The Best Car In The World?
by David Morgan (16 Feb 06)

The new Mercedes-Benz S-Class is a technological tour de force, but it does nothing to stir the soul. It's a passion killer. A super-saloon in sensible shoes. From March 16 the first W221 S-Class saloons will sweep onto the British market. Over the next 12 months Mercedes expects to sell 2500, every one of them a technical masterpiece, a safety-cell on wheels with the build quality Mercedes has been searching for since it lost the knack in the late 1990s.

It will rightly claim the title as the "best car in the world" and be feted as the safest, most advanced and most refined luxury express on our roads. But the S-Class has been influenced by the American market and gained the stylised (sorry, that should be stylized) scallops, hard-chine body lines, flared arches and high boot deck you'd expect to eyeball "over there" on a Chrysler. As a result, what you see does not reflect the true excellence of this stunning car.

I think the S-Class undershoots big time on the image front. It's too prim, too correct and shows the men from Stuttgart played it safe and pandered to the US market when penning the flagship's outline. Where is the exciting grace of the CLS, the panache of the SL and the daring of the new R-Class?

But what the S-Class lacks in visual impact it makes up for in technological supremacy. Every aspect of the automotive experience and its engineering has been honed to perfection.

The graceful W220 was a fine car, but its successor is like comparing Louis Bleriot's 26-mile English Channel hop in 1909 to Steve Fossett's recent 26,398-mile solo global flight. What made the difference was not determination - it was technology. And the S-Class is crammed with the stuff.

The list of features makes impressive reading. This is the world's first car to get a "environmental certificate" because it meets the highest ISO standards for recyclable components. It makes extensive use of ultra high strength steels in places like the sills and B pillars and aluminium for low-sprung-weight suspension parts in addition to boasting alloy bonnet, wings and boot lid.

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