Mike5215

This guy makes a good point, namely that the 222 isn't at all a mechanical improvement over the 221, sharing drivetrain, suspension and wheelbase of the 2012+, but rather a vessel for a bunch of intrusive tech and a hyper-designed interior intended to make the rapidly growing disconnect between car and driver easier to swallow.

Literally we're moving towards a point where the car drives you and that may not necessarily be good news for guys who actually enjoy driving.

http://m.caranddriver.com/columns/th...-decade-column

Nickthegreek

I agree its a 221 with more bells and whistles. The ride is just as smooth in ours as it is in the 222. Its mainly a matter of "I have the newest toy with all the bells and whistles". From mercedes benz's standpoint, they just had to change the style of the body and the interior but the chassis is practically the same and that way they save money on having to buy new machinery. It also seems like mercedes benz may be going modular because the e classes look like a smaller S now whereas other years the S class had its own distinct look that distinguished it from the others.

justinmorrison

The S-Class having it's own distinct looks is a relatively new development. The W201/W202/W124/W126/W140 all looked very similar to one another with the exception of size.

It wasn't until the W210 and W220 that the different models started having their own unique appearance.

That being said, I fully agree with the points made in the article.

wywywywy

Yes, not just the S-Class either - it's pretty much all the German cars, and people often overlook (forgot?) that.

It was only around late-90's to late-00's that different models had different identities, possibly because the designers let their creativity ran free having the ability to use the new fancy steel-pressing techniques.

justinmorrison

Quite true. As much as I love the W221, I miss the days where the new Mercedes or BMW was simply a fine-tuning of the previous generation (cosmetically at least). I distinctly remember thinking "what the **** is that" when the W220 was released. Prior to that, a Mercedes sedan looked stately and powerful, but never "sporty" (especially not an S-Class/SEL). They were all sleepers back then, somewhat staid looking vehicles that never let on what they were capable of. One of the best car scenes in any movie is the 450SEL 6.9 in Ronin. "How on earth is that German Buick keeping up with everyone else??"

In the 1990's a good friend of mine had a 300SEL 6.3. Looking at that car, no one would have guessed what it was capable of. Ugh... now I'm depressed

Jason B

Yep, that's why the 140 was the last one until the w221.

Mike5215

Yeah, with the 140 and everything leading up to it, the design language was about making a tank as pretty as possible, but at the end of the day it was still a tank. The 220 was their first attempt to replace sheer brawn with tech to make the car safer (and use less fuel). That ushered in the era of lightweight interior materials (plastic) and all of the lovely microprocessor controlled systems that like to go on the blink every once in awhile. It also contributed to the crazy high depreciation on the 220 and 221. Back in the 140 era, a 100,000 mile S was just getting broken in.

Nickthegreek

ill take the crazy high depreciation... that way I dont take the huge initial hit and can afford to have one of these moneypits

Fried Chicken

I wish they still made cars like they used to. I replaced my mom's 1998 Volvo S90 with a 2005 S500. The Volvo is a tank.

The S500 is nice, but it feels really fragile.

I wish luxury carmakers would go back to making comfortable tanks rather than filling cars with ludicrously stupid overcomplicated gizmos to achieve simple goals.

KNBS550

Jason, glad to see that you kept the W140. Driving my 1997 S500 was like driving the rock of Gibraltar. It was that solid. The W221 sort of comes close, but I think the airmatic shocks dampen a little too much of the road feel.

DubVBenz

Thank you thank you for pointing out that every S-Class prior to the 220 wasn't designed with safety in mind.... They were mostly death traps that only looked strong. Nevermind the pioneering of the crumple zone and safety cage,making abs and airbags standard, the introduction of traction control.

I never felt safe in my 126, that's for sure!

People are out of their minds.

Jason B

What's cool to me is... Mercedes did not set a budget when they were designing and engineering the W140. Final result was over $1,000,000,000 spent!! YES that is one billion!

Keep in mind that is a Billion dollars in the 1980's.

No car company will ever put that much time, money, research, engineering or quality into another car again.

Mike5215

Right. A stronger car simply transmits more force directly to the occupants. A unibody with dedicated crumple zones in key structural components both absorbs force and diverts force around the cabin and away from the occupants in a designed way. It also prevents engine and drive train intrusion into the cabin in a front end hit by routing those components to go down and under the cabin rather than right through the firewall. The 220 also marked the introduction of pre-safe, which primes the car for maximum survival if it senses a pending accident, and its pretty good at sensing. That, plus airbags everywhere equals a relatively safe car.

I believe the 140 was unibody from the rear up to the A-pillar, but a massively heavy cast iron subframe as used for the engine cradle and front suspension mounts.