[urajkumar]

Awesome! What a car! What a review!

Merc is back with a vengeance & its going for the kill! Seriously doubt if anyone would buy the A8 or 7 anymore! The new design language is making the car look very cool but slowly & surely i feel all of them will tend to look the same (Audi & BMW suffer the same problem) which is not good in the long run! There must be an individually about each segment & it should reflect in the exterior design!

Never thought i will say this but the amount of gadgets in the car scares me! I cannot imagine my driver (assuming I earn enough to buy this ) learning & understand all this (considering most of these cars are driven by drivers only)! For example: The steering wheel vibration to awaken the driver could scare him so much that he takes his hands off the steering!

Anyway with the dollar raising, this is going to cost a bomb in India! Now have to work harder to realize this dream!

[Thilak29]

Pardon my ignorance.
Why all of these Merc's bear same TB plates? Normally the ones we test do

Reviewing cars this way must be best job in the world!

[Rehaan]

Originally Posted by Octane_Power

1.When the car is in motion, the rear seat recline feature would only be possible on the left seat

I think the 43.5 degree backrest recline is available on both rear seats, however the foot-rest + front seat moving forward (ie Chauffeur package) is naturally only available diagonally across from the driver.

Am not sure about the specifics of the A8, but it does look like a very similar setup: link

Originally Posted by Octane_Power

2.Also, what about the unwanted sullying of the back of the front seat ?

That is definitely an issue. I noticed it on the light-coloured interiors of our test-drive cars in just the few weeks that they had been in use.

Originally Posted by Octane_Power

3. I had seen on Fifth Gear, the collision avoidance system is not quite efficient on the S (although it was the W221), but it didn't fair well on the tests (colliding a number of times to the dummy car).

Unfortunately, that's not the only time a safety demo has failed for Merc! Remember in 2005 when the S-Class went head-on into another car in front of the worldwide press, causing a 3-car pile-up? Not sure what the story was - but one version i had heard was that the system wasn't turned on?

Here's the Fifth Gear video in case others want to watch it :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_ZNG8cmnlw

Originally Posted by Octane_Power

You must have experienced it first hand, so how efficient was the system in this car ?

We were told not to test the auto-braking on public roads, and we experienced the airstrip demo as passengers. Braking was very effective and very last-minute, but it seemed rock solid. What did scare me however was the fact that the braking gets CANCELED if there is ANY user input on the steering / accelerator.

Braking aside, the real daily-use goodie here is the Distronic Plus. Its super-smart cruise control on steroids, and i've used the regular old Distronic system in the USA extensively, and it was a blessing.

cya
R

[Rehaan]

Originally Posted by Baddychat

Also I just saw that the MBC uses a stand-alone Intel Atom processor.

I was chatting with the engineer in-charge of MBC, and he said that currently the camera scans at 60 ms intervals, but they are working on upgrading it to 40 ms in the future, as well as improving the cameras' resolution.

Originally Posted by i74js

When the new S class is almost capable of managing the show without a driver, I am not too sure what is Google project up for?

I wouldn't quite say that.

The S-Class has all the hardware required to make it self-drive, however, that is NOT the same as it being able to CONSISTENTLY and SAFELY drive on its own all the time.

Google has even more data-crunching and hardware in their cars to make them able to consistently and safely drive without any manual intervention. There hasn't been a single Google Car crash in the several hundred-thousand miles that they have been driven for. Well okay, there was one - but they say it was due to human error!

Originally Posted by W.A.G.7

If and when they bring this car to India, would they provide the same level of electronic equipment ? Also, about the sound insulation, will the Indian spec car have the same amound of sound deadening material in the engine compartment ?

As mentioned, all the radar based stuff won't see daylight here.

As for sound insulation, i really doubt they'll strip any of it off (this being the S-Class!).

Originally Posted by eq24

I absolutely loved the pic of all the Mercs sporting the American style Team -BHP number plates. How did you guys do that, were they made in Canada or you guys took them from here. And wow to Mercedes to let you guys put it on all the cars.

Hasn't anyone ever told you that you shouldn't believe everything you see on the internet There was some photoshopping involved.

Originally Posted by eq24

I expect this to even spoil things for Rolls and Bentley.

Any idea on price and mileage?

Correct. Now with Maybach gone, they need to span a much larger market with the S.

Indian price - unclear. The prices in Germany (incl. 19% VAT) S350 BlueTEC LWB : E 85,323.00

Mileage, they claim extremely impressive figures, given the size of the engines - but only real-world tests will tell. See the chart below for their figures:

Originally Posted by jacs

Night shot of interiors are so lovely.

Isn't the line between S and Maybach getting narrower?

Merc gets credit for that shot.

There is no line between the S-Class and Maybach anymore! The Maybach brand has been officially discontinued.

cya
R

[Swanand Inamdar]

What a car! What a review! What pictures! If I have to sum it up in one word, the word would be in-freaking-sane!

Coming to the car, what can i say? Isnt it just beautiful? The features used were unheard of, on most cars. But then again, trust Mercedes to bring new features to the automotive table.
I agree on the part, that the car features being 'just helpful' to the driver. Afterall, driving is fun. I wouldnt want the car to take that away from me.

Rehaan, as usual the review is absolutely detailed. Very informative, and a wonderful read. Excellent photos too (at least the ones you clicked ). Must've been a heck of a ride, that car, on that straaaiight road!

All I can say is, the S is back! Literally, your move BMW and Audi.

Edit: Can I request you to please send me a full size image, where the ambient lighting is shown? Absolutely loved that image. Credit for the image goes to you, or Mercedes?

[karpusv]

Excellent review. Feels like being with the car. This is what we can say loaded to the gills (literally).

One query though..

Originally Posted by Rehaan

...
This neat little dial animation happens when a wider display area is required at the center of the instrument cluster (e.g. to display the night vision camera). Notice how no information gets omitted.

...

Is there a way to turn that off? Because, depending on whether there is something occupying the center display area, every time I see the screen, I have to also register the number against which the needle is hovering.
In case of a conventional meter, I can just glance and without having to read the digits, I know what my speed or engine RPM is.

[y2ksrs]

Wow, what a beautifully written review of this beautiful monster.

How does this new S stack up against it's chief competitors - the A8 and the mighty 7? How about shootout between the three? That must be one heck of a post in T-BHP.

Wish the A class had all these gizmos!!

[Scorcher]

Gobsmacked!

Amazing review, Rehaan. You've just raised the bar tremendously.

Given a well deserved five stars

[Arch-Angel]

Amazing review of a very amazing car. The pictures and the feature list is just second to none and i have nothing but admiration on how cars have advanced in terms of technology. I just wish that some new exciting things would happen under the hood too.

[prashanthyr]

Mindblowing preview with some amazing pictures. I have read a number of reviews, but none of them had pictures like we have here - the active meters for ex...who would have thought of that!

BTW - MB's tech department is headed by what I am assuming is an Indian - Prof. Bharat Balasubramanian. He’s the head of product innovations and process technologies at corporate research and advanced engineering (credit - http://www.caranddriver.com/news/mer...-system-driven) So an Indian connection !

[Rachit.K.Dogra]

Awesome Review Rehaan. Ever since I saw this new S class on international websites, I was waiting for a T-BHP review and quite honestly its the most detailed one that I have come across. Well deserved 5 stars for the effort put in compiling the review.

You know I loved this car. And I will be one of those who belives that the S is the best car in the world and in this one surely is probably. But on the other hand I am kind of not happy with so many system present in the car. I mean I understand its MB and they may have tested them a thousand times but still, I feel this car has just too many systems. Given the choice in the segment I will always buy this one, I would have bought the earlier one as well but just the sheer amount of electronics, motors, motherbooards and wires and stuff just kind of make me nervous.

And yes, the car looks gorgeous now. The front is just a work of art in my eyes.

Thank you guys for such a brilliant effort.

Regards
Rachit

[dkaile]

As best a review if I have seen one! Fantastic. Rated 5 Star (though this one deserves a 7). Photoshopping apart, seeing all those TBhp stickers sure made me feel a proud Indian.

Kudos to Tbhp and keep it up Rehaan...

[IronH4WK]

awesome review Rehaan! 2

i'm just awestruck! they've thought about even the minutest of things when building this car!

like i posted on FB, one has to sit with a towel when reading this review - to wipe the drool

5star rated!

[man_of_steel]

Very very Detailed and crisp review! Still spell bound by the amount of technology that is loaded up in this car. Especially the safety features. If most these safety features becomes standard in all the cars in, say 10 years, roads will be a much much more safer place to be! Again Great work with the review!

[Ford5]

This is what Mercedes is all about. Makes current Audi and Bmw competitors feel like 2 generations old. Fantastic review.