All hail to the brand-new Sultan of Bling, the flagship of the fleet, the mighty, all-new Mercedes-Benz S-Class super sedan.
Listed here is Mercedes grabbing the mantle of tech chief and King of Komfort, in what is a real masterpiece of motion.
It has entrance wheels that steer, it has rear wheels that steer, it has cushions of air for suspension, it has an electric motor to increase effectiveness oomph, and electric power massaging, cooling, and pillow-topped seats.
It also has a centre, hello-def, tap-and-swipe touchscreen that’s as big as the one in your dwelling area.
Whilst S-Class sales have taken a pounding of late, mostly via our intensive, passionate appreciate affair with luxury SUVs, this new “S” even now requires awareness, praise and a fat examining account for payment.
What we have here is the most technically-sophisticated output auto devised by any white-coated brainiac engineer, rocket scientist or 14-yr-aged software programmer.
This is a automobile conveniently capable of driving by itself, of defying physics when it arrives to cornering, of reading your inner-most feelings. “You vill pull above and drink ze coffee mein driver”.
Alas, like a salmon swimming upstream, or a very poor mayfly – everyday living expectancy 24 hours – the days of this new S-Course are surely numbered. Afterwards this yr, Mercedes will begin offering its genuinely floor-breaking, all-electric powered S-Class, the EQS.
Whilst the layout of the new S is absolutely evolutionary, the EQS’s curvy lines, Sumo-wrestler stance and in-your-deal with entrance close, are a head-turning revolution.
And although the S works by using a Flintstone-era, fossil-fuel-guzzling V8, the EQS will offer a potent, zero-emission, electric driveline cranking out 516-horsepower, and able of gliding about 300 miles on a charge.
But which is tomorrow, and a complete bunch of complex, scary, unproven technologies away. Ideal now I’m cruising alongside rolling, twisting Rhode Island country streets, wondering there is no finer large-falutin’ luxurious sedan on the earth than this.
I have driven north from New York City in this beautiful $133,550 S580 4Matic Executive Line flagship, serenaded by its 1,750-watt Burmester 4D surround audio process. It functions 30 speakers and 8, er, vibrators in the backs of the seats to thump in time with the tunes. Springsteen has never ever sounded so husky.
Indeed, there’s a “base” S500 model with a turbocharged 3.-liter on the web six, with prices from all around $111,000. But why would you bother? Life’s too quick to skimp on electric power and luxurious.
Squeeze the S580’s throttle and you ride on a tsunami of surge, the twin-turbo V8 offering its 496 horses with the smoothness and urgency of h2o gushing from the Hoover Dam. Pre-drought, of class.
And that significant V8 is aided and abetted by a 48-volt electrical motor that throws-in an excess 21-hp for extra off-the-line punch and fast mid-assortment thrust.
But it’s arguably the way the huge Benz handles by itself that impresses so much.
Straightforward items, like the new rear-wheel steering. Certainly this is a substantial car or truck, but at lower speeds, the technique will change the rear wheels in the reverse route of the fronts by up to 10 levels.
That cuts the turning radius by just about seven ft to 36 toes. Parking now becomes as simple as docking a Prius.
Then there is the air suspension that provides this new “S” the experience of basically floating on air. This could be the finest-using luxurious sedan out there.
But for a emotion of true, hedonistic luxurious, slide into the Merc’s reclining rear seats. Gulfstream jets do not supply this degree of luxe. They’ll great you and massage you, and have particular person 11.6-inch screens to entertain you. The industry’s to start with rear-seat airbag program, could possibly just conserve your everyday living way too.
It would acquire a e-book the sizing of War & Peace to cover all the astonishing technological know-how that is accessible with this new “S”. Most of it I have to say, observed baffling and distracting. Luckily, the good “Hey Mercedes” voice manage will get treatment of most instructions.
Of training course the big predicament in this article is no matter whether you travel, or be pushed? I could just prefer the back seat.
