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Likes:
- Small-car agility
- Vast backseat space
- Serene at speed
- Fantastic multicontour seats
- Exotic performance of AMG models
- Hybrid breaks new ground for brand
Dislikes:
- Sky-high price
- Balky COMAND controller
- Styling's not for every taste
The S-Class four-door spans a wide gulf at the top of the Mercedes range. The largest Benz sedan short of the princely Maybach 57 and 62, the S-Class nudges $90,000 in its least expensive form and more than doubles that in AMG tune. Across the spectrum, the S-Class models share plenty of good things, from the latest safety technology to serenity at high speeds to a very spacious backseat fit for anyone with more than a "Mr." or "Mrs." prefix in their name. New in 2007, with a facelift this year, the big S-Class cruises in the pack of top-rated luxosedans along with the BMW 7-Series, the Audi A8, the Lexus LS, and the Jaguar XJ. AMG versions can rightly be compared with the Bentley Continental, Rolls-Royce Ghost, and Aston Martin Rapide.
The S-Class has veered from bank-vault thick lines in the early 1990s to a more feminine sculpting late last decade to the current shape, a more masculine mix of crisp creases and subtle arcs. It's not entirely cohesive, but the S-Class' sheetmetal conveys great road presence, especially from the rear quarters, where the perfectly blistered fenders intersect with a rising bumper line. This year the sedan gets a reshaped grille, new and smoother front bumpers, new rear bumpers, and LED turn signals in the headlamps. AMG versions also wear a new grille (louvered on the S65), deep air dams, and new 19- and 20-inch wheels. Hybrid versions can be identified by their round fog lamps and daytime driving lights. Aesthetics are calmer and more relaxed inside the S-Class, where a wide, ornately grained wave of wood bridges the cabin, capped by a large LCD screen for secondary controls and adorned by a minimum of buttons and switches. Gauges are lit in bright white. The shift control sits on the steering column, which frees the dash from the clutter that afflicts some competitive cars. Only a glitch or two, like the tacked-on ergonomic pad behind the COMAND controller, disrupts the cabin's design clarity.
