GDawgC220

http://www.mbusa.com/brand/models/S350V.jsp

241hp 258tq from a 3.7L so it doesn't look to be the new 3.5L engine.

akbro93704

ya it's the old 3.7 with the 5 speed, not the sevenI guess MB figures it's the last year for the W220 and they might as well send em over to the US, but I thought the reason why they weren't available here in the last few years was because the US has no interest in the flagship S-class with a V6, which is true. what makes them think we do now?

MB AMG

Is this the M112 engine?

akbro93704

yes, it's not the new 4 valve 3.5 DOHC V6, it's the old 3.7 3 valve SOHC V6

S-Clusiv

They disappoint me.

S-Clusiv

Wait....someone tell that that is NOT an SWB..please? anyone..?

akbro93704

yes, it is a SWB! didn't realize that until you mentioned it and I looked it up on MBUSA.

midget fidger

its about $12k cheaper than a 430...im sure some people would be interested

S-Clusiv

Great, now the car is going to be on the road like the Hummer H2...THANKS MERCEDES!!!!

ajf1

looks like a complete waste of time, 240 hp for a 4000lb car and they want 65,000 for it?? Not a good value, i thought they were putting the new 270 hp 6 in it with the 7 speed tranny. Maybe at $50,000 it would be interesting but i see these cars sitting on dealer lots for months at a time. I guess wait a few months and you can get one for $50k.

DaCeptak0n

What a waste indeed. Doesn't MB use some kind of marketing strategy to figure out if there is a demand for such a model in the S-class lineup or are they just pushing numbers out of their ***...

What model will MB come out with next??

midget fidger

S320 CDI

ViKTORiOUS

Uh why would you but a 6-Cylinder engine in a W220? This boggles my mind, what's the point of this???

I guess the gas prices in this country are giving MB a huge hit, thus they have to downsize and create more efficient engines in their gas guzzling sedans... so what's next SLR350? hehehehe

ano0oj

Pretty smart business on the part of MB in my opinion. They want to provide a luxury automobile to those who can't afford higher sticker prices. Though 65k is a bit unreasonable for a 350, some people would just get one because its an S, and a Mercedes. But I'd rather get a 300C for 45k, and 350 hp, hemi .

midget fidger

wowo, i just read http://www.caranddriver.com/article....rticle_id=8009 on the 300C hemi and it looks like one damn nice car with plenty mb stuff in it for a fraction of the cost

Lender1

I agree with you but the unknowledgable buyer will lap this up just to get an "S Class." Many older people won't care about the engine. The W140 always had a SWB six-cylinder available and it drew in the price point buyer/leasee.

MBE55AMG

Woohoo! Ultra low emission S350!

SleeperZZZ

Hey S-Clusiv... So you're saying that that's not the case yet in Newport Beach :p

Incendiary

I'd personally be interested in an S350 SWB. More because I'd prefer a SWB over a LWB. An S500 or S430 SWB would spark my interest even more, though. BTW, the S350 acceleration numbers are still better than some of the other MB offerings, so it's not a total dog. Plus, as someone else mentioned, SWB V6 S-classes have always been offered previously.

MBZFAN55

P R O F I T . The r&d costs are long ago paid on the W220, so any sales now are extremely profitable for Daimler. What we want at this juncture in time isn't relevant. The W221 will be here shortly and your memory of the V6, SWB W220, will be but an asterick.

Guest0001

Absolutely unnecesary.

braverichard

Valid points have all been stated here. The R&D costs for both the 3.7L V6 and the W220 chassis have all been recovered and so this car will yield nothing but pure profit. Plus, even if it doesn't sell much, MB will lose a very small amount of money (if any) because no need engineering was done in producing the car. So basically here's a chance for MB to increase the S-Class lineup, offer a more efficient engine that given the weight of the car should be much faster than the W140 S320 which sold very well like some people have already stated, offer a car with a lower starting price to attract a wider audience, and still not spend any money in doing so. My aunt didn't purchase the new S-Class sedans last year because she didn't want a gass guzzling V8 and didn't like the excessive length of the car she drove (S430). She ended up purchasing an E320 CDI because she liked the size, the fuel efficieny and hey, she didn't mind paying just $49K.

This is definitely a wise move by MB. It does have a major negative though: the media will criticize MB for not using the new 3.5L DOHC 24V V6. If MB used this newer engine, it would have incurred some R&D costs in making it fit and work in the S-Class. With the 3.7L being used, no additional costs were incurred because that engine has been on sale in the S-Class worldwide (except North America) for many years.

braverichard

Oops... a very big Oops indeed. I just checked out the specs. The S350 does 0-60 in a not-so-bad 7.6 seconds according to MB. However, due to the engine's lack of techonological sophistication to assist it in being more efficient as well as the lack of the 7G-TRONIC, it actually gets 17mpg/25mpg in city/highway driving while the S430 which has the longer wheelbase and does 0-60 in 6.9 seconds gets 17mpg/26mpg in city/highway driving. So in the end, the efficiency advantage doesn't exist in the S350 as I stated earlier. All you get is a shorter wheelbase S-Class if you favor that, and a much lower starting price.

superflysocal

Does this definitely mean that the w221 won't come until MY2007?
Would be strange for MB to release a my2006 w220 s350 and then w221 for v-8 s-class, wouldn't it?

midget fidger

i dunno if they'll do that or not, but the website shows that in 2003, they had the W209 CLKs all except a single W208 CLK430 cab - http://www.mbusa.com/brand/container...ubNav=overview Especially odd because they dont have the 430 engine in any US W209.