2000 Mercedes-Benz S500 Reviews

We turn the spotlight on the Mercedes-Benz S-Class 500L and ask the crucial questions, including the biggest -- would you buy one?What is it?This is third down from the top of the Mercedes-Benz tree, the S500L – a long wheelbase version of the new S-Class which underwent a generational change late last year.How much?Cost a bomb at $310,000 plus on roads – and options.What are competitors?Three possibly four - the BMW 7-Series, Jaguar XJ, Lexus LS 460/600, Maserati Quattroporte and the new Audi A8.What's under the bonnet?Copious power comes from the twin turbo, direct injection petrol V8 of 4.7-litres capacity. It's good for 335kW/700Nm output, the latter at 1800rpm. Drive goes to the rear wheels through a seven speed auto with paddle shift.How does it go?Whoosh – indecently quick for a 2.0-tonne plus limo. Puts away a 0-100kmh sprint in a mere 4.7 seconds. Has prodigious roll on acceleration, makes virtually no noise unless you are up it for the rent.Is it economical?Surprisingly economical with 9.2-litres/100km within reach, even better than that on the freeway. Is it green?Yes, has plenty of emissions technology and gets an EU6 pass. Slippery body rated at Cd0.24 helps matters. Pity it weighs so much.Is it safe?Five stars plus almost every imaginable driver assistance feature. Of particular note is Intelligent Drive which networks numerous safety systems such as Distronic radar cruise, Brake Assist, Cross Traffic Alert, Active Lane Keeping, Adaptive High Beam, Night Vision, Attention Assist.  This car couldn't be far off autonomous drive – no driverIs it comfortable?Supremely.  Has just about every luxury invented including heated and ventilated seats with heated arm rests, Magic Ride Control which uses a stereo camera to scan the road and set the suspension accordingly, large format info/control screen, Voice activated phone and audio, and even climate control with active perfume system.What's it like to drive?Sensational. smooth, silent, tactile, multi drive modes, more luxury than you can imagine. Engine performance is surprising. Bumps. what bumps? Is it value for money?Not really with this car up around the 350 grand mark – with options and on road costs. Possible appeal for billionaires.

New Mercedes-Benz S-Class models aren't an everyday occurrence, so when they do come along they create a big stir throughout the global automotive industry. Obviously the designers of Merc's arch rivals Audi A8 and BMW 7 series will pay the most attention. However, lesser car makers also inspect the S-Class very

It's one of the most recognisable cars on the road -- an imposing presence usually found at airports and their environs and in upmarket suburbs around town.The S model name appeared first in 1972 in the W116 series which was the first car with ABS. This breaking technology trend has continued through each subsequent S-Class which has ushered in new technology like cruise control, crumple zones and air bags among a retinue of other now almost ubiquitous features. Now, there's a new S-Class which makes a quantum leap ahead in technology terms.DESIGN / STYLINGS-Class is a four or five seat sedan with stately proportions and is available here in three model variants, the V6 diesel 350Bluetec, the petrol V8 500 and the petrol V8 63AMG with long wheelbase versions available on all but the 63. It has a distinctive look this time around with touches of Maybach ultra-limo about its flanks. It retains a star motif on the bonnet (not the grille) like a gun sight and the roofline is in the curving coupe idiom.The rear end tapers in giving a smaller than expected appearance from behind while the beltline is high punctuated by dynamic style lines.  Complex, high-tech LED headlights give S-Class an earnest-looking front. Up to 95kg has been sliced from the S-Class hybrid alloy/steel body but it still comes in close to two tonnes in the lightest variant. Super low drag aerodynamics rate Cd 0.24 which contributes to the nearly silent interior.ENGINES / TRANSMISSIONAll three engines have a seven-speed auto transmission and all offer superlative performance with relatively low fuel consumption. The 350 has a 3.0-litre turbo diesel with 190kW/620Nm output and an incredible 6.0-litres/100km fuel economy.The 500 is a 4.7-litre biturbo petrol V8 with 335kW/700Nm and 9.2 litres/100km economy while the 63 runs a 5.5-litre biturbo petrol V8 (same as E63) with 430kW/900Nm and 10.2-litres/100km. The 63AMG differs with an AMG Speedshift seven-speed auto designed for high performance.Possibly one of the most interesting features is so called Magic Body Control that scans the road ahead with a camera and adjusts the suspension according to the road conditions -- in advance.SAFETYSafety equipment is vast and there's even a pedestrians warning through the night vision system that automatically flashes the headlights.ON THE ROADGet in and it's a whole new world with possibly the world's biggest in-car wide-screen, virtual instruments with night vision as standard and a new two spoke, multi-function wheel. There's an integrated dash with door trims forming one unbroken sweep from side to side, and a number of  different fascia media are used.The high quality interior is lounge-like, classy and ultra luxurious, especially in the rear seats. It's a cavern of high end components like Burmester audio, sumptuous leather upholstery, telematic control, on board WiFi hotspot for the internet, seven ambient lighting choices, luxury head restraints.Ouside there's a hands free boot opening/closing, panoramic glass sunroof, adaptive high beam, 360 degree camera view from four cameras, active park assist and a swag of safety and driver assist features. There's even climate control seats for added comfort. We were chauffeured in the back seats and also drove the new S-Class and as expected, you don't want to get out.From the rear seat it's sheer luxury with large reclining seats, individual screens, air conditioning and other entertainments. We drove the 350 diesel and can't see why you'd want anything else. It has excellent performance across the range and is smooth and silent. It's big though with a wide expanse of bonnet in front of you and you know it's a big, heavyweight that can still deliver a somewhat sporty feel.VERDICTS-Class is the recipient of all new Benz technology, cutting edge stuff that's designed to optimise safety, performance, luxury and economy. Costs plenty though starting at $215 grand for the short wheelbase 350 Bluetec.The complete Mercedes-Benz S-Class range is:S350 3.0-litre turbo-diesel four-door sedan: from $215,000 (automatic)S350L 3.0-litre turbo-diesel four-door sedan: from $222,500 (automatic)S500 4.7-litre twin-turbo petrol four-door sedan: from $285,000 (automatic)S500L 4.7-litre twin-turbo petrol four-door sedan: from $310,000 (automatic)S63 AMG 5.5-litre bi-turbo petrol four-door sedan: from $385,000 (automatic)Mercedes-Benz S-ClassPrice: from $215,000 (S350)Engines: 3.0-litre V6 turbo diesel  (190kW/620Nm), 4.7-litre V8 twin turbo petrol (335kW/700Nm)Transmission: Seven-speed automaticEconomy: 6.0L/100km (diesel), 9.2L/100km (petrol)Emissions: 159g/km (diesel), 215g/km (petrol)Safety: Nine airbags (two rear seatbelt airbags optional), radar crash avoidance, lane-keeping, blind zone alert, self parking, up to eight cameras, 12 parking sensorsWarranty: Three years/unlimitedServicing: 12 months/25,000kmSpare tyre: No. Runflats

The new Mercedes S-Class has some very big shoes to fill because the old one was just so good. It's also got to beat it's traditional rivals like the Audi A8 and Range Rover.

The boss of Mercedes says the new S-Class is the best car in the world. That sounds like something that we should try out for ourselves. Doesn't it?

Look at a new Mercedes-Benz S-Class today and you're getting a glimpse into the cars everybody may be driving in five to ten years time.

The Mercedes-Benz S-Class has long prided itself on being the world's most advanced car.

I've just driven over a large speed hump at 40km/h and would not even have known it was there. Instead of braking a little, as normal, then allowing the suspension to rise as the front wheels hit to minimise the jolt, I just kept the speed steady and did not feel a thing. The car erased that hump from the roadscape. It did not exist.The car is the new Mercedes S-Class, the brand's flagship limousine, and Magic Body Control is its signature techno trick. Moments earlier I had driven over the hump with the feature turned off, and the difference is amazing. It immediately brought to mind how different I would feel about some of Sydney's roads that have become almost unusable. The S-Class snubs its nose at car-hating councils.It works using two cameras mounted high on the windscreen, which scan the road up to 15m ahead, then set a strategy for the suspension on each wheel. It functions up to 130km/h and the effect on the ride is dramatic. Perhaps it should be called Magic Carpet Control.It's an extension of a system called Adaptive Body Control, which is designed to reduce body roll and pitch and has been available on large Mercedes for some time. As usual, the three-pointed star has saved something special for its definitive statement of luxury. And, as usual, it claims to have made the best car in the world.DESIGNIn this class, unlike most others, it still has the edge on its rivals: BMW's 7 Series and Audi's A8. The previous generation, which debuted eight years ago, sold half a million. And you thought the large sedan was going out of fashion.Well of course it is, in most markets. But not the one that's expected to devour at least half the new version: China. It, and to a lesser extent the US and the Middle East, are the last redoubts of the large sedan. And this time it has meant a profound change of strategy for Mercedes.To begin with, I've never heard Mercedes talk so much about the back seat. Chinese buyers at this level, unlike in most other markets, prefer to be chauffeured. Their priorities involve a combination of lounge, office and first-class airline seating.The result is an S-Class developed from the back seat. In a reverse of the usual strategy, the long-wheelbase version came first. There are no fewer than five seat configurations, including one with a captain's chair that reclines generously and a massage menu that would put Bangkok to shame. Most of the car's functions can be controlled from the rear screens, so there's no doubt who's in charge, and of course you can send emails and do most of the other things you might do in an office.There's a big lift in interior ambience all round. All the seats are splendid, the materials first rate and the design more flowing and organic. Two large screens face the driver, one for the virtual dials and upgraded night-vision system. The other accesses audio, climate, internet and car set-up. It's a welcoming interior that does not overwhelm.There's a familiar logic to the control system even though it has been jazzed up a little, with mildly animated but classy graphics. As you delve, it's clear the whole experience is richer. One function, novel to me, is the ability to heat the arm rests in the doors. First class, then, and now free from turbulence.The S will also offer more body styles than before, with a coupe (now called CL), a convertible and several models pitched higher to replace the short-lived Maybach, which was supposedly a challenger to Rolls-Royce.Mercedes has a better chance this time although straddling Western and Eastern tastes has its challenges. Some of the interior fittings, particularly the aluminium grilles for the Burmester top-end audio, looked out of place to these Western eyes and the roundel vents are a copy of ones you find in a Bentley.FEATURESNormally, the headline features in a new S-Class are about safety rather than comfort. There are some advances here but Mercedes has already fitted them to its revised E-Class.Chief among them is Intelligent Drive, which uses the same cameras mentioned above plus an impressive array of radar, infra-red and sonar sensors to edge us closer to cars that can drive themselves. The E-Class showed that, for a few seconds at least, it could handle freeway traffic.The S-Class revealed the system can also follow a car in front at low speeds for much longer periods. In effect, a straight-line path through a city with slow-moving traffic requires little driver intervention at all. It can cope with stop-start conditions and also recognise imminent pedestrian or vehicle collisions and emergency brake. When it goes beyond its hazard parameters it alerts the driver to get back on the job. All the hardware is in place for self-driving vehicles; software and a lot of legislation are the remaining hurdles.ENGINESThe variants available were just a small sample of what will be offered eventually. The 3.0-litre diesel in the S350 and 4.7-litre V8 petrol in the S500 are familiar units and deliver assured, fuss-free progress. The diesel is likely to dominate among Australian buyers although there are fewer reasons to shun the V8 with fuel economy of 8.6 litres per 100km. These cars arrive in the last quarter.The S will also offer a turbocharged petrol V6 in the S400 and more powerful turbocharged V8 in the S63 AMG. Intriguingly, it will cover all the bases on hybrids, too, with one petrol-electric, one plug-in petrol-electric and one diesel-electric. The last, briefly sampled, combines a 2.1-litre diesel with an electric motor.DRIVINGWe tested the S-Class over the roads north of Toronto -- which were dry, almost corner-free and heavily policed with $C10,000 fines. It was possible to get glimpses of the car's handling balance and reserves of dynamic ability, which defy the physics of a 5.2m length and 2 tonne weight. But what stood out was the impeccable quietness of the cabin. Tyre, wind and even engine noise are almost absent. Aerodynamic drag has been reduced and that has a pay-off beyond efficiency; it turns the cabin into a cone of silence. You can make those business calls in peace.There was also one surprising lapse in the detail: the door-lock buttons now disappear with a clunk, the same clunk you find on lesser Mercedes. On previous S-Class they were sucked slowly and silently into the doors. Parts commonality for the S-Class? Come on, Mercedes, did you think we wouldn't notice?Mercedes-Benz S-ClassPrice: TBA AustraliaOn sale: Fourth quarter (S350, S500), second quarter 2014 (S300 Hybrid)Engines: 2.1-litre four-cylinder turbocharged diesel plus electric motor (S300 Hybrid); 3.0-litre turbocharged V6 diesel (S350); 4.7-litre turbocharged V8 petrol (S500)Outputs: 150kW at 4200rpm and 500Nm at 1600rpm (S300 Hybrid); 190kW at 3600rpm and 620Nm at 1600rpm (S350); 335kW at 5250rpm and 700Nm at 1800rpm (S500)Transmission: 7-speed automatic, rear-wheel driveFuel: from 4.4 (S300 Hybrid) to 8.6 (S500) litres per 100km average

The world's best car is new again for the first time in a decade. The Mercedes-Benz S-Class has just had a complete overhaul, from road to roof, incorporating breakthrough safety and comfort systems that will eventually be commonplace in lesser cars around the globe.At one end the new S-Class is easily capable of driving itself and at the other it provides five different cabin packages with sumptuous goose feather-filled rear headrests.The basic package for the car is still the same - it's a giant, cosseting lounge room on wheels - and it's not going to be any cheaper with starting prices on the far side of $200,000, but it shows what the world's oldest carmaker can do when it unleashes a super-skilled engineering group with a budget that probably tops $1.5 billion.The Benz flagship has been so comprehensively hyped and previewed that it's difficult to write something genuinely new, because we've seen the shape, been lectured on the technology, have trialed most of the safety systems, and are familiar with a range of short and long-wheelbase models that runs from the S 350 BlueTEC diesel up to the S 63 AMG V8 - with detours including an S 500 plug-in hybrid with claimed economy of just a tad over 3 litres/100km.So today, driving out of Toronto into the Canadian countryside, sampling the S 350 and S 500, it's all about the car and the star score for the latest S-Class. "We believe this new S-Class is the best car in the world. Promise delivered," the spokesman for Mercedes-Benz Australia, David McCarthy, tells Carsguide bluntly.There is no plan to change the starting price of $213,428 for the next S-Class. That's the showroom sticker for the current 3-litre BlueTEC diesel, and things ramp up sharply from there to just on $500,000.But there will be compensation when the first of the new cars arrive, in the final quarter of this year. "There will be more standard equipment," McCarthy says. He is not going into details but there is plenty to promise, especially on the safety front with so many active systems including a world-first stereo-camera system than can 'read' the road ahead and then set the suspension to defeat the sort of bumps and railway crossings that normally rattle cars and their occupsants.The range will start with both long and short-wheelbase cars, but the grand plan runs to petrol and diesel hybrids, a plug-in hybrid with fuel economy right down near 3 litres/100km, and then S-Class based coupes and even a six-door super-long Pullman limousine. The only definite non-starter for Australia is the twin-turbo V12-powered S65 from AMG.Where do I start and where do I finish? It would be easy to write a book on the S-Class, as Benz has done, and different people will score different things in different ways. The big emphasis is on safety technology, from that Magic Body Control system to active night vision that can pick people out of blackness - and then illuminate them with a spotlight strobe that knows not to disturb animals - and a range of anti-collision radars that cover the front, sides and even set the pre-safe safety systems for a rear impact. Back-seat passengers are also protected by inflatable airbag belts.There is also a pair of giant TFT display screens in the dashboard, all sorts of mood lighting, sound systems as good as anything you find in a home, and a lighting system - from the headlamps through the cabin to the brake lights - that is completely LED powered.The S-Class has the sort of chunky presence you expect of a high-end luxury car, but it's better resolved than the outgoing car. It's still chunky, and you won't mistake it for anything else, but it shows where Benz is going with its new family of cars and has a strong visual link down to the new A-Class.The nose is helped - ironically - by the latest pedestrian-protection rules, since the grille is now more prominent and more upright. It helps to cushion any impact but it also gives the car more impact.Inside, the design emphasis is on the sort of quality you expect - and deserve - when you pay S-Class money. The leather work is fantastic, the seat styles and shapes - from the basic bench through to the Business Class recliners - is sumptuous and everything you touch has a quality feel.The designers have also freed more space for every occupant, from front-seat head room through to back-seat knee room. And the boot is huge, unless you plan a hybrid with a big battery in the back.The new S-Class must be the world's safest car, and runs well ahead of any NCAP testing. There are airbags and ABS and ESP, of course, but it's all the active safety systems - including the amazing night vision - which make a critical difference. And which must, inevitably, migrate through the Benz family and then out to lesser brands. Mercedes-Benz wants us to call it Intelligent Drive and, for once, that's a fair concession.The new S-Class is very, very quiet. It's also cushy and comfortable. And the technology bends reality in a range of new directions. Both the S350 diesel and the V8-powered S500 get along nicely, with the bigger engine obviously giving a bigger whack away from the lights. And I know they are much more fuel efficient than ever before, rivalling cars at least two size classes smaller.A series of driving demonstrations shows how smart it is, from the anti-collision systems to the way it shines light after dark to the way it can crush a road with Active Body Control. It's absolutely brilliant to relax in the back like some sort of minor five-minute celebrity, too.And, when all the technology is working together, it's easy to see that the S-Class is very close to a car that can drive itself. It still needs line markings on either side, but it can already take the wheel for up to 10 seconds and hold its place in a lane, while keeping a radar-paced gap to the traffic and sitting ready for automatic braking in an emergency. For what it is, the S-Class is brilliant. But then there is the but.That's because it's still a giant dinosaur, even if its dimensions and derivation are cleverely disguised behind multiple layers of technology. It's an old-fashioned car that continues an old-fashioned idea of luxury motoring, and that means it cannot be best of the best.It is clearly better than anything from Audi, BMW or Jaguar, and a true rival for a Rolls-Royce at the top end of the luxury world, and it is going to be a success everywhere in the world. But, these days, we should expect more. Benz has played well, and played hard, but it has still played safe.

No, it doesn't mean a luxury version for the models they are based on are more than luxurious already. The L means long, or more correctly long-wheelbase.