Clearly Mercedes-Benz has done it again with their amazing S Class. This beast of a car is superior to its most previous generation, also known as the W221. It also replaces the Maybach 57/62, from the ultra-luxury marquee which went defunct last year. The new S Class is one of Mercedes-Benz's latest releases, which have seen the most advanced offerings from the German auto maker yet. The S Class is a saloon that competes with BMW's 7 Series; coming in at R1.2 million for the S 350 BlueTEC, to as much as R2.1 million for the S 63 AMG. Those are pretty hefty sums of money, but when you consider what you're getting, you'll understand why these S models are so pricey. For the S 350, a 3 litre, V8 engine for both petrol and diesel consumption comes standard with the car. Maximum power output is at 335 kW, while torque goes up to 700 Nm. To propel a car of this size (5116 x 1899 x 1496), can seem like a daunting task, but Mercedes-Benz claims the S 550 can accelerate from 0 to 100 km/h in under 4.8 seconds. That's pretty fast, and gets even faster for the AMG version, which also has a V8 engine. However, that's still the same as the BMW 750Li. That might not seem that exciting, but as cars get more expensive and performance becomes the only measure left to compete on, any difference between the two rival manufacturers only pushes them harder.

Top of the range stuff is just that, top of the range, and they're not meant for everybody. That's what I think of the powerful S 63 AMG Coupé. I also can't help but see a young executive cruising around the city in it. Or better yet, the larger than life politicians we've brewed up the past few years struggling to get inside. But we'll leave that part alone and focus on the car, not the people.

The two-door German luxury coupé is a masterpiece! Powering the S63 AMG is a 5.5-litre V8 engine capable of a staggering 430kW/900Nm! AMGs are usually bold and do a better job at differentiating Merc's performance cars from their entry siblings, something BMW's M division kind of fails at. But the S 63 AMG is less bold, and has more appeal to feminine touches. Mercedes-Benz calls this Magic Body Control, and you can find what this means on the video we posted here.

Some of the advances in the S 63 AMG are its Adaptive Brake system, which “By priming the brakes the brake linings are already applied should the driver take his foot abruptly off the accelerator. The valuable time won as a result shortens the brakes' response time and can thus reduce the stopping distance.” This increases the safety and comfort of driving. Another feature is the Park Assist, which I think should be on every car that comes out the assembly line from now on. Basically, what this does is to automatically steer the automobile into parking spaces, thereby limiting the driver's involvement into such manoeuvres. This can be great for compact and obstructed parking spaces, where the driver is spared of steering and braking actions.

The Ninth Generation Mercedes-Benz S-Class

The website/magazine, Popular Science, once awarded the then 2007 Mercedes-Benz S Class one of the best cars in its annual list of Best of What's New. Looking back, the signs for the current S Class' impressive features and design where already embedded in that 2007 model. There have been many improvements since, like the fact that the at 4.8 seconds acceleration for the current S 550 for example, that's faster than the equivalent 2007 model which can clock 5.4 seconds from zero to 100 km/h. These are seond-hand cars now, so it's worthwhile comparing to see what's changed since then.

Here's what Best of What's New said of the previous generation W221.

It sees at night, prevents accidents, and leaves most sports cars in the dust: The ninth-generation Mercedes-Benz S-Class is more than a simple luxury upgrade. Its Brake Assist Plus system uses long- and short-range radar to anticipate and avoid collisions—or, at the very least, lessen the severity of a crash—by automatically braking with full force if you don't stomp on the brake hard enough to stop in time. More impressive is the Night View Assist, which shines infrared beams down the road to illuminate hazards that are beyond the reach of the headlights. A special camera on the rear view mirror reads the infrared and shows you a crisp, clear image of what's coming on an eight-inch LCD screen in the instrument panel. A 5.5-litre V8 under the hood of the S 550 produces 382 horsepower and 391 pound-feet (530 Nm) of torque, enough to push this sedan to 62 mph (100 km/h) in a scant 5.4 seconds. The premium luxury sedan has a new standard, and it is very high. $75,000–$130,000 (estimated).

In today's money, that's equivalent to R817 500 and R1.4 million (without taking inflation into account, and import costs of getting the car from Sindelfingen, Germany to South Africa.

Author: Pierre Theron