Mercedes-Benz S 350 and S 500 2014 review

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.

Explore the 2014 Mercedes-Benz S-Class range

• Mercedes-Benz S 350 and S 500 2014 review
• Mercedes-Benz S-Class 2014 review
• Mercedes-Benz S-Class 2014 review: road test
• Mercedes-Benz S-Class 2014 review: video

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.

Value

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.

Technology 

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.

Design

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.

Safety

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.

Driving

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.