It would take a road tester with many more miles on the clock than yours truly to tell you when it was first claimed that the Mercedes S-Class might just be the best car in the world. Well, now there’s a new one, and it’s emerging into a rapidly and radically changing car market. So, might that assertion still be the case?
What is meant by that claim is that this big Benz might be the most technologically advanced and roundly accomplished new car of any currently in production. Sadly, it’s not so good as to have been bewitched by Ronald Weasley’s dad: better value than a Ford Fiesta, faster than a Porsche, brilliant off road, never needs petrol, capable of low-level flight etc… If Mercedes did autonomous driving a bit more like Harry Potter’s flying Ford Anglia did it, this car might be a little easier to warm to.
The point is, as it has heralded so many world-first technologies over the years, the S-Class has remained so utterly word perfect at its particular job – of being the world’s defining limousine – that little else has come close to challenging it for stature. But, for almost all of its long life, the S-Class has also been Stuttgart’s ‘special’ halo model. It has occupied an apparently unassailable place in the company’s model hierarchy that made it subordinate to nothing. And yet, for the new version, that position would appear to have been assailed – and not just once.
There are now several ways to spend more money on a new Mercedes than on an S-Class. You might well do so on a fully loaded AMG performance saloon, estate, GT or sports car, for example. There are Mercedes’ Maybach-badged super-luxury options to consider, too.
And there will soon be yet another high-end, in-house rival for the S-Class’s long-held showroom primacy: the car company insiders are already describing as the ‘new flagship’. Unlike the new S-Class, the all-electric EQS, due later this year, does have an all-new model platform, as well as the lure of zero-emission running and that incredible-looking, full-width, all-digital dashboard you’ll have probably already seen in pictures. Cars like that inevitably hoover up research and development resource that might otherwise have been directed at other expensive projects. They just have to.
Join the debate
Add your comment
I miss the W126! Give me a restored 560SEC or SEL any day over this homogenised fart. MB is losing its way. Hyundai/KIa make better EVs if you compare the unbelievably ugly and amateurish EQS to the Ioniq 5 or Kia EV6. MB's cars are identical to look at and increasingly staid inside. The EV revolution will open the door to Chinese and other EV challengers making it harder to justify the premium for essentially no differnce in tech, performance or quality.
I'm not a fan of the new S class, however comparing a 6litre 12 cyl. Bentley to a 3 litre diesel Mercedes at half the price seems a bit strange.
Surely a top of the line S class with all its features included would be a fairer comparison?
I would far rather the money was spent on making the cars to a higher standard.