Taking a break from the S-Class
MBWorld Fanatic!
Joined: Oct 2010
Posts: 8,199
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From: Corona Del Mar, CA
2019 SL450, 2019 E450 Luxury Trim Wagon, 2024 BMW I7 xDrive60
Wolf, Do you ever take longer road trips, say five to eight hours? If so, would you now take your SL or the new E? We just drove from our home up to Napa Valley. It was a perfect, seven hour drive, with very little traffic. Used Distronic 98% of the time. As smooth and comfortable as my S550 is, by the time we got here, I had had enough. I can’t even imagine driving our SL (without ABC) on a trip like this, let alone something with sport seats like your new ride. As you noted in your Tesla post below, I’ll bet you are going to become a three car household sometime soon. The lure of the new S Class (maybe a coupe!) is going to be too strong to resist. Just a prediction.
MBWorld Fanatic!
Joined: Jul 2013
Posts: 4,834
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From: Venice Florida
2018 S560
The E63 AMG is comfortable, I did a 3 day drive with mine from Rhode Island to Venice Florida. Not as comfortable as my S550 of course but not bad. All the new technology is amusing and makes long trips go by faster and the self driving features are better than my 2015 S550. The S550 tends to drift around with the distronic and has problems doing turns. Plus the feature is nice in the E63 AMG where you hit the turn signal and it changes lanes by itself. I think the new S560 has all this though too. I'd say a say a new S560 with a tune would be a perfect car, if only they made them in a wagon I'd get one, I haul around bikes and that kind of thing so a wagon is good. I dunno, maybe they do make a S560 in a funeral car or a ambulance.
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Joined: May 2002
Posts: 10,580
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From: Land of 10,000 lakes
AMG GTC Roadster, E63s Ed.1, M8 Comp. Coupe
Wolf, Do you ever take longer road trips, say five to eight hours? If so, would you now take your SL or the new E? We just drove from our home up to Napa Valley. It was a perfect, seven hour drive, with very little traffic. Used Distronic 98% of the time. As smooth and comfortable as my S550 is, by the time we got here, I had had enough. I can’t even imagine driving our SL (without ABC) on a trip like this, let alone something with sport seats like your new ride. As you noted in your Tesla post below, I’ll bet you are going to become a three car household sometime soon. The lure of the new S Class (maybe a coupe!) is going to be too strong to resist. Just a prediction.
We do a lot of long distance driving in Europe every year and typically rent SL's or S-Class models. Sometimes it's an E-Class or Audi and to me all are fine for 7+ hours. Unfortunately rentals rarely have all the options we are used to so forget massage or cooled seats.
But to answer you question, the SL is (to me) an excellent long distance cruiser. ABC clearly helps here. The E-Class with the sport seats would be out, it would be painful with bad roads. The standard E63s seats are nothing like the S-Class seats but still are more comfortable with the usual creature comforts like heat/vent, decent massage options and dynamic bolsters. The sport or performance seats are straight buckets. They hold you incredibly well in place for sporty driving but do not isolate you from the road.
I am looking for another 3rd car and I would like it to be an EV. I do love the S-Class coupes though!
