LetsJet

Hey guys,

Still looking and I have a few questions. Funny I thought I knew the answers but now I'm not 100% sure, so plz confirm.

In the S600 I thought 4 place seating was standard in all years, correct?

Was ABC std. in all years also?

fusion2007

yes the 4 seating places are standered since the w220 body style came out.

you have a choice between ABC or AIRMATIC.. abc is sport tuned and airmatic is comfort tuned.

LetsJet

Thanks, though in my '04 brochure it lists ABC as std. on the S600. I'm just not sure about '03 & '05

absent

ABC was standard '03 through '05.
4 seat pkge was not standard ,it was an option.

LetsJet

This is why it gets frustrating.....

In my brochure for S class 2004 it shows "Power rear seats with pneumatically adjustable lumbar suppors for outboard positions" as options for the 430, 500, & 55, but std. on the 600. This is what I thought was four place seating.

Oxygen

I can't find a picture of it, but 4 Place seating is like that in the Maybach or the CLS or the CL. There is room for 4 people in the car, not five. It's actually more money for less people... but it looks awesome.

All S600's come with standard power rear seats. They are optional on the S55, S500 and the S430.

whoover

There are several rear-seat options on the W220, including heating, cooling, moving and messaging. Four-place seating is yet another. It's fairly expensive and is essentially two front seats in the back. It also has at least one option on top of the option (drive-dynamic).

It has always been the standard configuration on the S-class coupe (now called the CL), but has never been standard on any sedan since most sedan buyers need to be able to seat five people.

carsinamerica

Oxygen is right, fusion2007 is wrong.

In the 224 Four Place Seating Package (which is available on the W221 as well, but ONLY on the S65 AMG), a seat divider splits the outboard seats, with a wood console w/ storage compartment built in. There is no center seatbelt, and you can see the outboard rear seats are actually buckets instead of being elements of a bench. What you're talking about with the power rear seats is the Rear Seat Package, which is a different thing and WAS standard for the S600 (even the dealers got confused occasionally). The FPSP was optional on various trim levels dating right back to 2000.

Here's a pic from an '03 S55 AMG up on eBay:


ABC was used on the S55, S600, and S65, and optional on the S430/S500, ever since the S600 was introduced in 2001. Airmatic was not available for the S600 or the AMG models, so far as I know.

You can check out my website, too, which covers some of this in detail (at least for the U.S. market):

http://www.carsinamerica.net/mercede.../refmbzsss.htm

LetsJet

Very nice info guys............

This once and for all clears up my question. I have never seen a W220 with 4 place seating and that's why I could not figure out what they were talking about.

For those that know, is it safe to assume the outside rear seats adjust more and are more comfortable w/ four place seating?

Nice info on your site -BTW

fusion2007

sorry my fault. i thought it only came in a 5seat package

whoover

Yep. With the drive-dynamic option, they have all the support tricks of the front seats. They're fairly rare in sedans, but you can check them out at a dealer in any CL. I would have loved to get them, but carry five often enough to not be able to really have considered it.

I notice that the four-place option for the W221 S65 is much cheaper than the W220 option -- less than $1,000 versus over $4,000. I wonder if they removed significant content (like a lot of the adjustments).

BTW, "outside rear seats" isn't accurate in this configuration as there is not even a vestigial middle seat. You probably know that by now.

carsinamerica

I'm just guessing, but here's what I conclude. One should remember that this is partially based on MBUSA.com. This is problematic because MBUSA is deeply unreliable in their site information (i.e., they list the wrong price for the Four Place Seating Package: it's $875, not $825, according to the window sticker; they do not list the heated but not ventilated rear seats option at all, which IS available, etc.). Thus far, the Four Place option only seems to exist for the S65, which again is different from the W220. On the W221 S65, the seat heaters/coolers/massagers/auto-bolsters are all removed (all ARE standard on the S600), although the standard S65 outboard seats still adjust. The individual rear seats do not seem to restore any of these features. That's probably why it's cheaper: adding those four features would cost $2,490 extra. There is nothing from MBUSA that says that the seat adjustments are removed with this option, but that's hardly proof positive.

Hope this helps. Glad you liked the site! It's a lot of work, but it's expanding. Slowly.

whoover

I'm not sure it adds up yet.

On the W220, code 325 (rear seating package) adds rear air conditioner (code 582), rear seats with ventilation and heating (code 402) and adjustable rear seats and headrests (code 223) including ability to adjust front passenger seat from rear (code 247). While this package (code 325) cost $2,890 on an '06 S55 it is standard on the S65, with the possible exception of the ventilation part of 402. I think rear heated seats were standard on the S65. I know rear A/C and seat adjusters were. A code 402 was available on a 5-place S65 (mine has it), although I never saw it listed. I think it adds the pneumatic bolsters ("comfort") and ventilation.

Which means that the 4-place package (code 224), at $6,190 on an S55 or $4,250 on an S65, did not include the price of heaters, ventilation, pneumatics, adjusters or A/C, which on the S65 anyway were already included. It included the cost of more adjustments for the seats, but it didn't add any of those things from scratch. Plus, a code 402 was available on top of code 224 at $1,690 to add active, ventilated, heated seats to the four-place configuration.

I have no idea how to compare this to the $875 W221 code 224, even assuming you still have to add codes 402 and 872 for active heated, ventilated seats. They don't make it easy.

robino

so i understand correctly, Airmatic susp. was NOT available on the S600 (03-04) which is a good thing, right?

i'm trying to get an idea what year S600 (between the 03-04) has less issues, recalls, etc.

whoover

Correct. S600 came with ABC. ABC is superior from the perspective of handling and low body roll, but I don't think you can say it's less trouble-prone than Airmatic. It's as least as complicated. The ABC on my S55 had several failures. They were all covered by warranty or extended warranty but I'm sure retail repair costs would have been painful. Personally, I'd never consider a V-12 Mercedes that's not covered by some warranty.