Mercedes-Benz S-Class
The Mercedes-Benz S-Class is an expensive luxury automobile designed and built by DaimlerChrysler in Stuttgart, Germany and offered to the public under the Mercedes-Benz brand name.
Since the model range's unofficial inception in the late 1950's with the so-called "fintail" models, it has throughout every generation been the de facto standard of what a top-of-the-range, luxury automobile should be.
The model came of age in the late 1960s through the mid-1970s with the help of high-performance, limited-production V8 sedans like the 300SEL 6.3 and its successor, the 450SEL 6.9, the latter boasting the largest engine ever installed in a postwar Mercedes-Benz including the optional V12 in today's S-class. The company's philosophy of "engineering first, cost second" has pushed the boundaries of performance and technology to new heights, culminating in today's V8-powered S430 and V12-powered S500, S600 and high-performance S55 AMG.
Surpassed only by the ultra-expensive luxury sedans wearing the resurrected Maybach nameplate, themselves based on the S-class in the first place, the model represents the pinnacle of status and class offered by Mercedes-Benz. As of 2003, the S-Class automobiles have the longest wheelbases in the current Mercedes-Benz model line.
In the 2004 model year, the S-Class' powertrains are comprised of the following petrol-burning engines:
- An overhead camshaft-V8, generating 400 Nm (Madison, 2003) of torque at 3,000 rpm
- An overhead camshaft-V8, generating 460 Nm (Madison, 2003) of torque at 2,700 rpm
- A supercharged overhead camshaft-V8, generating 700 Nm (Madison, 2003) of torque at 2,750 rpm
- A turbocharged overhead camshaft-V12, generating 800 Nm (Madison, 2003) of torque at 1,800 rpm
(Consumer Guide, 2003)
...in addition to either a manual or automatic transmission, and a rear-wheel or all-wheel drive system (dubbed 4MATIC). A new seven-speed auotmatic transmission was introduced in the 2004 model year (Consumer Guide, 2003).
All S-Classes are currently built in Sindelfingen, Germany. The very first 1992 Mercedes S-Class rolled off the assembly line on August 6, 1991. The last 1999 S-Class rolled off the assembly line on July 9, 1998. The very first 2000 S-Class rolled off the assembly line on September 16, 1998. The aforementioned 6.9 had its own assembly line in Stuttgart.
United States S-Class Models
(Data for year 2005 models)
- GPS navigation system, and GPS navigation system and AMG-built intercooled supercharged SOHC 5.5 L 24-valve V-8 engine 493 hp @ 6,100 rpm
- GPS navigation system and mpg (US)
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|S 280 || £46,820 ||- ||197 ||270 ||9.7/- ||144 ||25.5
|-
|S 350 ||£52,410|| £55,160|| 245 ||350|| 8.2/8.2|| 153 ||25.5
|-
|S 500 ||£63,010 ||£65,730 ||306 ||460|| 6.3/6.3 ||155 ||24.8
|-
|S 600 ||- ||£92,010|| 500 ||800 ||-/4.8 ||155 ||19.1
|-
|S 320 CDI || £50,245 ||£52,995 ||204 ||470|| 7.9/7.9|| 141 ||36.7
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|S 55 AMG || £87,510 ||£90,260|| 500 ||530|| 4.8/4.8|| 155|| 21.4
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See Also
