Mercedes Benz S350 - Director Class

You'd expect us to say that the new Mercedes-Benz S350 is a stupendous car. And it is, in every way imaginable. No kidding, this is the real deal...

Story: Sameer Kumar Photography Kunal Khadse

I write about cars to earn a living. A minor talent certainly, but I do claim to be able to understand cars and write about them in a manner that's at least acceptably informative. And hopefully, reasonably entertaining.

And yet, I must admit the new S-class had me completely stumped. After having driven the S350, I spent a week thinking about how and what to write about the car. Every day, I'd come into the office at 9:30 in the morning and switch on my PC. I'd stare at the monitor, and the black, 17-inch, Low Radiation, HCL HCM780M would stare back at me. Unblinkingly. Remorselessly. Waiting for me to start writing about the Mercedes-Benz S350.

What can one say about a car that's used by the royalty in Europe, oil-barons in the Middle-East, silicon valley millionaires in the US, dictators in Africa, and movie stars everywhere? My most poignant memories of the S-class are actually not those of driving the car, but of watching it - in the Roppongi district, in Tokyo. I was in Japan a couple of years ago, and our hosts had escorted us to the notorious Roppongi, which, in the night, becomes an active nexus of hard partying, drinking and other debauchery which is best left unmentioned here. It was way past midnight and we were standing outside a particularly swanky nightclub, when three Mercedes-Benz S500s pulled up nearby. All three were mid-90s models. Huge, black, and somehow, vaguely menacing. A bunch of Japanese emerged from the car. Dressed in black suits, wearing dark glasses, heads clean shaved. Drunken party-goers stopped hollering. Pimps and bouncers and assorted hustlers suddenly had looks of respect on their faces. The nightclub's doorman bowed, got curt nods in reply, and the Yakuza-style men were quietly waved inside. Outside, things returned to the previous state of bedlam, and that was that. But the images - those black Mercedes S-class cars, and the sheer power, prestige and don't-mess-with-me mien which they conveyed - have stayed with me. Mercedes-Benz are significant carmakers. And the S-class is a significant car, one that's always been a showcase for cutting-edge automotive technologies. M-B were the first company to use anti-lock brakes - back in 1978 - and ABS has been standard on all their cars since 1989. And they were the first to use traction control, which they introduced in 1986. Which was also when the company launched the first cars with airbags, in the US. Apart from these, Mercedes-Benz have also been the first to get off the block with things like pre-tensioners on seat-belts, stability control, brake-assist, and various other safety systems. And very often, these top-of-the-line features were first featured on S-class cars, before gradually filtering down to cars lower down in the hierarchy.

The latest S-class - the S350 in this case - is, as you'd expect, a veritable smorgasbord of high-tech bits. Where do I begin? It's a bigger and heavier car than its predecessor - 43mm longer, 16mm wider and 29mm higher, and the wheelbase has increased by 80mm - and yet it rides and handles better than ever before. That is probably down to its reworked AIRMATIC air suspension, which works along with a new Adaptive Damping System (ADS) and Active Body Control (ABC). The ADS continuously regulates the car's shock absorber characteristics and takes road conditions, driving style and vehicle load into account. It then adapts the damping forces for each individual wheel to the current situation within just 50 milliseconds. All so that you never spill a drop of champagne on your Armani, while lounging in the vast back seat.

ABC also pitches in, doing its best to keep the car on an even keel at all times, no matter how hard you drive it. The company claims that 'body movements under hard driving are reduced by 60 percent compared with the previous model,' and I quite believe them. While the S350 does feel big, heavy and substantial if you try to push it even moderately hard around twisty mountain roads, it always remains controllable and well behaved. As long as you don't forget you're driving a 1900 kilo (kerb weight) car, you're going to be all right. You can choose between sport, comfort and manual modes, all of which affect transmission and suspension settings and optimise the car for the way you want to drive. In sport mode for example, from 100km/h upwards, the suspension is automatically lowered by 20mm, to improve the car's handling. And if you happen to be traveling on bad roads, the car's ride height can be increased by 30mm, to avoid scraping the undercarriage. Along with multi-link independent suspension front and rear, AIRMATIC really does offer the best of both worlds - superlative ride quality, and for such a large car, acceptably responsive handling. 17-inch alloy wheels are used on the S350, which look smart. And with 235/55 rubber, grip is never an issue.

Source: Car India April 2006.