The measure of luxury used to be amenities–things like climate control AC, power everything, leather seats (heated, even), and, of course, power everything.
The problem for luxury car makers is that everyone else has those things. Even $20K cars now usually come standard with most of those things. At the $30K point, they’re almost a given as hubcaps were a part of the deal 30 years ago.
Today, luxury cars are defined as much by their technology. The just redesigned Mercedes S-Class sedan has more of that than almost any other car.
What It Is
The S500 (and its bigger-engined sibling, the S580) are the ultimate in luxury, and technology, available from Mercedes-Benz.
Well, shy of the ultra-luxury Maybach Benzes.
Both versions of the S-Class sedan are full-size sedans that come standard with items that aren’t generally optional in lesser cars, including door pulls that flush mount until the car senses your approach and then surfaces to meet your hand. Other amenities include a 30-speaker Burmester audio system with 4D resonators and rear-wheel-steering.
The main difference between the S500, which stickers for $109,800 to start, and the $116,300 to start S580 is their power plants.
If you opt for the S500 you’ll get a twin-turbo V6/mild hybrid combo; the S580 comes with a turbocharged V8, also paired with the mild-hybrid system.
Both cars come standard with Mercedes’ 4-Matic AWD system.
What’s New
The S-Class gets subtle styling revisions and major technology revisions, including a new 12.8-inch Organic LED touchscreen, through which most of the car’s secondary systems are controlled. Many of these can also be voice-controlled, as by asking the car to perform the function desired such as turning on the massaging seats or finding the type of music you’d like to hear the Burmester 30-speaker stereo play.
There is also a new Head-Up Display (HUD) option that functions almost like virtual reality goggles. Instead of the usual cheesy-looking speed display hovering just ahead of the windshield, this one almost holographically projects your speed and other data in a big (and wide) display that appears to float about ten yards ahead of the car.
Both the standard V6 and the optional V8 engine are paired with the 48-volt flywheel starter-generator system that’s used in other Benz models, such as the E-Class. There’s not much mileage gain, but power is up, considerably, vs. the previous-generation S-Class engines without the “EQ Boost” system.
The formerly optional 4Matic AWD system is also standard now, and for now, at least, the previously available V12 (in the AMG S 65) isn’t available.
It may, however, come back later in the 2022 calendar year as so will an updated plug-in hybrid version that can travel about 60 miles on a charge
What’s Good
- Lots of tech to justify the price.
- More power without less mileage.
- Traditionally stately elegance that manages to look modern, too.
What’s Not So Good
- Only a six in a six-figure sedan?
- Hybrid gear adds to the cost and may add more to it, down the road.
- Compact-sized (12.9-cubic feet) trunk.
Under The Hood
The new S is a bigger car than it was previously, but its standard engine, a 3.0-liter in-line six, hasn’t gotten any larger.
But it is stronger. Without being thirstier.
These two seemingly mutually exclusive attributes have been reconciled by adding a flywheel-mounted starter/generator to the back of the engine (in between it and the nine-speed automatic transmission), that’s used to gently and unobtrusively cycle the six off when its power isn’t needed (as when decelerating or coasting).
Then just as gently and unobtrusively, cycle it back on when power is needed plus more, via the electric boost of the system, which ups the total output to 429 horsepower from 362 previously. There is also a slight bump up in fuel efficiency, to 20 city and 29 highway from the previous 19 city, 28 highway.
What’s not trivial is that no more gas is burned to make a not-trivial increase in total power.
Also not trivial for Mercedes is that the system makes it feasible to get the six past the increasingly daunting array of emissions regs that beset anything that still burns gas.
By burning less, you emit less. So Mercedes can still offer a six. And even an eight.
The optional engine is also the same engine as last year’s optional engine–a 4.0-liter V8, augmented by turbocharging. But this year, supplemented by the same flywheel starter/generator system and 48-volt electric used with the six.
Even more power is summoned–496 horsepower now vs. 463 from just the V8, last year. The V8’s mileage also stays about the same, in spite of the power uptick–17 city, 25 highway now vs. 17 city, 27 highway previously.
Pretty good, regardless, for a sedan that weighs close to 5,000 pounds with a driver and passenger aboard.
With the 3.0-six and the 48-volt boost, the new S-Class can hustle to 60 in just under 5 seconds. Armed with the 48-volt-boosted V8, it drops to 4 seconds flat, which is very close to the quickness of a new Mustang GT that weighs a third less and uses a lot more gas.
On The Road
It used to be a given that if you paid six figures for a luxury sedan, you would get at least a V8 if not a V12. The status conferred by displacement was a facet of luxury since few could afford such an indulgence.
As recently as 2017, the S-Class sedan can standard with a 4.7-liter, 449 horsepower V8 and the optional engine was a 6.0-liter, 523 horsepower V12. But that was four years ago and much has changed since then. Federal regulations have changed and that is why the S now comes standard with a much smaller in-line six, its optional V8 is a lot smaller than it used to be and the V12 is either gone for good or will be offered only in a future Maybach or AMG-iteration that will cost much more, which will make its availability a near-irrelevance.
Mercedes has moved engineering mountains to bridge the gap between the under hood prowess rightly expected by people who buy cars like the S and the government’s relentless demands that engines be made smaller and smaller.
But battery power will only take you so far. And while the cost of batteries is much less relevant in this class than in lesser classes, people who spend this amount of money expect to have the luxury of not having to stop and wait for every 200 miles or so to fill up so to speak.
Mercedes’ solution is to make the engine stop as often as possible, but without the driver noticing it.
The flywheel-mounted starter/generator system (and 48-volt electrics) is the achievement of much brain sweat. Both the six and the eight are shut off automatically whenever their services aren’t needed as when decelerating, coasting, or “idling” (in which case, you’re actually not). When the services of internal combustion are wanted, the extremely high torque and extremely fast-starting flywheel-mounted starter spin the engine back on with imperceptible immediacy.
There is no obnoxious paint-shaker effect of the traditional start-up, using a traditional starter powered by 12-volt electrics.
Many lesser cars still use the latter to “stop-start” their vehicles’ engines and tout this as “technology.” It is, of course, but so is a stone hammer. Stop-start “technology” is comparably crude technology. It is the antitheses of luxury to have to hear and feel the car’s engine collapsing into silence whenever the car rolls to a stop, and with it, the noticeable shutting-off of the AC and other engine-driven accessories. Then hearing and feeling the engine defibrillated back to life–over and over and over again.
You will feel and hear neither thing in the S.
It works like an electric car that doesn’t need to stop or wait. The combustion engines not having the recharge issues that beset electric cars. The combustion engines also rejuvenate the 48 colt electrics, without having to be plugged in.
The S500 can travel some 640 highway miles on a full tank of gas–easily twice as far as the farthest-traveling electric car. When it runs out of range, the wait to get going again is less than five minutes, practically anywhere vs. at least 30-45 minutes, if you can find what are hilariously styled “fast” chargers.
If not, the wait will be several hours, which isn’t very luxurious.
There are other aspects of luxury worth covering besides not having to stop — and still being able to go (these mild-hybridized S sedans are still nearly as quick as their bigger V8 and much bigger V12 -powered antecedents).
One of these is the first not-gimmicky Heads-Up Display system installed in a production car. The Mercedes HUD projects pertinent driving info well ahead of the car, rather than the usual seemingly floating over the hood deal. It is much more line of sight and also much larger without in any way being distracting or obscuring.
Another–and this is the one Mercedes is touting most–is the near elimination of physical knobs and switches to operate secondary functions, almost all of which are now engaged (Star Trek Next Generation-style) via a large flat screen tablet that is the new center stack (rather than just a part of it or projecting from it).
You swipe and tap to make it so. Or, just say so.
The new S also has the newest version of Mercedes’ voice-command system. It is meant to operate like a personal assistant. Tell her (the voice is pleasantly female) to turn on the heated steering wheel, for instance. Or the seat massagers. Or find you Bozz Scaggs and the Lido shuffle (really).
She can and will.
It’s a nice redundancy for people not as fluid with swiping and tapping as well as luxurious. Recall the opening of Downtown Abbey and the way the Earl of Grantham would summon for tea by ringing a bell. It works like that without even having to ring a bell.
Other luxuries include fluffy head pillows and the exceptional (available) 30-speaker Burmester audio system, which surrounds you with sound, undistorted even at maximum volume. The sound you can feel, even via the 4D system.
And, of course, those massaging seats, which come standard. These are almost worth six figures, by themselves. If you’ve ever sat in one of those massaging chairs that cost as much as some cars they have at high-end furniture stores, you will know what I mean.
There is more tech including flush-mounted door pulls that rise in anticipation of your presence (the key fob sends a signal to the car) and a built-in dashcam that records the road ahead and potentially someone cutting you off or brake-checking you. This might be helpful after the fact if there’s an accident.
The S580 adds a rear-wheel steering system that makes parking/maneuvering this big car easier, too. It is bundled with the Executive Line package that also includes rear seat massagers and heaters, rear neck heaters, and a rear-seat entertainment system.
At The Curb
Another fine line that has to be walked is the maintenance of elegance without tipping over into old.
The target demographic for the current S-Class is affluent middle-aged people, who are people who grew up seeing and perhaps even riding in the stately but less-than-youthful-looking big luxury cars of the ‘80s and ‘90s.
Mercedes styled this S to be impressive looking without transgressing into outré-looking, off-putting shapes and without looking like the luxury sedan the fathers of current luxury sedan buyers once drove. It sits low and on its standard 19-inch wheels (these can be upgraded to 21s), which it can do without scrub on account of the standard air-adjustable suspension system.
The best seats in the house are arguably the back seats, especially if the S is ordered with the above-referenced Executive package. But even if not, on account of more room in the back than in the already exceptionally roomy up-front.
The backseat riders have 43.8-inches of legroom (vs. 41.7 up front) and enjoy more luxuries if the car has the Executive amenities.
Regardless, the experience is similar to the one you’d enjoy in the first class section of a big jet crossing the Atlantic, or a private jet, even. This is what a car such as this is ultimately all about–to set you apart from the noise and jostling of the world, in a space where it can’t be seen or felt and where everything that can be seen and felt looks and feels intimate, personal and very special.
The Rest
There is one thing about this large car that’s surprisingly small–the trunk.
Pop it and you’ll find a mere 12.9-cubic feet of space, which isn’t much space, especially for a car this large. The S has a trunk about the same size as many compact-sized cars and smaller than most current mid-sized cars, which typically have 14-15 cubic feet, at least.
It’s a small thing but also a big thing in that this car would have trouble carrying everything three or four people needed to travel to the airport with, for instance.
Some of Benz’s rivals have trunks more appropriately sized. The BMW 7 Series, for instance, has an 18.2-cubic foot trunk. On the other hand, some other rivals — like the Audi A8 — have even less trunk (just 12.5-cubic feet).
The Bottom Line
Luxury is no longer as much about the usual amenities or engines. It takes something more and something less to keep up with the changes.
Eric Peters lives in Virginia and enjoys driving cars and motorcycles. In the past, Eric worked as a car journalist for many prominent mainstream media outlets. Currently, he focuses his time writing auto history books, reviewing cars, and blogging about cars+ for his website EricPetersAutos.com.
Editor’s Note: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author.
