Geneva's Best Concept Cars

Geneva's Best Concept Cars

Geneva's Best Concept Cars

Wow! This year's Geneva Motor Show was rife with fabulous vehicles, showing — once again — that the auto industry is not only on the mend, but gaining pace. And you all know what that means: more and increasingly ambitious concept cars. Ironically, they all have to compete with an odd little Morgan 3-wheeler, which would be a concept for any other company. But here in Geneva, it's the first showing for a car that will actually be in customers' hands within a few months. So it's not part of this slide show. However, here are our 10 favorite concepts from the show floor. They illustrate both what may be in showrooms within a year or two, and the stylistic extremes that ooze from a car designer's mind.

Why does this Mercedes cost $500,000?

2011 Maybach 62 S

 The Maybach isn't the most expensive car in the world, but it is the highest-price line of autos made by Mercedes-Benz. The 62S model of the Maybach — the automaker's answer to the Rolls-Royce and Bentley — costs 8 million Hong Kong dollars (about US$1 million). And that's without extras.But the biggest reason for its high price is the Hong Kong luxury tax, about 50% in this Chinese territory. In the U.S., the car costs about $459,000. Even so, we found that as luxury cars go, the Maybach doesn't offer much beyond what other cars in this category offer, save for a couple of features.