Mercedes-Benz: S-Class News
01-01-2006, 10:48 AM
#481
Weather Watcher
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Nairobi, Kenya
Age: 44
Posts: 319
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
That S65 looks like a beast - literally. Imagine pulling up next to some dude at a light in some Beemer M something and he looks over and sees V12 BiTurbo next to ur wheel well and shits his pants. Priceless. I still do believe the 03+ E55 is the best looking AMG model in the MB lineup and it still remains my dream car. 
01-01-2006, 03:50 PM
#482
Pro
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Vienna, VA
Age: 39
Posts: 712
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Originally Posted by SSM6MTNAVI
That S65 looks like a beast - literally. Imagine pulling up next to some dude at a light in some Beemer M something and he looks over and sees V12 BiTurbo next to ur wheel well and shits his pants. Priceless. I still do believe the 03+ E55 is the best looking AMG model in the MB lineup and it still remains my dream car.
01-22-2006, 05:57 PM
#483
Race Director
2007 Mercedes S-Class to have PC card slot
The 2007 Mercedes S-Class to have by default a PC card slot in the dashboard.
Also break assist for thoes 2 stupid to hit the breaks hard enough to avoid an accident.
http://www.tgdaily.com/2006/01/20/mercedes_2007_sclass/
Also break assist for thoes 2 stupid to hit the breaks hard enough to avoid an accident.
http://www.tgdaily.com/2006/01/20/mercedes_2007_sclass/
The upcoming 2007 Mercedes S-Class won't just be stylish and fast, but it will also be smart. For around $80,000 to $130,000, the new model will get you from 0 to 60 mph in 5.4 seconds and have a collision detection system that will help avoid crashes when you are about to crash. Computer geeks can also plug PC Cards into the dash. Mercedes' "brake assist" system uses radar beams to predict when crashes will happen. If the driver is braking too little, the computers will apply the necessary pressure to stop. Unavoidable collisions will trigger the car's "pre-safe" features by pre-tightening all seatbelts, closing all the windows and moving the seats to safe positions.
In the center console is a large LCD screen that displays a digital replica of the analog gauges. In addition, drivers can switch to night vision mode. Right under the screen is a PC Card slot for drivers to plug in storage cards. With the appropriate adapter, Compact Flash and SD cards with videos are MP3s can be plugged in. The car can also come with an optional iPod dock.
In the center console is a large LCD screen that displays a digital replica of the analog gauges. In addition, drivers can switch to night vision mode. Right under the screen is a PC Card slot for drivers to plug in storage cards. With the appropriate adapter, Compact Flash and SD cards with videos are MP3s can be plugged in. The car can also come with an optional iPod dock.
02-14-2006, 01:19 PM
#484
Moderator Alumnus
Thread Starter
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Washington DC (NOVA)
Age: 52
Posts: 16,399
Likes: 0
Received 8 Likes
on
8 Posts
2007 Mercedes-Benz S550 - - BY JOHN PHILLIPS - - February 2006 - - Source: caranddriver.com
Mercedes-Benz S550
Highs: Blitzkrieg acceleration, seats fit for a CEO, as quiet as a dead church mouse.
Lows: Resolute understeerer, fiddly switchgear, more electronics than Circuit City.
The Verdict: The best S-class ever, as your chauffeur will surely confirm.
-------------------
Tally all the engine possibilities and it’s accurate to say that Mercedes-Benz currently offers—whoa!—43 models. Ask the average schmo on the street to name the most famous, and he might say, “McCambridge,” or he might say, “Gullwing,” but he’ll probably say, “S-class.” For more than 50 years, S-class Benzes have been the most succulent sausages in the Teutons’ tray of vehicular sauerkraut.
For 2007, the S-class lineup has been simplified. No more short- and long-wheelbase cars, just the 124.6-inch edition, 3.1 inches more majestic than its predecessor. The lineup now comprises the S550 tested here, whose $86,175 base price is actually $1650 shy of its S500 forebear’s, followed in April by a 510-horse V-12 S600, with a sticker close to $130,000. An all-wheel-drive S550 4MATIC should arrive in November, and the inevitable AMG variants will manifest when AMG and every F1 driver on the planet are damn well ready.
Apart from the S550’s swollen fender haunches—reminiscent of those hockey-puck shoulder pads that Larry King jams into his suits—what you notice first about this car is its seats. Really. They’re sumptuous without being saggy and offer 14-way “multicontour” adjustments that can even change the distance the cushion extends beneath your thighs, and there are optional multilevel fans blowing cold or hot winds up your keister, and there are side bolsters that suddenly stiffen in reaction to cornering forces, and there are center lumbar chambers that expand and contract to change your position twice per minute, and there’s even a vigorous Magic Fingers option that feels like small pine logs rolling slowly down the sluiceway that is your spine. We drove this S550 from Manhattan to Ann Arbor, stopping only to replenish 23.8 gallons of premium unleaded, and felt as if we should have continued on to Iowa. Similar praise can be heaped on the vast and comfy rear chairs, where you can tuck your loafers beneath the tall front seats, spread out, and fully open the Times’ Arts & Leisure section. These new seats are so good that they bear the seal of approval of the Aktion Gesunder Rücken, which is either a German outfit that rates products for spine-friendliness or a bunch of guys who look for life forms under rocks.
In the past, Mercedes expended a moderate load of warm air hyping its SOHC three-valve-per-cylinder V-8s but now has fast-forwarded to the world of twin-cam four-valvers, with superlative results. This new variable-valve-timing V-8 purrs out 382 horses at 6000 rpm but stockpiles all 391 pound-feet of its peak torque right there on the bottom shelf, ever accessible from 2800 to 4800 rpm. The engine is as smooth as a poetry major on Ambien—more than once we tried to start the bugger while it was running. Unlike your average poet, however, it is practically mute. In fact, the S550 is quieter at idle, at full throttle, and at a 70-mph cruise than a Bentley Continental GT and is exactly as quiet at 70 mph as that perennial exemplar of soporific tranquillity, the Lexus LS430.
Which somehow makes the S550’s accelerative thrust—right on the city limits of hot roddom—all the more thrilling. Apply a little brake torque and you can paint five unholy feet of Continental rubber on the deck. The S550 legs it to 60 mph in 5.3 seconds—0.8 second quicker than the last S500 we sampled and 0.1 second quicker than the new BMW 750i, the car die Benzkinder most fear. To 100 mph, the S550 lags behind the big BMW by only a tenth, but its quarter-mile ET is two-tenths quicker. Top speed for S550s fitted with M+S-rated tires is choked to 132 mph, 23 mph shy of the fun available with the optional Z-rated rubber.
Despite its aluminum hood, trunk, doors, and front fenders, the S550 is a 4688-pound luxury meteorite with handling to match. Which is to say, not much. On slippery surfaces, you can rotate the tail a Chihuahua wag or two until the unflappable stability control imposes discipline, but this Benz is otherwise hard-wired to plow like an Oshkosh H-series snow blower. The upside is a ride so plush that even the deepest potholes induce just a distant thump-wump, as if someone had dropped a tennis ball on the bedroom carpet. It’s wonderful: one soft compression, one soft rebound. And the wallowing body motions we’d normally associate with a ride so compliant are almost wholly extinguished by the optional active body control. At $3900, the ABC is dear but should be regarded as mandatory.
You’d think that any automatic with seven forward gears would be busier than the Starbucks at Sea-Tac airport. Instead, you’re almost never aware of its ministrations—one Benz dealer in New Jersey actually thought it was a CVT—and the transmission can skip as many as three gears as it downshifts. On the back of the steering spokes are rubber rockers that allow manumatic control. The pads are small and imperfectly placed, but it doesn’t matter because you’ll never use them. On its own, the automatic proved more prescient about gear selection than we ever were.
Brake feel is terrific, and the onset of ABS is subtle yet predictable. From 70 mph, the S550 stops in 11 fewer feet than an Audi A8L W-12 Quattro. The speed-sensitive steering is a tad heavy at all velocities. Tracking is fine, and effort builds in proportion to the load on the front tires, but the few road textures that are transmitted feel synthetically processed and puréed.
Speaking of beefs, we judged the side-view mirrors to be about two-thirds the size they should be, and the four window-lift switches are so flush and crammed together that you can’t operate them without looking. At tollbooths, we regularly opened the left-rear window. The overhead-light switches suffer the same fate, and Benz’s new column-mounted shifter demands that you push up for reverse, a “half push” down for neutral, and a “full push” down for drive. Yet to put the transmission into park, you must depress a button at the tip of the shifter, and none of these movements is accompanied by the slightest tactile or audible clue, so you dare not set off without first scanning the IP to determine what gear digit is aglow. Even the standard six-CD changer is tucked into a deep, dark cave whose entrance is guarded by a hinged door that, when opened, bangs into your drink in the cup holder. Why?
Thankfully, all of the S550’s HVAC functions can be controlled by 11 small chrome toggles arrayed in one horizontal lip across the pregnant bulge in the center of the dash. We say “thankfully” because other vital functions—turning on the radio, for example—must be summoned via the COMAND system (see Counterpoint).
And that’s just the tip of the electronic iceberg. There’s an optional infrared system (part of a $6500 package) that delivers a crisp black-and-white image of what’s in front of you at night. It’s good at highlighting drunken pedestrians on the berm, but you can’t use the screen alone to drive because there’s so little depth perception. So it serves as an amusing novelty for a month and then is of the same value as the dusty NordicTrack stored in your basement. There’s also an optional color camera to reveal what’s lurking behind your S550. It frames the view with blue, yellow, and red hash marks that predict where the car will go with any given steering input. Stare at it long enough and your inner ear will explode. And then there’s the $2800 Distronic Plus double-dog super-duty triple-throw-down cruise control that accelerates and brakes as it paces the car in front. Should that driver come to a complete halt and start up again, so will your S550, all of this without your ever moving a single leg muscle, although all the muscles in your face will twitch the first time you try it. It works fairly well except in moderately heavy traffic, where it lags just far enough behind the lead car that the resulting hole becomes too tempting, and adjacent motorists dive in like penguins off a berg.
The average S-class buyer lays out $10,000 in options, which strikes us as an as-yet-unnamed mental condition, because the list of standard gear would nearly fill the greater-Chicago Yellow Pages: 14 speakers, a global positioning system, eight airbags, “waterfall” lights leaking out from seams in the dash, power rear sunblind, sunroof, walnut inserts, xenon headlamps that may be the world’s best—and that ain’t the half of it. Pop for the $3900 ABC and call it a day.
Like its S-class progenitors, this ninth-gen cruiser induces more contemplation and serenity than hot-blooded enthusiasm. It coddles, protects, and isolates. It eats interstate miles like a bullfrog eats flies. And its ability to gather felonious speeds remains magical. But the S550 is otherwise not hugely involving—you might be just as pleased to let a chauffeur seize the wheel, an arrangement not uncommon on the Continent.
This is the best S-class ever, still a stately and aristocratic institution, the automotive equivalent of the Budweiser Clydesdales in the Rose Bowl parade. But unless you absolutely need the fat-CEO back seats or the seductive pretense of that chrome “S” on the rump, well, uh, a 469-horse $84,575 E55 AMG comes rapidly to mind.
Dude, Who Stole Your Radio?
We’re not gonna launch into a red-faced rant about the complicated COMAND system. For one thing, we don’t have enough pages. But it does strike us as risky to force the average S-class owner—he is, after all, 61 years old—to corral the cognitive courage necessary to wend his way, via an aluminum mouse, through approximately as many computer programs as are required to launch an ICBM from the USS Alaska. To summon music, for instance, you must:
a. Tilt the mouse forward to get to the top of the computer screen’s main menu.
b. Twist the mouse left or right to place the cursor on “Audio.”
c. Push the mouse straight down to say, “Yes, I do want to view the audio menu.”
d. Repeatedly tilt the mouse backward to toggle through your options: FM, AM, Satellite Radio, CD, DVD, MP3, or Audio Off.
e. Poke the mouse straight down to select the mode you desire.
f. Twirl the mouse left or right, now that an FM radio dial has magically appeared, to advance from channel to channel. (Note: You’re in seek mode only. If you wish to listen to weak stations, prepare to start all over again.)
g. Direct your attention away from the computer and away from the mouse and to the top-right spoke of the steering wheel, where a five-function rubber pad the size of a silver dollar will allow you to hear the station you’ve so diligently pursued.
h. Should that prove too complex, direct your attention to a small knurled wheel on the passenger side of the center console, where volume can alternately be adjusted.
Up, down, sideways. Twist, turn, poke. Hands for some functions, fingers for others, eyes continuously scanning the steering wheel, dash, screen, and center console. Exactly where is the radio? It’s everywhere. And nowhere. Can the COMAND system be mastered? Of course. Just not today.
2007 MERCEDES-BENZ S550
Vehicle type: front-engine, rear-wheel-drive, 5-passenger, 4-door sedan
Price as tested: $104,175
Price and option breakdown: base Mercedes-Benz S550 (includes $775 freight), $86,175; Premium 3 package (consists of heated, ventilated, and massaging seats; electronic trunk closer; rearview camera; Keyless Go; night-view assist; dynamic rearview mirror; dynamic multicontour seats), $6500; active body control, $3900; radar cruise control, $2800; 4-zone climate control, $1200; panorama sunroof, $1000; power rear seats, $750; power side-window blinds, $700; Sirius satellite radio, $600; wood steering wheel, $550
Major standard accessories: power windows, seats, locks, and sunroof; remote locking; A/C; cruise control; tilting and telescoping steering wheel; rear defroster
Sound system: Harman/Kardon AM-FM-satellite radio/CD changer/DVD player, 14 speakers
ENGINE
Type: V-8, aluminum block and heads
Bore x stroke: 3.86 x 3.56 in, 98.0 x 90.5mm
Displacement: 333 cu in, 5461cc
Compression ratio: 10.7:1
Fuel-delivery system: port injection
Valve gear: chain-driven double overhead cams, 4 valves per cylinder, variable intake- and exhaust-valve timing
Power (SAE net): 382 bhp @ 6000 rpm
Torque (SAE net): 391 lb-ft @ 2800 rpm
Redline: 6400 rpm
DRIVETRAIN
Transmission: 7-speed automatic with manumatic shifting
Final-drive ratio: 2.65:1
Gear, Ratio, Mph/1000 rpm, Max test speed
I, 4.38, 6.7, 43 mph (6400 rpm)
II, 2.86, 10.3, 66 mph (6400 rpm)
III, 1.92, 15.4, 98 mph (6400 rpm)
IV, 1.37, 21.5, 132 mph (6150 rpm)
V, 1.00, 29.5, 132 mph (4500 rpm)
VI, 0.82, 36.0, 132 mph (3650 rpm)
VII, 0.73, 40.4, 132 mph (3250 rpm)
DIMENSIONS
Wheelbase: 124.6 in
Track, front/rear: 63.0/63.2 in
Length/width/height: 205.0/83.3/58.0 in
Ground clearance: 5.3 in
Drag area, Cd (0.27) x frontal area (25.8 sq ft): 7.0 sq ft
Curb weight: 4688 lb
Weight distribution, F/R: 51.5/48.5%
Curb weight per horsepower: 12.3 lb
Fuel capacity: 23.8 gal
CHASSIS/BODY
Type: unit construction
Body material: welded steel and aluminum stampings
INTERIOR
SAE volume, front seat: 53 cu ft
rear seat: 53 cu ft
luggage: 20 cu ft
Front-seat adjustments: fore-and-aft, seatback angle, front height, rear height, lumbar support, upper and lower side bolsters, thigh support
Restraint systems, front: manual 3-point belts; driver and passenger front, side, and curtain airbags
rear: manual 3-point belts, side and curtain airbags
SUSPENSION
Front: ind; 1 control arm, I lateral link, and 1 diagonal link per side; coil springs; 2-position cockpit adjustable, electronically controlled hydraulic springs and shock absorbers
Rear: ind; 2 lateral links, 2 diagonal links, and
1 toe-control link per side; coil springs; 2-position cockpit adjustable, electronically
controlled hydraulic springs and shock absorbers
STEERING
Type: rack-and-pinion with variable hydraulic power assist
Steering ratio: 17.8:1
Turns lock-to-lock: 2.8
Turning circle curb-to-curb: 40.0 ft
BRAKES
Type: hydraulic with vacuum power assist,
anti-lock control, and panic assist
Front: 13.8 x 1.3-in vented disc
Rear: 12.6 x 0.9-in vented disc
WHEELS AND TIRES
Wheel size/type: 8.5 x 18 in/cast aluminum
Tires: Continental ContiTouringContact CH95, 255/45R-18 99H M+S
Test inflation pressures, F/R: 29/29 psi
Spare: high-pressure compact
C/D TEST RESULTS
ACCELERATION: Seconds
Zero to 30 mph: 2.0
40 mph: 2.9
50 mph: 4.1
60 mph: 5.3
70 mph: 6.9
80 mph: 8.7
90 mph: 10.7
100 mph: 13.2
110 mph: 16.1
120 mph: 19.3
130 mph: 23.4
Street start, 5–60 mph: 5.7
Top-gear acceleration:
30–50 mph: 2.9
50–70 mph: 3.6
Standing 1/4-mile: 13.7 sec @ 102 mph
Top speed (governor limited): 132 mph
BRAKING
70–0 mph @ impending lockup: 172 ft
HANDLING
Roadholding, 300-ft-dia skidpad: 0.85 g
Understeer: minimal moderate excessive
PROJECTED FUEL ECONOMY (mfr’s est)
EPA city driving: 16 mpg
EPA highway driving: 24 mpg
C/D-observed: 16 mpg
INTERIOR SOUND LEVEL
Idle: 45 dBA
Full-throttle acceleration: 69 dBA
70-mph cruising: 65 dBA
Highs: Blitzkrieg acceleration, seats fit for a CEO, as quiet as a dead church mouse.
Lows: Resolute understeerer, fiddly switchgear, more electronics than Circuit City.
The Verdict: The best S-class ever, as your chauffeur will surely confirm.
-------------------
Tally all the engine possibilities and it’s accurate to say that Mercedes-Benz currently offers—whoa!—43 models. Ask the average schmo on the street to name the most famous, and he might say, “McCambridge,” or he might say, “Gullwing,” but he’ll probably say, “S-class.” For more than 50 years, S-class Benzes have been the most succulent sausages in the Teutons’ tray of vehicular sauerkraut.
For 2007, the S-class lineup has been simplified. No more short- and long-wheelbase cars, just the 124.6-inch edition, 3.1 inches more majestic than its predecessor. The lineup now comprises the S550 tested here, whose $86,175 base price is actually $1650 shy of its S500 forebear’s, followed in April by a 510-horse V-12 S600, with a sticker close to $130,000. An all-wheel-drive S550 4MATIC should arrive in November, and the inevitable AMG variants will manifest when AMG and every F1 driver on the planet are damn well ready.
Apart from the S550’s swollen fender haunches—reminiscent of those hockey-puck shoulder pads that Larry King jams into his suits—what you notice first about this car is its seats. Really. They’re sumptuous without being saggy and offer 14-way “multicontour” adjustments that can even change the distance the cushion extends beneath your thighs, and there are optional multilevel fans blowing cold or hot winds up your keister, and there are side bolsters that suddenly stiffen in reaction to cornering forces, and there are center lumbar chambers that expand and contract to change your position twice per minute, and there’s even a vigorous Magic Fingers option that feels like small pine logs rolling slowly down the sluiceway that is your spine. We drove this S550 from Manhattan to Ann Arbor, stopping only to replenish 23.8 gallons of premium unleaded, and felt as if we should have continued on to Iowa. Similar praise can be heaped on the vast and comfy rear chairs, where you can tuck your loafers beneath the tall front seats, spread out, and fully open the Times’ Arts & Leisure section. These new seats are so good that they bear the seal of approval of the Aktion Gesunder Rücken, which is either a German outfit that rates products for spine-friendliness or a bunch of guys who look for life forms under rocks.
In the past, Mercedes expended a moderate load of warm air hyping its SOHC three-valve-per-cylinder V-8s but now has fast-forwarded to the world of twin-cam four-valvers, with superlative results. This new variable-valve-timing V-8 purrs out 382 horses at 6000 rpm but stockpiles all 391 pound-feet of its peak torque right there on the bottom shelf, ever accessible from 2800 to 4800 rpm. The engine is as smooth as a poetry major on Ambien—more than once we tried to start the bugger while it was running. Unlike your average poet, however, it is practically mute. In fact, the S550 is quieter at idle, at full throttle, and at a 70-mph cruise than a Bentley Continental GT and is exactly as quiet at 70 mph as that perennial exemplar of soporific tranquillity, the Lexus LS430.
Which somehow makes the S550’s accelerative thrust—right on the city limits of hot roddom—all the more thrilling. Apply a little brake torque and you can paint five unholy feet of Continental rubber on the deck. The S550 legs it to 60 mph in 5.3 seconds—0.8 second quicker than the last S500 we sampled and 0.1 second quicker than the new BMW 750i, the car die Benzkinder most fear. To 100 mph, the S550 lags behind the big BMW by only a tenth, but its quarter-mile ET is two-tenths quicker. Top speed for S550s fitted with M+S-rated tires is choked to 132 mph, 23 mph shy of the fun available with the optional Z-rated rubber.
Despite its aluminum hood, trunk, doors, and front fenders, the S550 is a 4688-pound luxury meteorite with handling to match. Which is to say, not much. On slippery surfaces, you can rotate the tail a Chihuahua wag or two until the unflappable stability control imposes discipline, but this Benz is otherwise hard-wired to plow like an Oshkosh H-series snow blower. The upside is a ride so plush that even the deepest potholes induce just a distant thump-wump, as if someone had dropped a tennis ball on the bedroom carpet. It’s wonderful: one soft compression, one soft rebound. And the wallowing body motions we’d normally associate with a ride so compliant are almost wholly extinguished by the optional active body control. At $3900, the ABC is dear but should be regarded as mandatory.
You’d think that any automatic with seven forward gears would be busier than the Starbucks at Sea-Tac airport. Instead, you’re almost never aware of its ministrations—one Benz dealer in New Jersey actually thought it was a CVT—and the transmission can skip as many as three gears as it downshifts. On the back of the steering spokes are rubber rockers that allow manumatic control. The pads are small and imperfectly placed, but it doesn’t matter because you’ll never use them. On its own, the automatic proved more prescient about gear selection than we ever were.
Brake feel is terrific, and the onset of ABS is subtle yet predictable. From 70 mph, the S550 stops in 11 fewer feet than an Audi A8L W-12 Quattro. The speed-sensitive steering is a tad heavy at all velocities. Tracking is fine, and effort builds in proportion to the load on the front tires, but the few road textures that are transmitted feel synthetically processed and puréed.
Speaking of beefs, we judged the side-view mirrors to be about two-thirds the size they should be, and the four window-lift switches are so flush and crammed together that you can’t operate them without looking. At tollbooths, we regularly opened the left-rear window. The overhead-light switches suffer the same fate, and Benz’s new column-mounted shifter demands that you push up for reverse, a “half push” down for neutral, and a “full push” down for drive. Yet to put the transmission into park, you must depress a button at the tip of the shifter, and none of these movements is accompanied by the slightest tactile or audible clue, so you dare not set off without first scanning the IP to determine what gear digit is aglow. Even the standard six-CD changer is tucked into a deep, dark cave whose entrance is guarded by a hinged door that, when opened, bangs into your drink in the cup holder. Why?
Thankfully, all of the S550’s HVAC functions can be controlled by 11 small chrome toggles arrayed in one horizontal lip across the pregnant bulge in the center of the dash. We say “thankfully” because other vital functions—turning on the radio, for example—must be summoned via the COMAND system (see Counterpoint).
And that’s just the tip of the electronic iceberg. There’s an optional infrared system (part of a $6500 package) that delivers a crisp black-and-white image of what’s in front of you at night. It’s good at highlighting drunken pedestrians on the berm, but you can’t use the screen alone to drive because there’s so little depth perception. So it serves as an amusing novelty for a month and then is of the same value as the dusty NordicTrack stored in your basement. There’s also an optional color camera to reveal what’s lurking behind your S550. It frames the view with blue, yellow, and red hash marks that predict where the car will go with any given steering input. Stare at it long enough and your inner ear will explode. And then there’s the $2800 Distronic Plus double-dog super-duty triple-throw-down cruise control that accelerates and brakes as it paces the car in front. Should that driver come to a complete halt and start up again, so will your S550, all of this without your ever moving a single leg muscle, although all the muscles in your face will twitch the first time you try it. It works fairly well except in moderately heavy traffic, where it lags just far enough behind the lead car that the resulting hole becomes too tempting, and adjacent motorists dive in like penguins off a berg.
The average S-class buyer lays out $10,000 in options, which strikes us as an as-yet-unnamed mental condition, because the list of standard gear would nearly fill the greater-Chicago Yellow Pages: 14 speakers, a global positioning system, eight airbags, “waterfall” lights leaking out from seams in the dash, power rear sunblind, sunroof, walnut inserts, xenon headlamps that may be the world’s best—and that ain’t the half of it. Pop for the $3900 ABC and call it a day.
Like its S-class progenitors, this ninth-gen cruiser induces more contemplation and serenity than hot-blooded enthusiasm. It coddles, protects, and isolates. It eats interstate miles like a bullfrog eats flies. And its ability to gather felonious speeds remains magical. But the S550 is otherwise not hugely involving—you might be just as pleased to let a chauffeur seize the wheel, an arrangement not uncommon on the Continent.
This is the best S-class ever, still a stately and aristocratic institution, the automotive equivalent of the Budweiser Clydesdales in the Rose Bowl parade. But unless you absolutely need the fat-CEO back seats or the seductive pretense of that chrome “S” on the rump, well, uh, a 469-horse $84,575 E55 AMG comes rapidly to mind.
Dude, Who Stole Your Radio?
We’re not gonna launch into a red-faced rant about the complicated COMAND system. For one thing, we don’t have enough pages. But it does strike us as risky to force the average S-class owner—he is, after all, 61 years old—to corral the cognitive courage necessary to wend his way, via an aluminum mouse, through approximately as many computer programs as are required to launch an ICBM from the USS Alaska. To summon music, for instance, you must:
a. Tilt the mouse forward to get to the top of the computer screen’s main menu.
b. Twist the mouse left or right to place the cursor on “Audio.”
c. Push the mouse straight down to say, “Yes, I do want to view the audio menu.”
d. Repeatedly tilt the mouse backward to toggle through your options: FM, AM, Satellite Radio, CD, DVD, MP3, or Audio Off.
e. Poke the mouse straight down to select the mode you desire.
f. Twirl the mouse left or right, now that an FM radio dial has magically appeared, to advance from channel to channel. (Note: You’re in seek mode only. If you wish to listen to weak stations, prepare to start all over again.)
g. Direct your attention away from the computer and away from the mouse and to the top-right spoke of the steering wheel, where a five-function rubber pad the size of a silver dollar will allow you to hear the station you’ve so diligently pursued.
h. Should that prove too complex, direct your attention to a small knurled wheel on the passenger side of the center console, where volume can alternately be adjusted.
Up, down, sideways. Twist, turn, poke. Hands for some functions, fingers for others, eyes continuously scanning the steering wheel, dash, screen, and center console. Exactly where is the radio? It’s everywhere. And nowhere. Can the COMAND system be mastered? Of course. Just not today.
2007 MERCEDES-BENZ S550
Vehicle type: front-engine, rear-wheel-drive, 5-passenger, 4-door sedan
Price as tested: $104,175
Price and option breakdown: base Mercedes-Benz S550 (includes $775 freight), $86,175; Premium 3 package (consists of heated, ventilated, and massaging seats; electronic trunk closer; rearview camera; Keyless Go; night-view assist; dynamic rearview mirror; dynamic multicontour seats), $6500; active body control, $3900; radar cruise control, $2800; 4-zone climate control, $1200; panorama sunroof, $1000; power rear seats, $750; power side-window blinds, $700; Sirius satellite radio, $600; wood steering wheel, $550
Major standard accessories: power windows, seats, locks, and sunroof; remote locking; A/C; cruise control; tilting and telescoping steering wheel; rear defroster
Sound system: Harman/Kardon AM-FM-satellite radio/CD changer/DVD player, 14 speakers
ENGINE
Type: V-8, aluminum block and heads
Bore x stroke: 3.86 x 3.56 in, 98.0 x 90.5mm
Displacement: 333 cu in, 5461cc
Compression ratio: 10.7:1
Fuel-delivery system: port injection
Valve gear: chain-driven double overhead cams, 4 valves per cylinder, variable intake- and exhaust-valve timing
Power (SAE net): 382 bhp @ 6000 rpm
Torque (SAE net): 391 lb-ft @ 2800 rpm
Redline: 6400 rpm
DRIVETRAIN
Transmission: 7-speed automatic with manumatic shifting
Final-drive ratio: 2.65:1
Gear, Ratio, Mph/1000 rpm, Max test speed
I, 4.38, 6.7, 43 mph (6400 rpm)
II, 2.86, 10.3, 66 mph (6400 rpm)
III, 1.92, 15.4, 98 mph (6400 rpm)
IV, 1.37, 21.5, 132 mph (6150 rpm)
V, 1.00, 29.5, 132 mph (4500 rpm)
VI, 0.82, 36.0, 132 mph (3650 rpm)
VII, 0.73, 40.4, 132 mph (3250 rpm)
DIMENSIONS
Wheelbase: 124.6 in
Track, front/rear: 63.0/63.2 in
Length/width/height: 205.0/83.3/58.0 in
Ground clearance: 5.3 in
Drag area, Cd (0.27) x frontal area (25.8 sq ft): 7.0 sq ft
Curb weight: 4688 lb
Weight distribution, F/R: 51.5/48.5%
Curb weight per horsepower: 12.3 lb
Fuel capacity: 23.8 gal
CHASSIS/BODY
Type: unit construction
Body material: welded steel and aluminum stampings
INTERIOR
SAE volume, front seat: 53 cu ft
rear seat: 53 cu ft
luggage: 20 cu ft
Front-seat adjustments: fore-and-aft, seatback angle, front height, rear height, lumbar support, upper and lower side bolsters, thigh support
Restraint systems, front: manual 3-point belts; driver and passenger front, side, and curtain airbags
rear: manual 3-point belts, side and curtain airbags
SUSPENSION
Front: ind; 1 control arm, I lateral link, and 1 diagonal link per side; coil springs; 2-position cockpit adjustable, electronically controlled hydraulic springs and shock absorbers
Rear: ind; 2 lateral links, 2 diagonal links, and
1 toe-control link per side; coil springs; 2-position cockpit adjustable, electronically
controlled hydraulic springs and shock absorbers
STEERING
Type: rack-and-pinion with variable hydraulic power assist
Steering ratio: 17.8:1
Turns lock-to-lock: 2.8
Turning circle curb-to-curb: 40.0 ft
BRAKES
Type: hydraulic with vacuum power assist,
anti-lock control, and panic assist
Front: 13.8 x 1.3-in vented disc
Rear: 12.6 x 0.9-in vented disc
WHEELS AND TIRES
Wheel size/type: 8.5 x 18 in/cast aluminum
Tires: Continental ContiTouringContact CH95, 255/45R-18 99H M+S
Test inflation pressures, F/R: 29/29 psi
Spare: high-pressure compact
C/D TEST RESULTS
ACCELERATION: Seconds
Zero to 30 mph: 2.0
40 mph: 2.9
50 mph: 4.1
60 mph: 5.3
70 mph: 6.9
80 mph: 8.7
90 mph: 10.7
100 mph: 13.2
110 mph: 16.1
120 mph: 19.3
130 mph: 23.4
Street start, 5–60 mph: 5.7
Top-gear acceleration:
30–50 mph: 2.9
50–70 mph: 3.6
Standing 1/4-mile: 13.7 sec @ 102 mph
Top speed (governor limited): 132 mph
BRAKING
70–0 mph @ impending lockup: 172 ft
HANDLING
Roadholding, 300-ft-dia skidpad: 0.85 g
Understeer: minimal moderate excessive
PROJECTED FUEL ECONOMY (mfr’s est)
EPA city driving: 16 mpg
EPA highway driving: 24 mpg
C/D-observed: 16 mpg
INTERIOR SOUND LEVEL
Idle: 45 dBA
Full-throttle acceleration: 69 dBA
70-mph cruising: 65 dBA
02-22-2006, 02:11 AM
#486
Senior Moderator
Join Date: May 2003
Location: Better Neighborhood, Arizona
Posts: 45,634
Received 2,328 Likes
on
1,308 Posts
Great car except for the COMAND system.. the Germans really need their hands slapped for this kind of crap. Its the 2nd reason why I didnt buy the RL. (1st being price)
02-22-2006, 10:25 AM
#487
Shogun Assassin
Originally Posted by Ken1997TL
Great car except for the COMAND system.. the Germans really need their hands slapped for this kind of crap. Its the 2nd reason why I didnt buy the RL. (1st being price)
02-25-2006, 04:41 PM
#488
_____ like a rabbit
Originally Posted by MB FORUM
Here is a copy of a letter the factory sent to us sales managers and gm's regarding the availability of certain options on the s550. I just don't understand mb why the hell wouldn't you get all your ducks in a row before launching your flagship sedan? You go and market all this cool shit and then people can't even order it on their cars, know you expect people to wait 5-6 months to get the car they want. They are leaving money on the table on the options people cant even order. I just dont understand how supposedly smart people can run a company so poorly, it reminds me of the commercial where the guy is given a presentation to a bunch of chimps.
02-25-2006, 04:44 PM
#489
_____ like a rabbit
and its all the good ones, night vision, keyless go, rear camera, multi-countour seats, panorama sunroom, ABC, trunk closer, man oh man MB..
06-02-2006, 02:35 PM
#490
Suzuka Master
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Santa Clarita, CA
Posts: 8,546
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
All I can say is holy crap the 7 series has nothing on the new S class. I'm still drooling. 7 series had a more first class jumbo airliner feel, the S550 a posh corporate office.
But yea there's a blitzkreig of electronic bells and whistles to make Best Buy jealous.
But yea there's a blitzkreig of electronic bells and whistles to make Best Buy jealous.
on the exterior. Just doesn't work well.
06-03-2006, 01:06 AM
#493
Suzuka Master
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Santa Clarita, CA
Posts: 8,546
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Originally Posted by stangg172004
06-22-2006, 11:50 AM
#494
Senior Moderator
Convertible...?
Mercedes-Benz plans to introduce a four-door convertible based on the S-Class luxury sedan, according to a published report. The V12 car will be unveiled at the Detroit auto show in January, Germany's Auto Motor und Sport reported Tuesday. The magazine didn't elaborate further on specifics of the car, but said it is inspired by the 1950s Mercedes 300 four-door convertible. If true, the rumor would represent the latest in a widespread model diversification effort at Mercedes. In recent years, the automaker has broken from its core vehicle lineup and expanded its offerings to contain countless niche vehicles.
06-22-2006, 12:20 PM
#496
Senior Moderator
Personally, I'd take an SL over a convertible S...? 
Never really liked convertibles with 4 seats...
Never really liked convertibles with 4 seats...
09-28-2006, 11:05 AM
#504
Senior Moderator
2007 Mercedes-Benz S63 AMG
From Leftlanenews...
In addition to the already-introduced Mercedes SLR 722 Edition and Mercedes CL 63 AMG, the German automaker at the Paris Motor Show today unveiled the Mercedes S 63 AMG luxury sedan. Positioned below the V12 S 65, the S63 offers 525 horsepower and a zero to 62 mph time of 4.6 seconds.
The 6.2-liter naturally-aspirated V8 is also used in the CLS 63, CLK 63, E 63, R 63, ML 63, and CL 63 AMG models. The powerplant is exclusive to the AMG division, and replaced the 5.4-liter '55' supercharged engine series. Visually, the new S 63 is very similar to the S 65, which was introduced in December, 2005.
The 6.2-liter naturally-aspirated V8 is also used in the CLS 63, CLK 63, E 63, R 63, ML 63, and CL 63 AMG models. The powerplant is exclusive to the AMG division, and replaced the 5.4-liter '55' supercharged engine series. Visually, the new S 63 is very similar to the S 65, which was introduced in December, 2005.
09-28-2006, 02:56 PM
#506
I love that wood steering wheel. Still think the A8's interior is hotter 
09-28-2006, 11:32 PM
#511
Moderator Alumnus
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Communist, NY
Posts: 9,574
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
The times real world E63s are putting out at this point are not exactly the most impressive. Makes me wonder how an even heavier car is going to fare with the new N/A motor.
10-31-2006, 10:35 PM
#513
Moderator Alumnus
Thread Starter
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Washington DC (NOVA)
Age: 52
Posts: 16,399
Likes: 0
Received 8 Likes
on
8 Posts
2008 Mercedes-Benz S-Class Convertible - Car News - - SOurce: caranddriver.com
S-class goes topless, and it’s a ragtop.
November 2006
A convertible version of Mercedes-Benz’s S-class luxury sedan might be on its way to production. Expected to debut as a concept vehicle at the Detroit show in January, the cabrio will eschew a retractable hardtop in place of a traditional clothtop. If it makes it into production, the S-class cabrio is likely a year away from showrooms.
November 2006
A convertible version of Mercedes-Benz’s S-class luxury sedan might be on its way to production. Expected to debut as a concept vehicle at the Detroit show in January, the cabrio will eschew a retractable hardtop in place of a traditional clothtop. If it makes it into production, the S-class cabrio is likely a year away from showrooms.
11-01-2006, 07:28 AM
#517
Wow
11-01-2006, 12:04 PM
#519
Got da Internet Goin Nutz
Originally Posted by gavriil
Has there been a four door cabrio ever?
That hardtop must be in about 5 sections...
