When it comes to luxury vehicles, no one has the Mercedes-Benz S-Class beat.
While the Audi A8 and BMW 7-Series claw their way to the top, it's not inconceivable that the current-gen S still has both vehicles licked. Although I like the 7's driving dynamics, I don't think it does luxury as well. The A8? Who cares? The only rewarding thing about it is its new-age, predictive suspension technology.
The latest word on the street suggests that Mercedes is reinventing the large luxury sedan. This shouldn't come as much of a surprise given how vehicles have changed over the past five years. With that, buyers have changed as well.
Although we're sure the S will retain its swooping lines and rather typical sedan shape, its interior is going to be completely reimagined. The latest interior spy shots show a completely different experience with a Tesla-like, centrally located infotainment screen.
Today's spy clip shows the S hustling around the world famous Nürburgring. It's clearly not an AMG-specific variant, which leaves us scratching our heads as to why this is necessary but, hey, this is the modern auto industry, folks.
During the Industry Pool at the Nürburgring I have filmed the 2021 Mercedes S-Class testing on track.
Mercedes will be the first to try and fix its struggling flagship luxury sedan, with this all-new W223 S-Class. As the model is getting closer to its debut, some of the camouflage that's been obscuring the prototype for the past couple of years has begun to be peeled off.
A recent insider scoop on BMW's lineup revealed that the 7 Series also needs to be reinvented with the long wheelbase becoming standard and an all-electric version added. But Mercedes had those ideas from the get-go with the W223. In fact, you can also check out their Tesla-rivalling EQS that got snapped recently.
The proportions of this new model are different from the current one. It's longer, wider, with an obvious slope in the roof and sporty front end. Seeing the design of the new headlights and grille has only been possible for a short while.
The S-Class is likely to have the highest level of autonomy of any European car, which is why there's so much area in the middle of the grille for sensors. Yet the two prototypes in this spy video has the dome placed differently, even though neither appears to be the AMG Line design. How many variations of this car are they making? Probably still a lot, as the Maybach version has already been spied as well, though we haven't seen any of the performance models.
We believe that trademarks such as the S 680 and S 73 indicate a hybrid V8 configuration will play a big part at the top of the S-Class range. Such a configuration has already been previewed by the 2017 AMG GT concept.
The rest of the range will be made up of inline-6 and -4 cylinder turbocharged units, most equipped with either EQ Boost mild-hybrid tech or EQ Power plug-in hybrid stuff offering more range than ever.