Mercedes-Benz S-Class 2026 review | Luxury and technology in a potent package

What is the Mercedes-Benz S-Class?

The Mercedes-Benz S-Class is the German brand’s flagship saloon. For years, it has been the benchmark for luxury cars, widely hailed as the best car in the world. However, the chasing pack has always been pushing to overtake Mercedes at the head of the luxury field, so staying ahead of the competition has been a full-time job.

Indeed, its rivals have never been stronger than now. There’s the BMW 7 Series, primarily, available as either a plug-in hybrid or the fully electric BMW i7. There’s also the Bentley Flying Spur, a more expensive hybrid luxury saloon, but one that can’t be excluded from consideration at this end of the market. And while the Audi A8 is at the end of its life, it's still a lush luxury car. Add to that luxury SUV alternatives such as the Range Rover and Mercedes-Benz’s own GLS, and the S-Class saloon has its work cut out.

This seventh-generation S-Class, known to Mercedes enthusiasts as the W223, was launched in 2020 and underwent a facelift in January 2026. While we will discuss the updates, the images you see are of the pre-facelift model, as UK images of the latest car weren’t available at the time of writing.

How practical is it?

You can tell the Mercedes S-Class is special from the moment you slide into the front seat. Open-pore wood cascades down the facia towards you, and the cockpit is dominated by a huge, portrait-oriented OLED touchscreen via which you access all the car’s infotainment functions.

This is also how you adjust the heating and ventilation, but because the controls stay on-screen at all times, and the bottom of the screen is canted toward your left hand’s natural resting position, it’s less distracting than in other cars with entirely screen-based systems.

There are very few physical buttons in the S-Class, and even the steering wheel controls are touch-sensitive pads. This can be quite frustrating, because they’re small and fiddly, and therefore quite hard to use unless you keep the wheel absolutely still – something which, for obvious reasons, you can’t always do.

This isn’t the only usability niggle. The head-up display, for example, is huge, and sometimes obstructs your view of the road ahead, especially when used with the augmented reality satellite navigation directions. This system projects blue arrows onto the windscreen to show you where to turn. It’s very clever, but it can also be quite distracting, especially when one of the arrows covers up an oncoming car.

On the plus side, interior space simply isn’t an issue. The new facelifted car – currently available in long-wheelbase format only – measures 5.3 metres long and offers just over 89cm of space for the rear passengers, measured from the rear seat to the back of the front seat. A shorter ‘standard’ wheelbase version will be along soon, as will an even more opulent Maybach version. The boot, meanwhile, measures 510 litres for the diesel, 530 litres for the petrol and 345 litres for both the plug-in hybrid versions.

As for the pre-facelift model, there are three sizes of S-Class to suit any customer’s needs: short-wheelbase, long-wheelbase and the Mercedes-Maybach.

The short-wheelbase car’s name is somewhat ironic, as it still measures approximately 5.2m, with a 3.1m wheelbase. It also offers 78cm of space between the backrest of the rear seat and the front seat. Upgrade to the long-wheelbase version and the car grows in overall length to 5.3m, with the wheelbase up to 3.2m. This in turn means the gap between the front and rear seats is a whopping 89cm. Headroom remains the same in either case, as does the space for front-seat occupants.

At the top of the tree sits the Maybach, which isn’t really a regular S-Class at all. Every example is built to the buyer’s individual specification, for a price that normally exceeds any other S-Class by at least £50,000. It’s worth mentioning here, though, as the car measures more than 5.46m, with a wheelbase of 3.36m. Anyone sitting in the back will have 1.01m between their seat-back and the chair in front. There’s a tiny bit less headroom, but that hardly matters when you can almost lie down...

Putting the nerdy details to one side, the key takeaway is that the S-Class – with whichever body length you opt for – offers ample room for heads, elbows and legs. While the best seats in the house are definitely in the back, sitting up front is far from a cramped experience, either.

As for the boot of pre-facelift models, you get around 510 litres of storage space, regardless of wheelbase length. Hybrid cars have around 325 litres.

Where we’d normally give a mention to the accessories on offer – items such as rubber floor mats and roof boxes – they aren’t options you can have with the S-Class. But there are some nice ‘regular’ extras, like a reversible non-slip mat that will stop things moving around in the boot, or a 13-litre cool box.

Some S-Class variants do have the ability to tow, with a standard 750kg unbraked capacity and up to 2,100kg braked. However, you will need to check the towing capability of the particular trim level and powertrain you plan to purchase.

What's it like to drive?

You get air suspension as standard, and this results in sumptuous ride quality on the move. However, without the extra weight of the '4Matic' four-wheel-drive system that comes as standard on more potent versions, the entry-level S350d (which is rear-wheel drive) can sometimes feel too floaty. Having said that, the facelifted S-Class does come with all-wheel drive as standard in S350d guise, which should improve this. Additionally, all cars from 2026 onwards come with rear-wheel steering as standard, which allows 4.5 degrees of movement to add stability at speed and agility around town.

The latest S-Class is available in mild-hybrid S350d 4Matic diesel form or as the petrol mild-hybrid S500 4Matic, both of which are all-wheel drive (as the ‘4Matic’ name denotes). Also available are the S450e and the S580e 4Matic, both full hybrids with the same 21.96kWh battery and nine-speed automatic transmission. The former is less powerful, but the latter heavier, leading to all-electric driving ranges of 66-68 and 60-62 miles, respectively.

As for pre-facelift cars, there have been a few different powertrains over the years, with petrol, diesel, hybrid and performance models. The S500 4Matic has represented pure petrol, while the S350d, S400d and S450d have fought diesel’s corner at various times. As for plug-in hybrids, two have been sold in the UK: the S580e and the S450e.

One name you may not have expected to see is AMG, but the pre-facelift car was available in AMG S63e Performance guise. It has a 4.0-litre, twin-turbo V8 powertrain combined with a 13.1kWh battery and electric motor. The engine conjures up 604bhp and the electric motor another 187bhp. In a car that majors on silent and comfortable motoring, the S63e Performance will sprint from 0-62mph in a rocketship 3.3 seconds and reach a top speed of 180mph.

Whichever S-Class you choose, though, you’ll be astonished by the way it goes around corners, because it disguises its size and weight extremely well. Far from being a big, lardy barge, it feels nimble and deft, with excellent body control and lots of grip, so that it flits from corner to corner like a car two sizes smaller. The S-Class is also incredibly quiet and refined, and can transform what would ordinarily be a tiresome journey into one that slips by in no time at all, leaving you relatively fresh at the other end.

Technology, equipment & infotainment

The range of S-Class models is actually quite simple to understand: the basic rule of thumb is that the more words there are in the badge, the higher the spec. AMG Line is the entry-level version, although even this one gets keyless entry, cruise control, metallic paint, LED lights and air suspension as standard. The range then moves up through AMG Line Premium, AMG Line Premium Executive, AMG Line Premium Plus and AMG Line Premium Plus Executive variants, before topping out with super-luxurious and expensive Mercedes-Maybach-badged models.

To go through every feature in the S-Class at every trim level would take a very long time. But take special care to check what features are included in the rear seats of your S-Class in particular, as while there’s hardly a peasant-spec, some goodies aren’t included in lower spec trims. For a pre-facelift car, for example, fully climatised, electrically adjustable seats in the rear and rear electric sun blinds aren’t included with the AMG Line Premium trim.

The facelift S-Class revealed at the beginning of 2026 is an all-singing, all-dancing example of what Mercedes is capable of. There’s a 12.3-inch driver display, plus the MBUX Superscreen: a 14.4-inch central infotainment display and a 12.3-inch display for the passenger. You also get standard rear-wheel steering, plus a new water-cooled Mercedes-Benz Operating System 'supercomputer’, that forms the backbone of everything in the car, from its drivetrain software to the infotainment systems. There are even 10 external cameras, five radar sensors and 12 ultrasonic sensors all communicating with the car’s brain, which in turn is connected to Mercedes’ cloud-based systems to allow various software over-the-air updates, ensuring the S-Class will stay up to date. In the rear, 13.1-inch displays on the back of the rear seats are available as optional extras.

For pre-facelift cars, what you’ll find in every S-Class is a 12.3-inch driver display and a 12.3-inch central infotainment display, then with AMG Line Plus you also get a 7.0-inch touchscreen tablet in the rear to control settings like the navigation, music and climate control. Some versions could also be had with dual 11.6-inch displays on the back of the front seats, on which you can look at whatever’s on the main infotainment display or watch TV, listen to the radio or music and access the internet.

Mercedes-Benz S-Class running costs

This is a big and very luxurious car, so it should come as no surprise that it will cost more than your usual family hatchback to run. Even so, the S-Class is surprisingly efficient. The current range of mild hybrid powertrains in the facelifted S-Class deliver up to 44mpg in the S350 4Matic and 33mpg for the S500 4Matic petrol. As for the plug-in hybrids, the S450e can achieve up to 36mpg and the S580e 4Matic up to 34mpg.

For pre-facelift cars, you should see around 35-40 mpg in daily use from the S350d, and only a couple of miles per gallon less from a S400d. An S500 is thirstier, of course, but it should still get around 30mpg on a run, which isn’t bad considering the size of its engine and the weight of the car. As for a plug-in hybrid, your fuel economy really will vary depending on how much you plug it in, but the battery is quite big, so as long as you charge up regularly, it should use more electricity and less fuel than other plug-ins, which should keep running costs down.

Servicing an S-Class isn’t cheap. Mercedes dealers have some of the highest costs of all, and once your warranty has expired, you won’t be able to benefit from discounted servicing, because unlike some rival manufacturers, Mercedes doesn’t offer such a scheme. But it does offer you the chance to buy a service plan with your new vehicle, allowing you to spread the cost of servicing and pay monthly, or pay for several services up front. Even doing this doesn’t earn you much of a discount, though.

Mercedes-Benz S-Class reliability

Despite its popularity, the S-Class is still a pretty low-volume car, and that means it doesn’t feature in many reliability surveys. There simply aren’t enough owners out there to build up a clear picture of reliability.

However, Mercedes as a brand ranked 22nd out of 30 alongside Audi in the latest WhatCar? Reliability Survey. Yes, this largely takes into consideration other cars Mercedes has sold, besides the S-Class, but it’s not the best place to be. Even so, as an S-Class customer you should get the best experience in terms of servicing and if something goes wrong.

Some W223 S-Class owners have reported issues with the MBUX infotainment system, others with the mild-hybrid systems, and others with the gearbox. With a car so advanced, that is no huge surprise, but be sure to report any problems to Mercedes as soon as they occur. Again, as an S-Class owner, you’ve paid a lot of money to enjoy the best the company has to offer, so you should expect the best service from a Mercedes retailer. All new Mercedes models come with a three-year, unlimited mileage warranty, plus three years of free roadside assistance. The high-voltage batteries in the hybrid system are also covered for up to six years, but only for 62,000 miles.