shoes

Drove the launch edition today and spent about an hour with the car. This is the third time I have driven the new S Class. Ultimately, I decided not to get this vehicle and keep my BMW 750 instead.

First the positives: the interior of the launch edition S CLass contains much higher quality materials than the 7 series. No plastic of any kind. I also preferred the transmission stalk in the S Class versus the 7. The ride quality is excellent on the S, smooth as silk and the handling was quite good despite the lack of ABC.

Now the negatives: the seat is not comfortable to me in the S Class (the launch edition has the massage seats), particularly compared with the comfort seats in the 7 series. I prefer all of the performance aspects of the 7 series over the S Class including the throttle tip-in response (very stiff on the S Class), brakes (too soft on the S Class), and handling (BMW has active body control standard). There are more nice storage spaces in the interior of the BMW. I never thought I would say this- I drive is more intuitive than Comand. The HVAC is more effective in the BMW. There is no cooling feature in the seats of the launch edition S Class nor a power trunk, both oversights in my opinion. I feel the sound system is superior in the BMW (premium sound) with more range of adjustments.

Last, but not least, I do not feel the Mercedes is worth a 38% premium over my lease costs in the BMW.

I guess I will get hounded off this board now.

kenstudios

First the defense - The seats felt hard because (incase you didnt realize) there is a seat comfort setting that you have to change using the command control from super soft to stiff. The massage is also set (I think) through that feature. -The climate control setting also must have not been at the right setting. You probably didnt have enough time to go through all the different menus. -Performance wise, the MB has an adaptive tranny that adapts to your driving style and during the short test drive you wouldnt have felt the diference. -The cooling seats are available but I'm not sure about the one you tested. -MB also has the ABC,ESP and all the p's available and again I dont know about the one you tested. -Not only does MB have a power trunk closure, it even has the powere door closure.

Thanks for taking time to test out the new S and I hope can go back and spend more time in the car and play around with the controls just to see what else you can do. You'll probably change your mind (I think-I hope)

onesixeight

shoes...

I'm in the a similar situation...I have a 760Li lease that willl end in the next couple of months and I'm deciding if I should get the Launch Edition S550 I ordered. The lack of Vented Seats and a Power Trunk are now making me think twice about my decision to get a LE S550.

I love the other features, night vision, dynamic seats, rear view camera, keyless go, but I really wanted vented seats in this car. Comm'on MB!!!...Event the Toyota Avalon has vented seats at 40k...Why not your top of the line S-class?

Do you guys think the LE is a good buy, or would you rather spec out your own S? I like the exterior color, the interior is OK, but the lack of certain options is really a turn off.

-Chris

shoes

I had the new S Class for five hours in Germany in September, so I think I know how to operate the controls by now. The reason I prefer the 7 series comfort seats is because they are articulated in the middle- you can recline the whole seat back and lift up the upper middle portion, which is perfect for me. The seat back on the Mercedes only reclines- sure you can make the seat back lumpy in different places, but it still isn't as comfortable to me as the BMW seats. On the other hand, the massage feature in the Mercedes is outstanding and superior to the BMW.

The ventilation is also adjustable to be direct, medium or diffuse. Even on the direct setting, I had to turn up the fan to stay cool (it is 54 degrees here in CA, not exactly a hot day) and the fan is noisy! The leather seats on the launch edition are very high quality and thick, which makes them warmer to sit on, so the weak HVAC was noticeable (as were the lack of cooled seats). The actual vent openings on the dash seem pretty small to me.

I have owned 23 Mercedes, so I know about the adaptive transmission- the S CLass is set up for gentle acceleration and I found myself mashing the pedal more than the BMW to feel like I was accelerating on par with the BMW.

I think the launch edition car is beautiful to look at, particularly on the interior, but those seats are pretty close to white and the steering wheel is very slender, so I am thinking that this would appeal more to my wife than to me. Also, I feel the AMG package would make this car look a lot better.

ruykava

well, everyone has their own priorities, i guess =) thanks for taking the time to check out the car and report back.

the HVAC "issue" i can understand. Merc specifically designed it so that it doesn't blow air strongly. i'm not sure how well it works as i have not actually tried it out, but sometimes i do wonder if it is partly psychological to feel that it's not strong. it's supposed to cool the entire cabin evenly and not just you, perhaps making it slower to cool just you.

onesixeight: although i haven't personally seen the LE, just from the photos and specs i would personally think it's not such a great deal - no powered trunk, vented seats, or rear HVAC controls, to me, is not enough for something positioned so near the top of the range. sure, the car is great but i think waiting a few months, then speccing it up yourself might be the way to go.

carpersn

If you've already got a BMW as a daily driver and you test an S for an hour, won't your daily driver's system seem more intuitive, naturally?

By comparison, when I first upgraded from my Treo 600 to the 650 I thought the 600 more intuitive...now when i have looked at another 600, i can't believe i really ever thought that...

Of course, I'm not here to call anyone on their own opinions...just jumped out at me, and of course, I wish for every opportunity for MB to trounce the Bavarians!

shoes

I agree that my familiarity with the BMW would make it an unfair comparison but let me give you one little example- while I was fiddling with the seat adjustments (the car was parked at the time), pretty much everything adjusted the same way- you pick the part of the seat you want to adjust then you rotate the knob to increase or decrease the adjustment. When I got to the lumbar support, at first it seemed like it was broken since rotating the knob did nothing. For just this control, you have to bump the knob left or right to increase the amount of lumber and bump it up or down to reposition it. It took me 20 minutes to figure this out- now maybe I am not an engineer-but then again the entire sales team couldn't figure it out either.

Here is another one. In my BMW, when I want to raise the sunshades on the rear and rear side windows, I press one button on the armrest which is marked with a window shade and hold it for 2 seconds until all three window shades rise. On the S Class, you have to use Comand to enter the vehicle menu and rotate the knob until you get to the rear sunshade and push the controller to raise it. Now you go to your armrest and hit the right rear up window switch to raise the right rear shade and then the left rear window switch to raise the left shade. This took me another 20 minutes to figure out.

Perhaps Mercedes will refine these controls in version 1.2 of the new Comand. Certainly I heard that the BMW 745 was a nightmare when it first came out.

vixapphire

interesting comments. i agree that bmw does a bang-up job on its highest-level comfort/adjustable seating. the high-end seats in the 5 series wagon i test drove were adjustable in amazing ways that no other auto i've ever seen can compare to, including a pillow that wraps around your neck, a separate recliner for the upper back, etc. that is a high watermark that i'd have thought merc would've looked to match if not best in its ground-up redesign of the S class. color me surprised.

as for the launch edition, does it have "piano black laquer" wood? it may be crazy or heresy to ask, but is that just a solid black, or is the woodgrain at all visible? if it's a solid black, what's to say that it's even wood in the first place? yeah, i know it's a mercedes and all, but in a cost-cutting age, why not lacquer up a piece of plastic instead? just curious.

v

onesixeight

I agree with shoes comments about the lumbar and massage seat controls. Although everyone praises how much easier COMAND is compared to iDrive, I don't like how basic functions (ie. lumbar and sunshade) are burried deep in the menu system. I understand that they want to get rid of as many buttons as possible from the dash, but in that effort, they have made it more difficult to activate simple things such as the sunshade. For things like ambient light setting...that's fine, since I don't always need to fiddle with that.

Maybe I'm just a "button" kind of person. On my Blackberry, I like how you have alphabetical short cuts (r = reply) and smart keys. Hit this and it take you to the lumbar setting?

onesixeight

It's a "light" colored oak (i think)...I just remember is was a lighter colored wood. Similar to the old Chestnut option of the W220 S. It's not the Piano Black or dark Bird's Eye Maple like on the AMG cars.

shoes

The wood on the launch edition S Class is the same light matte oak as was in the CLS launch edition, if you caught that one.

W210

Agree!!!

shoes

My dealer is happy that I passed on the launch edition since he sold it to someone else for $15K over MSRP and he was going to sell it to me for less than MSRP.

akburton

My dealer quoted me I beleive $101,675.00 for the LE, anyone get a different quote?