TomS

I just did 1800 miles up and down the East Coast in my 2014 S550. I thought I would add some impressions to follow on to my experiences driving the car in Italy this Spring. First, I love the car more every day! I did 12 hours of driving yesterday and the car is quite frankly, a pleasure to drive. Or should I say, to just move the wheel a bit while it drives.

I drove from North Carolina yesterday to the Tampa Bay area. On those long stretches of 95, you are along for the ride. Adjust the headrest, get comfortable, maybe a seat massage, Satellite Radio and a fantastic ride. The thought occurred to me that if one gets this car without the Driver Assistance option, you really do not have a touring car. My belief is this should be a standard feature on the car. But, if you spend anytime on the interstates, you really have to have the steer assist. It is not about "I like to drive", as you are of course still driving the car. But, it makes for a much less fatiguing trip. Going though Washington DC, Richmond and Jacksonville, I turned off the Distronic and drove but the stretches in between, the car did the driving and I enjoyed every minute of it. I had long stretches where I never touched the gas pedal or brake.

As I mentioned in another thread, I took the Auto Train up. They took very good care of the car and it did not have a scratch on it. If you do this, pay the extra $50 for the priority unload. We were leaving the station 30 minutes after we pulled in.

A few performance notes. I averaged 24 MPG on the highway and I have 20 inch run-flat tires. No issues withe the car except for the lack of my 360 or backup camera (which will be fixed next week). Unlike the Europe trip, I was not afraid of stranding the car on a narrow street in Washington DC, or Greenwich, CT.

Regarding roads, if I lived in the Northeast, I would camp out on the doorstep of any politician I could grab. Your roads suck! If you pay taxes for those things, you are getting robbed! Potholes on I-84 in PA and upstate NY were bad (not BQE bad). The further south you went, the better, but NC roads were not great either. Obviously, this has to do with the cold, but the roads when I lived in SLC were great so incompetence clearly plays a role too.

Lastly, a few funny stories. I have noticed that you have to be careful about the overly-anxious valet. I self-parked the car in a lot at the Mohegan Sun in Wilkes Barre. But upon departure, as I pulled into the reception area to meet my wife and the bellman, another valet was practically begging me to pull into his spot. He ran right over and asked what year the car was. They were falling over themselves to get near the car. Now, one might chalk that up to this being an unusual car for the Poconos, but a similar thing happened in Washington, D.C.

We stayed at the Hay-Adams hotel across from the White House. When the valet pulled the car up, he could not stop talking about how people were looking at him driving the car and he just loved the looks of it. The Hay-Adams is no Motel-6 and I imagine they get their fair share of high-end cars, but I thought it funny how this car continues to turn heads. Of course, that has nothing to do with me and everything to do with the great design that MB created. Although I had to laugh as the folks smugly getting into the rented W221 while we caught a cab just had no clue what I had in the garage. Oh, how people get wrapped up in status.

So, the trip was perfect and this reaffirms my belief that this is the best car I have ever driven (bias unavoidable). The options that I consider mandatory to making this trip so good include: Driver Assistance Package, Premium package (goes with Driver Assistance), Pano roof to let the light in at times, Exclusive Nappa Seats, 20 inch tires. Surround cameras would have been on the list but they were not working but I missed them.

Regards,

Tom

PS If you do not have some of those options, that is OK. Just try not to tell me why you don't need them since it's impossible for you to tell me how your trip would be with them. No one should settle for the options the dealer has on this lot. And I also believe that is you do not spend $120K on this car, you are just simply missing the good options. $94500 is only the starting place folks. Let the flaming begin...

DaveVY

Great write up! Nothing there to flame!

Based on what you have shared here and in other posts my Bride and I are considering trying the auto train on a future trip.

We bought our 2014 off the lot and it was almost everything we wanted except it didn't have the Exclusive Nappa or 360 camera options. I agree the distronic plus and premium packages make this car the best touring car. I love this car more after each trip, driving is so much less fatiguing.

Any pics from the trip or auto train?

meldour

What a great review. I gotta tell you, I should be receiving my S550 next week. I can't wait and your review made the wait even worse lol!

Last week I had to drive 450 miles from eastern PA to Ohio, and I kept imagining how wonderful the ride would have been in the s550. Now it seems like I'll have to make this trip all over again once I get my new car

hyperion667

I can vouch for NC roads being pretty terrible.......nice write up OP

TomS

Well you have the Driver Assistance so that to me is the most important option. I used the ventilated seats quite a bit too.

I have a video of the unloading but that is pretty uneventful. Note the detailer just cleaned up the car from the trip and he did not find anything on it so it made it through the whole trip and the train without any issues.

AppleFan1

That's fantastic Tom. I have had the same experience as you in my long driving trips to date. Just recently I drove from Des Moines to Akron, OH (about 700 miles and about 11 hours) and back. It was such a pleasure to drive. As you state, on the open Interstate, it is SO effortless.

I do have the Driver Assistance package and the Premium package and I consider those an absolute must. I did not get the fancy leather, but I think the standard is great. I also did not want the 20 inch wheels. I believe I get a more comfortable ride with the standard wheels. I get considerably better gas mileage than you on my trips. I typically average between 28.5 and 31 mpg depending on wind conditions. And I don't baby it either. I usually drive about 5-8 mph above the speed limit.

Btw, when you open and close your trunk, do you use the gentle kick? I do and people find it fascinating.

I also have the Night Vision Plus and I do find this useful at night. The fragrance option is nice touch as well.

My Surround View cameras work great since I had the software update a few weeks ago. You will be amazed at the difference it makes in the darkness.

Like you, I have had quite a few folks in various places tell me that's the best car they have ever seen. This is especially the case when they check out the interior.

Alishami

I haven't read any review about this car with negative sayings

truly It's an Amazing car!,for me we got all the options that you have mentioned but the only thing is missing is the exclusive nappa leather as what I have chosen is called nappa leather!

Alishami

I have tried the Air Freshener many times but didn't smell anything even on High intensity,I don't why!

the trunk feature is a bit gimmicky to me as it's usually missing my kick ,maybe I'm not doing it right or it's just like this.

AppleFan1

You just need to do a very gentle forward motion with your leg. It's not really a kick. It works almost 100% of the time on first try for me.

BenzV12

I enjoy reading such topics with full of enjoyment and it pays a lot to see MB keeps progressing with no short of technical improvements as well
Thanks for your feedback
Happy Days and Drives

TomS

the trick is the trunk does not open while your leg is under there. Slowly move forward and back and the trunk will open or close. I thought it was not working and kept my foot under there. That does not work for me. It works all the time now since I learned.

TomS

You should smell the air system right away on high. I assume you took the seal off the bottle and it is installed in the glovebox.

Also, is the ionizer on?

Tom

hyperion667

that air system covers the smell of the leather: a losing situation in my book