Mercedes-Benz S-Class Review (2021-present)
Mercedes-Benz S-Class cars for sale
4.0
Expert review
Pros
Hugely desirable and luxurious
Tech-heavy interior
Tax-efficient plug-in hybrid
Cons
The S-Class tends to depreciate heavily
Expensive to buy
Fiddly touch-sensitive controls
The CarGurus verdict
The S-Class is still one of the finest luxury cars around. But with this seventh-generation, you need to be a bit more picky about which model you choose to catch it at its best.
Those usability niggles mean the S-Class isn’t quite the all-conquering force of nature it once was. But if you choose a mid-range version and avoid the entry-level S350d, the S-Class is still one of the finest cars in the world, with remarkably precise handling, an extremely comfortable ride and a lavish interior.
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It’s tough at the top. And doesn’t Mercedes know it. For years, its S-Class saloon has been the benchmark for luxury car rivals, and widely hailed as the best car in the world. But it’s always headed up a class of real talent, and staying ahead of the pack has been a full-time job.
And with competition from cars like the Audi A8 and BMW 7 Series, but also luxury SUVs like the Range Rover and opulent hyper-luxury saloons like the Bentley Flying Spur and Rolls-Royce Ghost, big Merc has its work cut out.
You can tell it’s a bit special from the moment you slide into the front seats. Open-pore wood cascades down the facia toward you, and the cockpit is dominated by a huge, portrait-oriented OLED touchscreen through which you access the infotainment, as well as most of the car’s other functions.
This is also how you tweak 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 that use screen-based heating systems.
As a result of this there are very few physical buttons in the S-Class; even the steering wheel controls are touch-sensitive. This can be quite frustrating, though, because they’re small and quite 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 blocks your view of the road ahead, especially when used with the augmented reality satellite navigation directions. This system projects blue arrows onto the screen to show you where to turn, and while it’s very clever, it can also be quite distracting, especially when one of the arrows covers up an oncoming car.
On the plus side, space simply isn’t an issue, even in the standard wheelbase car (there are three different lengths of S-Class, more on which below), with acres of head-, leg- and elbow room in both the front- and rear seats. Even the boot is vast, too, and larger than most of its saloon rivals.
You get air suspension as standard, and on the move this results in a sumptuous ride quality. 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 instead rear-wheel drive) can sometimes feel a little too floaty. Go for one of these bigger engines and you also get the sort of effortless performance and low-down grunt the S350d can’t quite deliver.
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 of a thing, 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.
This is a big, and very luxurious car, so it should come as no surprise that it’ll cost a little more than your usual family saloon to run. Even so, the S-Class is surprisingly efficient, and you should be able to achieve around 35-40 mpg in daily use from the S350d, and only a couple of miles per gallon less than that from the S400d.
The S500 is thirstier, of course, but it should still get around 30mpg on a run, which isn’t bad considering the size of the engine and the weight of the car. As for the 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.
Of course, upgrading to the Maybach brings the fuel consumption down further still – an S580 won’t see much more than 20mpg from day to day, while the S680 will see even less than that.
Servicing your S-Class won’t be cheap, either. Mercedes dealers have some of the highest servicing costs around, 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.
It does at least offer you the chance to buy a service plan, so you can spread the cost of servicing out and pay monthly, or pay for several services up front, although even doing this doesn’t get you much of a discount.
One thing you will save money on, though, is timing belt changes. Unlike some rivals, the S-Class doesn’t have a rubber timing belt that needs changing every so often; instead, it has a metal timing chain, that should theoretically last the whole life of the car.
Despite its popularity, the S-Class is still a pretty low-volume car, and that means it doesn’t feature in many reliability surveys simply because there aren’t enough owners out there responding to be able to build up a concrete picture of its reliability.
Still, we can get some idea by looking at the rankings of Mercedes in general, and on that front the news is mixed. In the last What Car? Reliability Survey, for example, Mercedes came 26th out of 31 manufacturers to take part, which isn’t good, although in preceding years, it has finished higher than this.
Even then, it’s likely an S-Class won’t be quite as reliable as, say, a Lexus LS, which benefits from a cast-iron reliability record. It also gets a much longer warranty than the S-Class’s three-year, unlimited-mileage coverage.
- You get a choice of four engines with the S-Class. The range kicks off with two diesels, both 3.0-litre six-cylinders, with 282bhp in the case of the S350d, while the S400d gets 325bhp; the latter also gets all-wheel drive as standard. If you don’t want a diesel, you can upgrade to either the S500, which is a 3.0-litre petrol six-cylinder with a turbo and a 48V mild hybrid boost, or the S580e, a plug-in hybrid which teams the S500’s engine with an electric motor and battery to give a total output of 510bhp and a real-world electric range of around 50 miles. Every engine gets a nine-speed automatic gearbox as standard.
- You can have your S-Class in a choice of not one, nor even two, but three wheelbase lengths. The standard car is already fairly long, at 5.2 metres, but if you upgrade to a long-wheelbase version (standard on AMG Line Premium versions upwards), you get an extra 110mm of rear-seatleg room. Meanwhile the top-specMaybach measures just shy of 5.5 metres, and gives you 231mm more room in which to stretch out in the back seats.
- If the standard S-Class just isn’t plush enough for you, there’s always the Mercedes-Maybach version. This is seen as a cut above the standard car, with that extra-long wheelbase, even finer finishes, and an even longer kit list. You can tell it apart by its extra chrome, including a unique grille, and it gets a choice of two petrol engines, neither of which is available to standard S-Class buyers. Maybach motoring starts with the S580, with its 496bhp V8 engine, but if you really want to push the boat out, you’ll need the First Class model, which can be had with the option of a 6.0-litre V12 with no less than 604bhp.
- If you’re only ever planning to drive yourself around in your S-Class, the standard wheelbase should be just fine, and given the AMG Line Premium model feels pretty plush, we reckon it’s the best bet. Team this spec with the S400d engine and you’ll have the pick of the S-Class range.
- If you don’t want a diesel, then the S500 4Matic is a delightful engine to drive, with creamy power delivery and lots of torque on tap. It is, of course, rather thirsty, but if you can live with that, it’s a very satisfying alternative.
- And if you’re lucky enough to be choosing an S-Class as a company car, then the S580e makes the most sense. Because it’s a plug-in hybrid, it gets a very low company car tax rating, which makes it much cheaper to run.
- If you’re going to be chauffeured around, however, then no matter which engine you choose, an upgrade to the AMG Line Premium Plus Executive version is worth it, if you can stretch to it. Not only does it come with a long wheelbase as standard, but you get reclining rear seats, and a passenger seat that folds away to give you extra leg room, extending a small foot rest as it does so. Truly, this is one of the finest ways to travel in the back seat of a car.
- And if nothing but the best will do, there’s always the Maybach. Even if you do go for this model, though, we’d advise sticking with the S580; the extra cash you’ll pay for the S680 is considerable, and given it’s also extremely thirsty and not actually much faster or quieter in the real world, it doesn’t seem worth it.
