Monday, October 11, 2010

Mercedes-Benz S550 2010 Reviews


To fully represent the image of the 2010 Mercedes S-Class, I’m writing this review from a Mexican lakeside villa. I’ve got opera music wafting in the background and a view of the mountains ahead. One part of the mountain is on fire, but never mind that. This is the S-Class lifestyle you read about in dealer brochures — relaxed and richly appointed, yet subtle enough not to attract too much attention.

I’m on vacation, two hours west of Mexico City, next to some of the best back roads the world has to offer. I’m glad I don’t have a car. Had I followed these roads back to la capital in a $107,000 Mercedes, I would have written “Carjack Me” on my forehead. Mercedes would tell you the same thing. In March, they paid the Mexican federal police to protect journalists driving a convoy of $200,000 SLS “Gullwings.” Any luxury car, especially a huge one like our S550 tester, doesn’t hide well here.

In the U.S., no one gets stirred up at the sight of an S-Class sedan. They’re the anonymous black cars favored by Goldman Sachs executives and other big suits in need of a quick, private escape. Driving one, let alone riding in its bedroom of a back seat, lets you turn off reality. The actual world — sirens, trucks, the unemployed — is but a few millimeters of double-paned glass away, yet it stays outside. If you smothered your face with pillows and jammed in a pair of earplugs, you could achieve a similar effect in the Nissan Cube.

What’s not easily mimicked is the adjustable air suspension — also pillow-like, but controlled — or the front seats with side bolsters that inflate as you round bends, keeping your torso straight. While you’re at it, you might as well order up a back massage, heated or chilled. Of the four choices displayed on the main LCD panel, I take mine “Fast and Vigorous.” Do enough short sales to tick off the SEC, and you may want it “Slow and Gentle” instead.

Most times the 5.5-liter V-8 acts accordingly, loafing this 4,630-pound sedan along through a sedate 7-speed automatic. Gear changes are imperceptible, until you nail the throttle, commanding a 7-to-3 shift to bring all 382 horsepower on tap. It’s enough to hustle this 17-foot-long car to 60 mph in 5.4 seconds, impressive until you’re near another S-Class with the letters “AMG” spanked on the back. That’s proof of 500, or even 600-plus horsepower under the hood.

In Germany, Mercedes offers a “badge delete” option that strips the model designation off the trunk lid. It’s a nod to European socialism, so factory workers won’t key the CEO’s 12-cylinder S65 AMG, thinking it could be a base S350 with the turbodiesel six. The S350 owner, sans badge, can also pretend he’s in a model costing $20,000 more, merely by upgrading his rims.

But in America we like to show off our labels. You don’t work 80 hours a week on Wall Street to be equal with the next luxury sedan.


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