The Mercedes-Benz S-Class has lengthy been the gold commonplace by which luxurious automobiles are judged. An vehicle for diplomats, tycoons, the well-known and the notorious. A luxobarge that asserts to the world that you just’ve made it whereas concurrently enveloping its occupants in cosseting luxurious.

A minimum of, that’s true of each era, bar the fourth. Produced between 1999–2005, the W220 S-Class has developed a fame for being the black sheep of the S-Class line, conceptualized throughout an period when the bean counters at Mercedes-Benz had been tightening the purse strings throughout the vary.

Taken out of context, the W220 was your commonplace world-beater luxurious automotive. It launched new know-how, akin to adaptive cruise management, a forward-collision warning system, ventilated and massaging seats, LED brake lights, voice management for 300 instructions, and a hydraulic opening and shutting trunk — all issues that will have trickled right down to mainstream fashions over the previous 20 years, however had been innovative of their day.

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However tech apart, in comparison with the previous-gen W140, the brand new automotive fell in need of the mark. The W140 is famously considered one of the vital over-engineered automobiles of its day, with scant regard for budgetary constraints throughout its design. The W220, compared, lacked the solidity and tank-like construct high quality its predecessor possessed. The inside trim and plastics had been a couple of notches beneath what customers had turn into accustomed to, and the outside design itself was extra rounded and nameless than the boxy however stately W140.

That thread ran by to the driving expertise. The W220 lacked the identical bank-vault-like driving expertise that was skilled within the automotive it changed. It was nonetheless a cushty place to be, maybe extra serene than the earlier gen, however an air of vagueness permeated all through the controls, taking the shine off what was, fact be instructed, a really succesful set-up.

Sadly, the W220’s fame has completed nothing for its desirability. And with many falling into lower than fascinating arms on the secondhand market, good specimens are few and much between.

On this respect, it occupies an area just like that of the Porsche 996, says Doug DeMuro, in that it’s the least fascinating, certain, but it surely’s nonetheless an S-Class, with consolation and toys in no brief provide. This implies specimen might provide great worth for these in search of a second-hand luxurious automotive from the early 2000s.