Daimler presented its new S-Class yesterday night in the airbus factory in Hamburg, and with the pomp and circumstance appropriate for a car that is supposed to bring the big turn-around at Daimler. German Spiegel magazine promptly grouched “that the most revolutionary part in the car is the fact that in large parts, it is not new at all.” Der Spiegel called an unimpeachable witness: Germany’s Kraftfahrtbundesamt, the agency that issues type approvals in Germany. It simply amended the type approval for the old W221 model.
That way, Daimler gets around using the new R1234yf refrigerant, and can continue the old. Instead, the new S-Klasse has “six eyes and six ears – is sounds like Frankenstein, but it looks much better,” quipped Daimler’s Zetsche. The car points cameras in all directions, it even visually acquires cars that are about to rear-end the new S-Class, and it takes appropriate action.
The S-Class doesn’t have a single light bulb, instead, it has some 500 LEDs. As a nod to China, the new S-Class was developed with a long wheelbase, the shorter wheelbase is a derivative, and not the other way round.
Reuters says the new S-Class is “make or break” for Daimler. It also claims that “a larger and longer S-Class, widely expected to be dubbed “Pullman”, will compete head on with Rolls-Royce and Bentley for the hearts of the super rich.”
As a previous W221 owner I’m not seeing anything to make me drool.
#1 all they did was snatch off my wheel arches and make the back of the car look like a Bentley.
It looks like a giant C-class and the light tubes look like something Hyundai has in service.
#2 “better massage seats” and a recliner that the Equus has??? Really?
#3 It’s interior looks way better than the exterior but it still appears there is no quick toggle for changing radio stations.
#4 I’m gonna make a viral video where I put marijuana into the “perfume-air” vial.
#5. No lightbulbs- all LED’s… Just wait till you see the bill to replace a light fixture.
I feel the opposite, and feel that Mercedes is actually paying attention to what i want: an AWD EWB non-steel <5.0L(e)/100km flagship.
Assuming the PHEV is available as an AWD extended wheelbase model, it has everything I've been holding out for. I realize the safety cage is still steel, but the panels are aluminum. That solves a basic fear I have with Mercedes products: their tendency to rust with Mazda-like abandon around here.
That’s odd, I live in Massachusetts and I’ve noticed the German cars and Volvo are the best with rust. I frequently see >10 year old Tauruses and Toyotas with holes in them.
It’s the late 90s/early 00s cars that had these issues, if I remember correctly. Mercedes quality had a downturn during this era, and some people also believe it was due to the change in paints.
Mercedes’s corrosion warranty is much better in Europe vs. the US, so the European buyers didn’t really have to worry about this too much.
I see old Acura RL in the rear.. Or the first Infiniti M45. And I really do like the elenents in them. There so red.
Everything else they can keep. The present model still looks better to me.
“I’m gonna make a viral video where I put marijuana into the “perfume-air” vial.”
I once patronized a business that had pipes in each room connected to a single bong. We called it “central weed.”
@bigtruck, re #5-
Yes, the cost to replace a headlamp of this type is around $2000. The upside is that solid state lighting has a 25-30 year life span if implemented poorly, and longer if done correctly. All the interior lights use much cheaper LED driver assemblies (the biggest part of the cost of LED lighting is actually the power supply) and lamps than the headlamps- thus should be relatively inexpensive to replace.
So, headlamp replacement cost is really only a worry if you crash the car.
Just wait until you see the price of the visible laser headlamp units they’re working on…
“As a nod to China, the new S-Class was developed with a long wheelbase, the shorter wheelbase is a derivative, and not the other way round.”
I find this interesting.
Also does anyone else feel like they are looking at a Mercedes pickup truck in the first picture where the presenter is leaning against it?
Somewhat dissapointed they went with a mid-life rehash rather than a full re-design.
It seems that this was the only way that they could continue to make an S-class that doesn’t try to kill its occupants. I’ve got far more respect for them because of the lengths they went to in order to avoid r1234yf. I suppose drivers of CLAs are out of luck.
I don’t think so. Mercedes already recalled all the new 231 SLs with R-1234yf to be retrofitted for R-134a and will be taking back the expensive recovery equipment for R-1234yf once all the cars have been converted back. I don’t see a future with this new refrigerant. Diamler already said that they will pay the fine rather than put their customers under this much risk.
The risk with the new refrigerant is greatly exaggerated. The test that created the fire was an extreme example. They took a small turbo car and subjected it to a long heavy load to heat up the turbo as much as possible. They also disabled the cooling fans under the hood to maximize the underhood temps. They then crashed it with a weakened line to make sure the failure would blast the refrigerant and oil (a key item that is often ignored – ever see motor oil burn when a race engine grenades?) all over the hot turbo. That is what allowed the refrigerant to burn the way it did. Is this a possible set of conditions in the real world? Yes, it is possible. So is a fuel tank or fuel line rupture. The naysayers are just against it because they don’t want to support anything that smacks of having anything to do with climate change. Not touching that argument; that would be pointless. One should note that the pressure/temperature curve of this gas vs r134a is virtually identical. All you need to do if you lose the charge of 1234yf is to change the service fittings and that’s it. So this is a non issue. Once the car is out of warranty the change to the older refrigerant is truly drop in. And there are no regulations pending or on the books that will prevent a shop from doing so.
So they went down a similar road to the new Lexus LS. I think that says something about the health and profitability of the segment, or perhaps the future of this class of vehicle.
wow, you just beat me to it, and said it more succinctly (which may be why you were able to beat me to it.)
Mercedes Benz is doing the same thing that all the fanboiz derided Lexus for doing- apparently only mildly updating the exterior of their flagship. And it has the same issue. New front, new back, new interior. Same side profile. I would add the last A8 to this as well.
Only the 7 scrapped the last gen, but all they did was go back to their one sausage-3 lengths strategy that they had abandoned. People are not buying these luxo barges in the quantities they were in the last several years (at least in the US). Doing a full overhaul makes no dollars and sense.
This segment has 7 year product cycles, but seeing how Phantom and Flying Spur seem to be aiming for 10-14 years, it wouldn’t surprise me to see the 2024 A8,7, LS, Equus, and S to be nearly identical to their 2013 counterparts.
…The new A8 is a new platform…
and Toyota should get slack for their “all new” LS – that car was inferior to the current (now old) S-class in most every way. The S-class, on the other hand, had a solid basic architecture from which to build a massively refreshed “new” S-Class from. Look at VW – the PQ36 Passat architecture from 2006 is still underpinning their global CC and Chinese/US Passat. Nothing wrong with keeping and building upon old architectures, especially when they’re a good one. The Lexus LS – not so much…
Are you talking about the D4 A8? It’s not the same platform as the D3 A8 — it got moved to MLB. It’s a little bit of the one sausage-3 lengths strategy that you describe for BMW — Audi has made the A4, A6, and A8 to look a bit too similar, just like 3/5/7.
You are correct that sales are down in this category. I detailed this the other day with sales figures. Only Audi is still selling what it was pre-financial crisis for the A8, whereas Mercedes, BMW, and Lexus are way down in this category.
I actually liked the siimilar sasauge/different lengths in concept. I believe a bit of differentiation was needed but the radical differences that started with the early 2000s 7 series was not my idea of good product planning…in my opinion…
“Kraft fahrt”. Uh huh huh huh, huh huh.
doesn’t MBZ sell just 7,000 of these S KLasse a year in the USA?
I think it looks pretty good and I like how it is smoothed out.
My fav S was W108/W109. Virtually hand-crafted and forever the maximum Mercedes look. They look especially good when set against current models.
I agree, those things look like cars for wealthy people, not rich people. The anti-Bentley.
My grandparent’s had one, that they’d bought knew and just kept that long. Even as a child (I’m 25 now), I’d always thought it was a gorgeous car. They continued to occasionally get new S-Klasses after that one, but the W109 was always my favourite. Now it’s mine, and I’m probably going to be buried in it haha. I also have their C140 V12 Coupe, which I use when I want to intimidate other students at my university haha. I don’t take the W109 out much, just on weekends, I’m too scared to damage it. Drivers in Utah tend to merge without looking more than in California.
300 SEL 6.3 – the undisputed king of understatement. The cabriolet of that generation – the SEb – is rightfully amongst the most desirable cars of yesteryear.
It just looks like they just did an update to the W220. Those headlamps are very busy thou.
I wish they’d have made the grill a bit larger.
Big headlights.
I don’t think the Pullman competes with the Bentley/RRs. This does. The Pullman is a special case and I don’t think there’s a Bentley/RR equivalent, with the backwards seats and such.
Both the old Pullman and the Phaeton one had the stupidest interiors.
seriouswheels.com/2009/klm/2009-Mercedes-Benz-S-600-Pullman-Guard-Limousine-Rear-Seat-1280×960.htm
Look at that non-opening door put on backwards. Just ridiculous.
By non-opening door put on backwards, do you mean interior side panel? Are power seat controls and an arm rest supposed to look different to signify that they’re not attached to a door?
I think I pasted the link wrong.
http://www.seriouswheels.com/2009/klm/2009-Mercedes-Benz-S-600-Pullman-Guard-Limousine-Rear-Seat-1280×960.htm
You have to delete and retype the “x” near the end of the link for it to work. That’s dumb
What that is, or appears to be, is wordpress seeing an x character between two numerals and changing it from X the letter to the multiplication sign, which is a different character. And it searches every comment and presumably every post for this to make this change. That’s really dumb
It definitely messes wth URLs — for example, a double-dash in a URL (or in this sentence) will often become a single one. For this sentence, I believe it makes it into an em-dash, but I don’t believe that’s always the case.
That’s the photo I’d found earlier. I don’t see any non-opening backwards doors. 6-door limousines are called funeral cars and have seats that all face forwards, since mourners don’t want to make eye contact with one another.
“..it even visually acquires cars that are about to rear-end the new S-Class, and it takes appropriate action.”
Rakete…Los!
You beat me to it. I read “…take appropriate action…” as a light antitank rocket pops out from behind the license plate.
The author failed to report on the new VTOL technology of the new S-Class.
I find the lengths that Mercedes is going to in order to not use the R1234yf refrigerant interesting. They’re only going to this length on one model, the S-Klasse. The rest of the cars, they’re using it. My partner and myself have a sneaking suspicion that this is just cover for other developmental problems. They’re trying to buy time in order to work out the kinks. With the sheer amount of electronic tech in the car, I wouldn’t be surprised if they were having some issues and needed more time, thus the big fight. It’s hard to imagine Mercedes being more willing to put the majority of their buyers in actual danger and putting this much effort into protecting a smaller number without an ulterior motive.
Think about it, Volvo switched over just fine, they just did it. Had the people up in Sweden thought it was dangerous, being the safety freaks they are haha, they would spend a decades worth of operating capital just to prove the point and avoid using it. Mercedes isn’t nearly as obsessed with safety as Volvo, they just aren’t. So there’s a different reason Merc is freaking out like this.
Volvo isn’t the safety car anymore, other cars are easily the equal in that area.
In fact, Mercedes has claimed that it led the way in safety and licensed their innovations to others in the interest of general safety. I believe they were aiming their comments at Volvo.
“Have you ever wondered where various features found in your car came from? Chances are they were originally Mercedes-Benz innovations. …”
http://www.theautochannel.com/news/2005/03/11/010089.html
Volvo is still the safety the car, the XC60 and S60 basically have their own IIHS rating of Top Safety Pick Plus. Volvo safety development, pedestrian airbags, three point seat belts, crumple zones (in 1966), blind spot notification, auto braking, city safety, pedestrian detection, cyclist detection and so on. While I am not taking away from the developments of Mercedes, there isn’t a single Merc. with safety ratings as high as Volvo. Merc has made developments towards safety certainly, but for Volvo, it’s part of who they are. For example: “Volvo has also scored high in EuroNCAP tests. Since 2009, all the Volvo models that EuroNCAP has tested have received 5 star safety ratings: Volvo C30, V40, V60, V60 Plug-In Hybrid, XC60 and V70. The new Volvo V40 (model year 2013-) even got the best test result of any car model ever tested in EuroNCAP.” Sounds like the safety car to me. I have a couple Mercedes Benzes, and I love them dearly, but I also love my Volvo, thus why my S80 is my daily. Both are important to safety, but from what I’ve read about car safety, which I’m almost obsessed with, is that Volvo has done more. They just don’t spend as much time talking about it as Mercedes, which shouts everything they do.
Mercedes is responsible for many of the things you mentioned.
And no, Volvo is not the safety car, they are the safety advertising car. Just the opposite of what you stated. Mercedes is just more than that. http://www.driveandstayalive.com/info%20section/news/individual%20news%20articles/x_040727_65yrs_safety-at-merc.htm
Volvo is pretty much over. Look at their sales in Europe and here. Even the Car Talk guys wonder why Volvo has lost it so badly.
http://www.cartalk.com/content/joys-and-dangers-being-swedish
Well does Mercedes have any of the City/Pedestrian/Cyclist safety? No. The reason that Volvo doesn’t sell well, is because people are bit too obsessed with buying German. If you read the reviews of the S60, most people say it’s a fabulous car, and wonder why no one wants to buy it. People would for some reason rather buy a C-Klasse, which doesn’t even have standard leather and feels cheap inside. Why? Because of that three pointed star badge. Have you actually looked at the safety patents Volvo has? They have many. In the 50s and 60s, while Merc was fighting that their fins weren’t fins (which they were), Volvo and Saab were rolling their cars down hills, with their live employees inside. You need to actually read up on Volvo and their safety innovation before you bash them. Their sales are not down because they aren’t good cars. People just assume that German is the way to go.
I’ll accept Mercedes being better on safety than Volvo when their cars actually excel in safety testing. While the S60 excelled in small overlap, the C-Klasse…POOR. That’s safety innovation.
http://www.iihs.org/ratings/ratingsbyseries.aspx?id=464
http://www.iihs.org/ratings/ratingsbyseries.aspx?id=464
That says more than anything you’ve shown me about safety eh. So does the hugely advanced safety lab that Volvo owns and maintains.
Patents (which Volvo can’t have if Merc develops it first):
“Volvo has patented all their safety innovations, including SIPS (side impact), WHIPS (whiplash protection), ROPS (rollover protection) Volvo was the first to put auto deploying roll bars into convertibles. DSTC (advanced stability control), and body structures”
You’re ignoring facts. Really obvious ones. Stop being such fanboy and learn about auto safety. I know more about auto safety than most (it’s a weird interest) so I give credit where it’s due. You can learn things, interesting things, if you stop ignoring facts.
@ Bombay
Some very valid points. the Benz fins of the 1960 were officially orientation aids, that let you find out easier, where the car ends.
Else, the Benz safety record also includes a spectacularly failed “elk test” and Citans not crashing as they are supposed to do.
Volvo’s drawback, I assume, is FWD. Else, I agree, they are well designed cars with lots of features – looking better than any Benz these days.
Mercedes only used R-1234yf in the new SL and only the first few hundred. They have all been recalled to be retrofitted for R-134a. No other Mercedes cars are using R-1234yf.
” It also claims that “a larger and longer S-Class, widely expected to be dubbed “Pullman”, will compete head on with Rolls-Royce and Bentley for the hearts of the super rich.””
Not really my segment, but don’t they already have Maybachs nobody buys, for that?
No, Maybach is officially shut down. Sales had been horrid over the past couple years. Single digits last year. Mercedes has always had a Pullman limousine for the S-Klasse, but this time around it’s going to serve as an actual replacement for the Maybach. So it’ll probably have options that were once only available on Maybachs. Kind of an interesting failure in the world of cars. It never met expectations. It’s kind of an interesting read.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maybach_57_and_62
The SLK was left Magic Sky.
Maybach is almost dead. I believe the last one came off the production line near the end of 2012, and they are selling the last few vehicles this year.
Based on past me-too behavior, I bet one could take a photo of the new S, the new Lexi LS, and combine them in a morphing program to get the 2015/16 Hyundai Equus.
I’ll give you 50 bucks if you’re right :) hit me up in 2015 for your check eh. Thanks for the laugh haha.
It’s hard to believe, but I now find this new Mercedes to be more generic looking than the current Lexus LS, especially in the front.
Is it safe to assume that General Motors will be congratulated for being extremely early to the its-not-actually-new new model production style? I am pretty sure that they perfected it long before Lexus and Mercedes even gave it a shot and realized how great it was. Perhaps they paid consulting or licensing fees to GM; it only seems fair.
Regardless, I will be checking the opinion pages of the WSJ for the inevitable TTAC-authored congratulatory piece.
As regular cars become more and more luxurious + refined big luxobarges like this grow more and more irrelevant. These things are ponderous to drive and a nightmare to own out of warranty. By any measure aside from badge snobbery the midsize luxury segment is a better deal.