MERCEDES S CLASS

MERCEDES ALL NEW S CLASS : the best or nothing


The last word in luxury limos hasn't been spoken until Mercedes-Benz has had the floor. Herr Dr. Benz’s firm was making the preferred shipping containers for the mostly unelected elite when Audi was merely a business plan, when BMW was in the bubble-car business, and when the word “lexus” was just badly butchered Latin. No company in this market has more experience catering to finicky buyers.

Thus does Mercedes now deliver its latest take on the executive-level sedan after just about everybody else, from Hyundai to Hongqi, has taken a shot. Over the years, Benz and its closest competitors have reduced power, handling, and comfort to commodities. Supplying them in overabundance is the table ante now, so the strategy with the new S, code-named W222 and initially available in the U.S. as the S550 and S550 4MATIC, has been to think of what else the rich desire even before the rich think of it themselves.

For example, absolutely nobody knows he needs two reverse gear ratios or stereo-speaker mood lights in seven driver-selectable colors. At least, not yet. Or seat coolers that suck (air) for four minutes before they blow, which does indeed chill your sweaty backside more quickly. The “hot-stone massage” feature, also optional, feels as if somebody were poking you with warm snooker balls. And the softer pillows on the headrests of the two optional, electrically reclining “executive” rear chairs are like dunking your head into clotted cream. Indians even get special maxi air conditioning that can channel a nor'easter at your chest.

INSIDE

While the technologies dominate your thinking about the new S, it's important to remember they're bolted onto what is, at heart, a very fine luxury barge. The self-driving kit and Magic Body Control are a Rs. 685190.75  hit to the S500 L, but the car isn't sparse without. Even the base S350 diesel has a cabin of lavish plushness, equipped with two 12.3-inch hi-res screens, air suspension, navigation and internet, and even a lighting system consisting entirely of LEDs - headlamps, cabin lamps, everything.

The longer of the two wheelbases allows space to option a pair of soft and embracing back seats that recline near-horizontally, with electric calf cushions and heating not just for the seat surfaces but even the armrests. Mercedes knows this market so well, it has even provided two different ways to arrange the front passenger seat to maximise stretching room for the potentate behind, depending on whether their culture allows or disapproves of the sight of unshod feet.

Driving

The S500's active suspension has two modes, an automatic one that uses the Magic Body Control and aims always to keep supple. It rolls a little and understeers and heaves if you drive like you've got no passengers, but the ride is unprecedented over big bumps and excellent if not quite unmatched over smaller corrugations. Hit Sport, and the Magic Body Control turns off, but it's still not jarring. In corners, things firm up, the roll disappears and the understeer is cancelled. It's not engaging, but it'd be rapid enough for getting away from a diplomatic incident.