connectivity enhancement that reflects Rolls-Royce’s understanding that its rear passengers are among the world’s most active and most demanding mobile connectivity users. The new Placed Perforation craft technique — developed by Rolls-Royce artisans specifically for the Series II and used here for the first time on a series production model — creates decorative artwork across leather surfaces through precisely positioned tiny perforations that reward close examination with the satisfaction of genuine artisanal achievement rather than machine-produced pattern.

No plastic is visible on any surface within the Cullinan’s interior. The materials are, without exception, the finest available — real leather of exceptional softness and consistency, genuine wood veneer of extraordinary quality and variety, real metal controls of satisfying mass and precision and, in the optional Starlight Headliner configuration, a canopy of hand-woven fibre optic threads whose effect on the cabin’s night-time atmosphere genuinely approaches the transcendent. The coach doors at the rear — opening opposite to conventional doors and closing with a power-assisted motor at the touch of a button — create an arrival and departure ceremony of a kind that no other production vehicle provides, and the optional Cocktail Suite configuration, which converts the rear cargo area into an external seating and entertainment environment accessible through the split tailgate, provides a lifestyle versatility that is entirely unique to the Cullinan in the ultra-luxury SUV market.

The Mercedes-Maybach GLS 600’s interior is, within the context of what the German automotive industry’s finest craftspeople and most sophisticated manufacturing processes can deliver at this price point, genuinely extraordinary. The optional four-seat rear configuration with individual executive seats, a fixed centre console and reclining, massaging seat functions creates a rear passenger experience of exceptional quality whose comfort credentials have been independently confirmed as superior to the Cullinan’s rear bench in several assessments. The Maybach’s technology integration — MBUX infotainment, the available Executive Rear Suite entertainment package and the comprehensive suite of driver assistance systems — provides a degree of connected functionality that the Cullinan, with its deliberate prioritisation of timeless luxury over contemporary technology, does not attempt to match. For buyers whose luxury priorities include the most advanced technology alongside the finest materials, the Maybach’s interior offers a more comprehensively equipped environment. For buyers whose luxury priorities centre on the quality of material and the depth of craftsmanship present in every surface, the Cullinan’s interior exists in a category that the Maybach, for all its considerable achievement, has not displaced.

The Flagbearer vs. E-Active Body Control: Suspension Excellence from Two Philosophies

The Cullinan Series II’s self-levelling air suspension incorporates Rolls-Royce’s proprietary Flagbearer stereo camera system — mounted within the front windscreen — that scans the road ahead at speeds up to 62 miles per hour and pre-conditions the suspension for approaching surface imperfections before the wheel makes contact with them. This predictive ride management system, combined with the Cullinan’s electrically actuated active anti-roll bars and four-wheel steering system, produces a ride quality whose smoothness and composure have never been improved upon in any production SUV at any price — a carpet-like progression over even the most deteriorated road surfaces that automotive journalists consistently describe as the defining quality of the Cullinan ownership experience and the dimension in which it most completely exceeds every SUV competitor regardless of cost.

The Mercedes-Maybach GLS 600’s E-Active Body Control system is itself a remarkably sophisticated active suspension technology — incorporating individual hydraulic actuators at each wheel that can raise or lower that corner of the vehicle independently and instantaneously in response to sensor inputs from road-facing cameras scanning the surface ahead. The two systems share a common ambition — predictive rather than reactive ride management — and both achieve results that are genuinely extraordinary by any objective assessment. The Cullinan’s system is calibrated with a bias toward the absolute maximum of rear occupant isolation from disturbance. The Maybach’s system is calibrated with a greater willingness to permit minor body movements in the interest of delivering a slightly more dynamic and more involving driving experience — a calibration choice that is not a deficiency but a deliberate design decision reflecting the different character that each manufacturer has established for their respective vehicle.

Personalisation, Exclusivity and the Question of Value

The Rolls-Royce Bespoke programme is the most comprehensive production vehicle personalisation service available from any manufacturer in the world — a collaborative creative process between the buyer and Rolls-Royce’s dedicated Bespoke design team that places no effective limit on what can be specified, commissioned or incorporated into a Cullinan’s specification. Exterior colours can be drawn from any source the buyer provides — a favourite garment, a piece of art, a sample of marine paint from a beloved yacht. Interior materials can include cashmere upholstery, gold leaf fascia inlays, gemstone embellishments and hand-embroidered headliner designs of effectively unlimited complexity. The price ceiling for a fully commissioned Bespoke Cullinan is, in practice, determined entirely by the buyer’s ambitions rather than by any limit the manufacturer imposes.

The Mercedes-Maybach GLS 600 offers 14 exterior paint options including two-tone combinations, eight leather colour choices, four trim accent options and six curated Inspired Specifications through the Inspiration Lounge — a personalisation programme of genuine depth for a mainstream-platform luxury SUV but one whose scope and ambition are categorically different from the Rolls-Royce Bespoke experience’s one-of-one commission framework. At $174,350, the Maybach provides access to the ultra-luxury SUV category at a price that buyers who find the Cullinan’s $400,000-plus asking figure disproportionate to their specific priorities will regard as excellent value for the specification provided. Whether the Cullinan’s additional investment is justified depends on the buyer’s weighting of the specific dimensions in which it leads — craftsmanship depth, V12 character, personalisation scope and the ineffable quality of the Rolls-Royce ownership experience — against the Maybach’s advantages in technology integration, rear seat practicality and outright performance per pound spent.

The Verdict: Which Ultra-Luxury SUV Is Better?

The Mercedes-Maybach GLS 600 is the most accomplished, most technologically sophisticated and most comprehensively specified ultra-luxury SUV available below $200,000 — a vehicle that provides access to genuine Maybach luxury at a price that the Cullinan regards as a modest option package. For buyers whose priorities include the finest available driver assistance technology, four genuinely usable rear seats, the superior 0-60 performance and the prestigious three-pointed star badge, it is an exceptional and entirely justifiable choice. The Rolls-Royce Cullinan Series II is the finest, the most exclusive and the most completely handcrafted luxury SUV in production anywhere in the world — a vehicle that leads its competitor in ride quality, personalisation depth, material authenticity, V12 character and the indefinable but immediately perceptible quality of presence that the Rolls-Royce name has represented across more than a century of extraordinary motorcars. The question of which is better is not the right question. The right question is which buyer you are — and the answer to that question will direct you, with complete certainty, to the right vehicle.

Read: Skip the Maybach? Here Are the Best Ultra-Luxury Alternatives Under $150,000 in 2027

Head-to-Head Comparison Chart

Category	Rolls-Royce Cullinan Series II	Mercedes-Maybach GLS 600
Starting MSRP (US)	Above $400,000	$174,350
Engine	6.75L Twin-Turbo V12	4.0L Twin-Turbo V8 + 48V Mild Hybrid
Power	600 hp / 664 lb-ft	550 hp + 21 hp EQ Boost
0–60 mph	5.0 Seconds	4.8 Seconds
Platform	Architecture of Luxury (Aluminium Spaceframe)	Mercedes GLS (Steel / Aluminium)
Suspension	Air Suspension + Flagbearer Predictive Camera	E-Active Body Control (Hydraulic Actuators)
Rear Seat Config	5-Seat or 4-Seat (Optional)	5-Seat or 4-Seat Executive (Optional)
Headliner	Starlight Fibre Optic (Optional)	Panoramic Sunroof / Ambient Lighting
Doors	Coach-Style Rear Doors (Power Close)	Standard Rear Doors
Wheels	23-Inch Billet Aluminium Milled	21-Inch or 22-Inch Alloy
Personalisation	Rolls-Royce Bespoke – Unlimited	14 Exterior / 8 Interior Options
Infotainment	Spirit-Themed Digital Instruments	MBUX System with AI Assistant
Driver Assistance	Standard Suite	Advanced MBUX + Active Safety Systems
Unique Feature	Cocktail Suite / Spirit of Ecstasy / Starlight	Maybach Executive Rear Suite / EQ Boost
Assembly	Goodwood, England (Handbuilt)	Tuscaloosa, Alabama / Sindelfingen
Warranty	4-Year / Unlimited Mileage	4-Year / 50,000-Mile
Best For	Bespoke Craftsmanship and Provenance	Technology-Led Luxury at Accessible Ultra-Luxury Price