hayden

Since www.mercedes-benz.de has the S63 available to configure, it gives us some insight into pricing.

Based on the website, the base price for the following models are:

S 600 143.724,00 EUR
S 63 AMG 134.212,00 EUR

Meaning they are selling the S63 at about 93.38% the cost of the S600.

By comparing that to the MBUSA S600 base MSRP of $140,675... we are left to assume that the S63 base MSRP will be priced in the neighborhood of $131,364 (not including the large range of options). Yiykes !

whoover

The US S600 price includes lots of options not included in the German base price. The S63 will also not include them, so you can expect the S63 to be cheaper unless you load it up. This is the way the S55 was marketed vs. the V-12 models.

Chucky300

Can you explain to me why the S600 has NO OPTIONS except Designo paint.................... and the S65 which is basically a SUPER version of the S600 has the following options instead of having them as standard Features..

Distronic Plus details $2,850

Active Ventilated Rear Seats details $1,690

Individual Rear Seats details $825

iPod Integration Kit details $425

Multicontour Rear Seats details $800

Panorama Roof details $1,000

Heated Steering Wheel details $450

whoover

Same reason that S63 won't have that stuff standard. You pay the bucks for performance. If you want the tricks too, you add them but they keep the base as far below 200k (for the S65) or 150k (for the S63) as possible.

Chucky300

its basically an S600 with the much stronger Engine - but they eliminate the tricks that come standard on the S600....


Follow me here....
$143K for an S600 which comes standard with EVERY option
$182K for the S65 which does not come with $8K of options standard in S600

So. On top of paying $8K to get those options back, you also are paying an additional premium of $39K JUST for the engine....... Thats about $390 per horse.......... The S65 has 102 more horsepower than the S600 but the engine costs $39K more..

Someone wanna agree with me finally and say that PERHAPS MB is WAY overpriced?

whoover

Besides the engine you get the AMG sport package ($5,600 on an S550), 20" wheels, massive brakes (probably about $10,000 worth of hardware between the composite rotors and sliding calipers), strengthened transmission and rearend, recalibrated suspension, special steering wheel with paddles and AMG seats. There are probably other detail changes as well. None of this stuff can be had for any price on the S600.

hayden

The pricing I used was base price for both models (even though the "base" S600 includes everything). So the $131,364 is for a base S63, without any options.

whoover

The European base price for the S600 does not include everything. Go back to the configurator and click on the various option categories (Interieur, Lenkung/Schaltung, Räder/ Fahrwerk and Radio/Kommunikation) in the options tab (3. Ausstattung). You'll see that everything is extra over the 143,724 base. The fully-loaded standard S600 is a US marketing concept, so the S600 vs. S63 price ratio in Germany is not applicable here.

hayden

Got it. I didn't realize the Euro S600 didn't include all options.

whoover

BTW, a loaded S600 in Germany is more like 155K euros. At 1.32 euro to the dollar, that's about $205K in Germany for a car that's $143K after it's shipped to California. Plus we work deals that are unheard of in Europe.

Some of this is due to the tax structure, but a lot of it is plain old market forces at work. Lexus hasn't made much of dent in Europe. We should be very happy to see lots of them on the roads over here.

I've got some colleagues visiting from Stuttgart. When I told them my brand new (W220) S65 cost me the equivalent of 83,000 Euros they said a lot of things in German that I'm sure would be a challenge to translate.