Mercedes-benz S350D L
Thoroughly revamped
For those of us who like to present well-balanced thoughts on the subject of any new car we might test, the new Mercedes-benz S-class provides a confoundedly difficult task. The car it replaces was, like all previous generations of the S-class for at least the past 30 years, head, shoulders, knees and toes better than anything else in its class. And still Mercedes found more than 6000 components it felt could be improved. The result may look scarcely altered but is in fact the most comprehensively facelifted S-class that has ever been presented.
Perhaps you could argue the technology is too baffling. This, after all, is a car with Level 2 autonomous functionality, which means it can park itself when you’re not in the car, slow down for roundabouts, toll booths and junctions without waiting to be told, adjust your speed through a curve if it thinks it would be more comfortable, change lanes with no more than a tap on an indicator and brake to a halt and then sit still in a traffic jam for up to 30 seconds regardless of the speed at which the cruise control is set. Or maybe it’s too big, too plutocratic, too… But no: it’s just another worldbeating luxury saloon.
For this base S350d, tested here with the Premium Plus package that adds £6695 to the car’s £75,505 base price, the biggest change is the replacement of its 3.0-litre V6 diesel engine with a 2.9-litre straight-six, which must have been a considerable engineering job in itself. The motor has an additional 28bhp and trades a fraction less torque for a much lower torque peak but offers superior economy and emissions and a more cultured six-cylinder snarl when you can hear it – which isn’t often.
Although this test coincides with the car’s arrival in the UK, we did drive it on autobahns too, where we observed that a constant 100mph equated to just 1800rpm on the tachometer and as relaxed a passage from one place to the next as can be imagined in a still broadly internal combustion-powered world. The extra power, better torque delivery and fractionally less weight has improved performance too, cutting the 0-62mph time to 6.0sec dead, which isn’t bad for a two-tonne limo with fewer than three oil-burning litres beneath its bonnet.
The ride and handling, meanwhile, remain exquisite. The suspension is still more comfortable above about 30mph than it is around town, but much the same can be said for almost every air-sprung system. Once up to speed, however, the car’s poise is exceptional, and even here in long wheelbase form, it offers remarkable composure should you ever feel like cracking on down a decent road. It is a genuinely good car to drive.
The dashboard, with its two 12.3in screens and a blend of switches, buttons and the usual Comand controller, isn’t quite so deftly realised or easy to use as the latest system in the Porsche Panamera but is very effective and never foists its awesome technology upon you: it’s all there, but only when you want it.
There are tiny flaws – the new steering wheel controls are hard to read in certain lights, the unlocking system sometimes takes a few seconds to register the key in your pocket and I’d like the steering adjustment to have a fraction more reach control – but the truth is that now, and perhaps more than ever, the question for those looking to buy a luxury limo is not why they should choose an S-class over all the opposition, but why they should not.