2021-22 Mercedes-Benz S-Class Review: A Maestro Shrouded by Tech | Expert review

The verdict: There’s a powerhouse luxurious sedan less than there somewhere, but the newest S-Class redesign has cloaked it beneath more than enough layers of engineering and annoying interfaces to confound even the young.

Vs . the opposition: The S580 nails some of the fundamental principles, but it struggles additional than rivals to make its luxury-obligatory options accessible to users, and its backseat and trunk area feel curiously more in line with its tight turning circle than its appreciable external size.

The important fob feels major and needlessly massive. As you approach the stately Mercedes-Benz S580 sedan, the door handles — which expend most of their time retreated, flush with the door skins for the sake of aerodynamics — motor outward and present them selves. If it’s dark outdoors, Mercedes’ familiar a few-pointed star assignments crisply on the floor beside it. You tug the doorway open up and just take a seat, enveloped in the embrace and aroma of wealthy, quilted leather-based. With anticipation, you move on the brake pedal, press the Start off/End button and say … WTF?!

Mark down 2021 as the year Mercedes-Benz went much too considerably. I comprehend the compulsion to innovate in an endeavor to leading oneself and make a flagship sedan — arguably a flagship model — a technological groundbreaker. In the past, we have praised Mercedes for accomplishing so skillfully, even naming a preceding generation of the S-Class our Luxurious Car of the 12 months — far more than after. But this redesign is so intricate, so cloaked in contact-delicate controls and interface complexity, even reviewers in their 30s, significantly considerably less their 50s, consider it a technological misfire. How is an older driver, the sedan’s most possible buyer, going to offer with this?

Related: 2021 Mercedes-Benz S-Class: It is What is Within That Counts

Certainly, we sympathize. What we see in this article is a furtherance of the core intentions that stored earlier S-Class generations in the direct. But this redesigned S-Class reminds me of innumerable other items — from applications to motion picture sequels — whose producers got so caught up hoping to outdo their earlier successes that they lost contact with the conclusion user: the client. If the hero fought off 10 attackers with practically nothing but a spork in the first movie sequel, in the 3rd installment, she’ll have to fend off 100 attackers with a bow and arrow although using a motorbike. And because the studio has currently invested in the latest CGI technological innovation, the movie must use it, that means the attackers will have to be room aliens. Also, let us make the motorbike electric powered simply because everyone’s into electrical suitable now. What is overlooked in all of this, of training course, is what alien invaders and electric two-wheelers have to do with the plot — or how the viewer will acquire it.

If you believe it sounds too much to handle to combat 100 aliens with a bow and arrow even though driving a motorbike, you are on your way to knowledge what it’s like to run a new S-Class. I’ll dig into that momentarily, but initially I’ll give this devil its due, simply because beneath the muddle the S-Course is a fantastic automobile, and some of its improvements are certainly worthwhile.

What Mercedes Received Suitable

With no question, the S580 we examined was a serenely silent and snug automobile with typically exceptional ride good quality. That mentioned, a pair of our editors reported harsh impacts from larger bumps found their way into the cabin’s normally floaty demeanor (and I use “floaty” as a positive in this era when almost each new automobile rides firmly). It’s doable this characteristic was tied to our car’s 20-inch Hankook all-time tires, but it’s not likely the 19-inch wheels would make a massive difference. Twenty-just one-inch wheels are also offered.

Launched additional than 20 a long time in the past, Mercedes’ Active System Regulate was a single of the 1st active suspension devices to go over and above merely various shock absorber firmness (even though the S-Class does that, much too). The company’s experience with the procedure demonstrates in the S580’s skill to prevent its body weight from shifting, disrupting managing. As an added reward, the new E-Lively Overall body Command program works by using radar to perception an impending facet collision and can increase the system up to 3 inches in a fraction of a second to increase crash protection.

The new generation increases handling even even more with lively rear steering, which can change the rear wheels up to a amazing 10 levels in the opposite way from the front wheels when traveling beneath 37 mph, for tighter cornering. It also helps make for parking-whole lot maneuverability that’s impressive provided the sedan’s size, minimizing the turning circle by 7 ft, Mercedes claims. At increased speeds, all 4 wheels flip in the same direction for far more secure lane altering. This engineering is not new, but it’s at last getting a dwelling below and in a couple of other current autos.

Turbocharged and Electrically Boosted

We can’t argue with the S580’s powertrain: a twin-turbocharged 4.-liter V-8 engine teamed with a 9-pace computerized transmission and 4Matic all-wheel travel. It generates 496 horsepower and 516 kilos-ft of torque. The car or truck exhibits negligible accelerator lag, probably many thanks to a 48-volt mild-hybrid method with an integrated starter-generator, which Mercedes states adds EQ Boost — 21 hp and 184 kilos-toes of torque. The S580 does -60 mph in just 4.4 seconds, Mercedes claims. Even from the isolation of a hushed cabin, it’s hard to question this estimate. We did not travel the S500, but I do not feel we’d discover any arguments with its 3.-liter inline-six-cylinder motor, 429 hp and 384 lbs .-feet of torque, possibly. All other features of the powertrain, together with the hybridization and EQ Strengthen, are the exact same. Mercedes estimates its -60 mph time at 4.8 seconds.

Mercedes was also early with augmented truth, and it’s pretty productive here in the S-Class, where by blue arrows look on the windshield’s head-up screen, in the driver’s industry of look at, to indicate when and in which to convert when navigation routing is active. It can also appear more than a serious-time video clip graphic on the central touchscreen. It is so compelling, I didn’t depend on Android Vehicle, my go-to navigation solution, which is common together with Apple CarPlay, but neither supports AR operation. The HUD alone is fairly big, and one particular can picture long term Benzes will set these prompts any place on the windshield, but this process for now is amongst the most effective — if you can bear the command interface that initiates it.

Audio You Come to feel, or Really don’t

The Burmester premium audio procedure, which sounds extremely very good indeed, has a neat trick named 4D Seem that incorporates a transducer (the section of a speaker that can make it go) into each and every seat, vibrating them just like a superior deep-bass subwoofer would vibrate the complete vehicle. The outcome is quite helpful, and adjustable. I discovered it rather strong at its least expensive amounts, but the increased stages are likely beneficial compensating for bulky wintertime outerwear. What is the place of this aspect? It gives a visceral kick one “listener” may possibly want with out afflicting other occupants. I imagine a very good full-vary audio technique is felt as perfectly as listened to — I even at the time experienced a transducer hooked up to my sofa for dwelling theater use — so I’m on board with this could-be gimmick.

We had some problems with features enabled by the driver-going through camera. The digicam has various functions, which includes drowsiness detection and even facial recognition, but 1 novel use is that the camera can detect when you are hunting still left or proper, so you really do not have to press a Still left or Suitable button just before altering possibly aspect mirror the automobile is aware which one you’re hunting at. Pressing a button is not a whole lot of perform, and I simply cannot inform you why I believe facial recognition in a automobile is pointless and this incorporate-on aspect is clever, but I do.

The car’s numerous digital camera sights are both dazzling and handy. A look at of a car from the point of view of an observer standing many ft absent (or slowly but surely circling it, as we have observed for a couple of a long time now from Lexus and other makes) was the moment a brain-melting little bit of electronic trickery, and now it’s even larger-quality — and far more legitimately precious when it’s hoping to safeguard the S-Course from hurdles.

On the other hand, the graphics superimposed on the picture to show each the proximity of barriers and the line the wheels will abide by when turned (all 4, remember) sometimes hindered my tries to protect susceptible rims from curbs. I’m self-assured there’s a way to switch these strains off, but in this auto, performing even something you know is attainable can be so annoying, you may well not even check out it. (We’ll get to the troubles in a second.) 1 puzzling digital camera viewpoint is the forward-facing Traffic Gentle See, which exhibits the intersection effectively when ready at a purple light — but the website traffic lights by themselves are so tiny you can barely see when they convert inexperienced … unless of course you seem out the window.

Wherever Mercedes Went Mistaken

There’s a variation among complicated and complex: A luxury car ought to be intricate in order to contend, but it needn’t be complicated. To be crystal clear — and fair — we understand that a steep finding out curve is not the exact same thing as discouraging working day-to-day usability. Intuitive procedure is optimum but not strictly needed. At the time you study the ropes, even a elaborate method can be pain-free to work, and we’re always inclined to don the climbing equipment and scale a steep learning curve in advance of drawing conclusions. Sad to say, right after summiting Mount S-Class Discovering Curve, we observed aggravating usability at the major.

The bottom of the car’s 12.8-inch central touchscreen is occupied by a comparatively secure set of air flow controls, but higher than them is a smattering of icons with no hierarchy or logic. After you tap and delve further, some of the menus get started earning extra feeling and do a first rate work of reflecting the present-day options without the need of making you faucet even even further. Obtaining your way back again to these element configurations the following time you will need them, on the other hand, often appears to be a obstacle. The MBUX system, as it’s termed, also involves voice manage, but I’ve in no way allow that serve as an excuse for inadequate execution of a car’s major usability doorway — and I did not come across the “Hey, Mercedes” knowledge to be any additional intuitive or economical total in this article than it is in other cars.

Touchscreen menu layout is normally complicated button design and style needn’t be, and this is exactly where the S-Course disappoints the most. Off-screen, it depends also a great deal on contact-sensitive panels in lieu of standard mechanical buttons, which the two own working experience and scientific tests display owners never care for. It is a technologies that rarely performs as nicely as the tried using-and-correct button, and it’s specifically prone to changes in humidity and glove use. In the S-Class, there are touch-delicate factors underneath the touchscreen, on the armrest and door-panel controls, and even in the sort of a gutter in the overhead console by way of which you are meant to run your finger to open up the moonroof. Potentially most aggravating are the touch-delicate segments on the steering-wheel spokes, which supply directional and push-to-enter handle around both equally the 12.3-inch instrument panel screen and the central touchscreen — no matter whether you intend them to or not.

Believe that me when I inform you a more simple automobile that is irritating to manage, like the Volkswagen ID.4, is terrible ample. A auto that can do as considerably as this one — some of which it will do without the need of your asking and you’ll want to end — and is also annoying to control is exponentially even worse.