Mercedes’ new S-Class just DESTROYED BMW

This is the new Mercedes S-Class. They've changed around 50% of the car to make sure it's the most luxurious saloon in its category. However, I don't think they've quite pulled it off. And I'm going to tell you why. This new S-Class isn't a whole new model. It's actually a midlife facelift, but it is the most extensive one in Mercedes history. So, the entire front of the car is new. It includes the lights, which now have these three-pointed star daytime running lights. I like those. Less convinced by this though, the new grill. This is the AMG line model, so everything's like blacked out. Do you know what? For me, it just looks a bit plasticky. Doesn't help with this section here for the auto cruise and the radar system. You can get this car with chrome surround and chrome elements there. It looks posher like that, but still once again, a bit too plasticky. Doesn't scream luxury really as it should do. If you look closely, you'll notice you've got these stars in the grill, and they're completely lost on this MG line where they're blacked out. Once again, chrome version. They do pop a bit more. The only thing that really says luxury to me about the front of this car is the good old-fashioned three-pointed star. I love that. Now, if we move down the side, the changes are fewer. So, I'll point them out to you. So, we have some new alloy wheel designs. These are 20s. And one thing they've added is this here. It's a camera unit for the sensors. So, they've upgraded the sensors on this car. More on that in a bit. Once again, because this is the AMG line, it's got the sporty trim on it. It's blacked out around the window line. But again, the S-Class suits chrome, not black. One thing I really wish they would change, the door handles. Mercedes door handles just don't feel luxury enough. There's something in the spring to them that it's a little bit like a bad handshake. You don't want a bad handshake with your luxury car, do you? Moving to the back, the changes get a bit more extensive here. Everything that isn't metal is changed. So, this strip here is new. The light design with the three-point stars in there as well, that's all new. And that does look posher than the previous generation car. They've also redone the rear bumpers there. And I prefer the rear than the front. Though, if you look down here, we do have some exaggerated exhaust surrounds. At least there's some real exhaust within there. The best angle of the car really is side profile. What lets it down though is the front. However, do things get better when you climb inside. The biggest change in here is fairly easy to spot is this new dash design. Mercedes calls it the super screen. And you have this integrated main infotainment screen and a separate screen for the passenger. This all comes as standard and I think it's a big step up over the layout of the previous car. You also get this digital driver's display which is very clear and you can swipe through different options and menus on that. Overall, I think this layout is better than in the 7 series which is a little bit kind of awkward. Another change they made is this new steering wheel which has some physical controls for the volume control and the distance control for the auto cruise. However, you still have touch sensitive buttons to control the menus within the digital driver's display, which is a bit of a faft to use. Don't like those. Another thing Mercedes have changed are the materials within the cabin. So, the door structure itself is the same, but they have changed the trims and the design and colors. In fact, now you can get a wider range of interior trim colors, including this green, which I love. There's even a vegan option, though. I think it needs to be leather does. They've also updated the center console. So, this design is completely new. You've got wireless charging there for your mobile phone. It's got 50 watt capability and it's ventilated so your phone doesn't overheat. In here you have your cup holders, another storage location, USBC's and in this part you have some more USBCs and a shallow storage area there. Other storage items we've got a glove box which looks big but is quite shallow and door bins which are I call them reasonable. Now, other changes, materials on the seats, but they haven't changed the seat structure itself, and it does feel a little bit firm, apart from this pillow, which is lovely. I think the seats in the BMW 7 series just feel a little bit more plush. Also, the material quality in this S-Class just feels a bit cheaper than the BMW 7 series. I mean, bits like this, like, and then look at this. Right, this plastic here is like something from a pre-production car. And sounds a bit hollow, doesn't it? I'm not really getting a full premium vibe in here. However, there is something about this car that I do prefer than the 7 series by quite some margin. The S-Class gets Mercedes new infotainment system, and it's pretty good. So, the graphics are sharp, the colors are bright, and the menus are easily laid out. For instance, if you want to control car functions, you press that, and they're all at your fingertips, including the ability to turn off the annoying driver's aids. There's even this extra button here, which is on many screens, so not just in this menu, which allows you to turn everything off. We like that. We like it a lot. And then if you want all your incar functions, you have them in these apps which are easy to access and swipe through. They're nice and bright and logically laid out. You don't get lost like you do in a BMW menu. And like you got things like ambient lighting which as you can see got this infinite array of colors. It changes the ambient lighting there. If there is one problem, I wish they'd return the climate controls to some physical buttons. They're done through the screen as with almost every car, but they are quite easy to access here right by the driver. And then there's this main menu there which you can go into. And I'm glad of this. Along with some other cars, you still have old-fashioned vent direction controls, which is good. Now, let me just turn this off. Just turn it off. Press that button there. If there is one problem with this infotainment system, it is this. Can you spot it? What is it? That's right. A little bit laggy for something that's brand new. Changes in the rear of the S-Class are minimal. They include the center console here, the design of the air vents. Under here, you have your cup holders, and they're cooled or heated. And those are your climate controls as well. We also get some new larger rear infotainment screens if you select that package. Though, for some reason, they still have the big annoying bezel that makes them seem old-fashioned. What is that all about? So, as you can see, this particular car is the two-seater in the rear. It's the top range seats, the first class style seating. You can get a three-seater bench, which looks like this. But the beauty of this one is you can go full first class mode. Hopefully, I don't have to keep my finger on this. Please don't make me. No, I do. Great. What else you need to know while that's doing its thing is that underneath here you have some storage and USBs. There's four of them. Quite a lot. You have wireless charging there for your mobile phone. But I really hate this thing because it's just there the whole time. Even when you're not using the wireless charging, it's just there. Big waste of space. It just looks looks like a bit of an appendage. Don't like that. Right. Door bins. They're a decent size. There's some posh filling pockets on the seatbacks. And the final part of the adjustment is the There we go. the heel rest. So, that's nice and comfortable. Brutally honest, like in the front, the seats don't feel quite as plush as in the BMW 7 series, but I mean, I'm not going to complain. Apart from the fact that How the heck am I supposed to operate the touchcreen? Maybe with my foot. Yeah, you can operate it with your foot. That That's quite hard to do. Oh dear, I can't get off that menu now. Oh, fortunately, this is new too. Look, these little controllers. So, you just exit one of those and now I can control the screen. In fact, look, you have a remote control here where it acts like a mouse. Can you see this? Can you see the cursor going around the screen now? I can just close that. There we go. So, that's really, really handy. And then you can control all the other functions on this as well, like your massage seat, your ambient lighting, all that kind of stuff. I do find this a little bit on the laggy side. Like, it's like a cheap mobile phone, but it it's a decent solution. And of course, you can do things like the sunblinds as well. Let's just open all open open all the sun blinds. Wake up a bit. Ah, in here. Look, if you want, you can actually have a fridge. This one doesn't have it, which is a bit of a shame. And there's plenty more room in the boot, too, which has up to 530 L of space. However, if you go for the plug-in hybrid, that drops to 345 L. If you can't get your head around that, I'm going to illustrate it with my body. So, this is the non-plugin hybrid version. Easy to get in. Got plenty of room. Plenty of room in here for an adult even two. Lewis, do you want to join me, darling? Not really. Okay. All right. Well, let me show you the hybrid. This is the hybrid's boot. As you can see, it's shallower because the batteries are under there. Now, look, when I try to fit in, same way around. This is This is harder. Can't get my shoulders under. And that brings on to five annoying things about the new Mercedes. this glass. These screens are a little bit too angled. So, if you look at the line, it's going above my head. So, to be dead square onto it, to play the game, I feel like I need to be leaning like that, which isn't ideal, is it? Unlike with the BMW 7 series, you can't get electrically closing rear doors. So, they open really far, which means you have to lean out like that to get them. Although, I suppose you your chauffeur will just shut it for you, right? fancy an S-Class but find this long wheelbase version just that little bit too long. Well, bad luck if you live in the United Kingdom because they won't be selling the short wheelbase version there. Why can't we have a full length glass sunroof on this S-Class? Why do we need this dividing beam in the middle? Yes, I know it's structural, but I've seen on other cars full length glass roofs that open. This car seems to have a few gremlins. Door handles popped out here, but not here. Also had a moment with the the blinds. The rear sublime just stopped working. Paused halfway. Wonder what happens if I lock it. It goes in then unlock it. Normal service is resumed. As part of the first class package, you have these work tables and you just swivel them into position. But there is an issue. They're a little bit springy. Can you see? How perfect for working on the big screen is very reflective. Depending where the sun is, you can get lots of flickering which is distracting or even glinting from the sun that just like blinds you. Not ideal. The heads-up display in this car is really impressive. It can even do augmented reality satellite navigation. It looks like this. However, it does require this huge cutout in the dash. Kind of looks like washing up basin. Then there's this appendage here which is new. That's actually a HD camera. And that brings to five cool things about this car. You also have high definitionition cameras in the screens in the back as well. Look, there's one there. And that's because you have Teams meetings apps. Look at that. You can then do a team's meeting while you're in the S-Class, either in the front or in the back of the car. Over the joy, as well as heated seats, heated steering wheel, heated central armrest, heated door armrest. You can now get the S-Class with heated front seat belts. Now, these metal elements in there which warm it up. Whoever thought that was actually necessary. The S-Class has an air filtration system with ionization function, and it can clean the air inside the vehicle fully in just 90 seconds. So every 90 seconds you get fresh air. You'll never guess how many airbags this car has. The car also has this many exterior cameras and they work in conjunction with the five radar and 12 ultrasound sensors to give this car autonomous driving capability. though you can't actually do it in the UK yet because of legislation, but it can be used for the most advanced parking features I've seen on any car. So, if I hit that button there, I can hit that one there. And now the car is searching for parking spaces. It doesn't just do it while you're passing them. It's spotting the parking spots before I even get to them. Look. And now I can just choose one and then park. Now, it should watch out for cyclist. So, I'm not going to kill him. That' be awkward, wouldn't it? And you can choose whether it noses in or backs in. It even knows where the curb is, so it actually puts you all the way in. That is really, really good. The fact that it spots the parking space ahead of you rather than you having to pass it just saves time. It's an auto park facility that I might actually use. Right, let's drive the new S-Class Rush Hour. And this car is big. See if I can get out without crashing. Oh, yeah. Right. I'm in the hybrid. So, it has plenty of pickup cuz the electric motor. So, it's a straight six electric motor and over 500 horsepower. In fact, these are the engine choices. You can get a diesel, you can get a petrol, you can get two plug-in hybrids, and if you're in the USA, you can also get a V8 petrol. At the moment, this car is cruising along in electric power alone. It's very smooth, very quiet. The air suspension is brilliant over bumps and ruts in the road. It's very, very quiet as well because of all the soundproofing. I'm using all the tech to show me where to go. So, I've got my augmented reality down there. I've got directions in my heads-up display. 200 m, turn left. I've got the lady talking to me, giving me precise directions. I can't possibly get lost. This is the perfect place to test a plug-in hybrid because there's no stop start doing your head in going off and on, off and on. You're just coasting on EV power. I've got 40% of the battery remaining, which is good for 35 km. The car reckons. Actually, I do up to 100 km. So, 60 mi on a full battery. You can run it pretty much like an electric car if your commute isn't that long. That's the engine kicking in there. Actually sounds quite good. It's switched off immediately. It's only cuz I put my foot down a little bit too much and it thought it needs some extra power, but actually I don't. Hey Louis, this is smooth, isn't it? Yeah, it's really smooth. It's really smooth. Now, they haven't actually changed any of the chassis or suspension compared to the prefaceelift version. They thought, well, we don't really need to. It's it's good enough. And they're right. I think in terms of just like gliding down the road, the S-Class does have the edge on the BMW 7 series. They absolutely nail it. They nail that magic carpet like feel. The air suspension is just so good. On fast roads, this S-Class has such a nice, relaxing, wafty feel to it. Please follow the motorway for 27 km. Yeah, I will. And it'll be fine. It'll be fine because I'm just so comfortable. In fact, I might just put the auto cruise on. There we go. And one day when the legislation in Europe allows it, I'll be able to just let the car do all the driving and it'll change lanes and everything and follow the satnav to where I want to go. For now though, classic cruise control. It will do the lane change if you indicate. What? Why? Why do you stop? Oh, it's good to my hands off. I've just got to show you the heads-up display on it. So, it's got the marker there just showing me where the car in front is. Look, it should auto break soon. Otherwise, we're going to be in a lot of trouble. break soon. Go on, you can do it. Now, I spotted that before the car did. It wasn't abrupt braking, but it wasn't ideal. For a big car, this thing handles very well. Steers nicely, too. You can get it with adaptive roll control, which will stop it leaning so much in the bends. There's also a new cloud-based system where when you go over a bump, the suspension tells the cloud that there's a bump there, and it tells other S-Classes to watch out for that bump, and when they approach that bump, it slackens off the suspension. It's madness. Obviously, that will eventually be passed down to other Mercedes vehicles. Also, there'd be loads of Mercedes vehicles out there telling you which bits of road are bad and which bits aren't, so that their suspensions can be set up perfectly for the exact right moment. That's very German. You really don't hear anything on the outside, do you? Like nothing. I've always found that with S-Classes. You do feel like you're in your own little world, your luxurious world, away from the peasants. Well, still got you in the car, Lewis. So, the car is actually automatically slowing down as I'm getting closer to the car in front. So, if I just accelerate again, look at it. Auto slow me down. I hope otherwise we're going to have a bail. Oh, it did do it. I trusted it and it did it. Oh, that could have been bad. Imagine if it didn't work. It's really handy when you're doing that. Like, I was zipping to get through those lights. They were on amber. It was fine, but then the car in front slowed down and this just took care of me. And it didn't do the crazy auto break. It just slowed me down at the right pace. Although I was very close. Well, look at that over there. And then that it's so much like old and new here in Hamburg. Kind of matches the S-Class in a way cuz it's such an old car. It's been going for such a long time and yet it's filled with all this new technology. Did you see what I did there? What the absol What the What on earth? See if my special parking thing picks him up. What? What is he doing? What? I like the way no one's looking. It's like no one's going. Oh, he dropped his balls. He dropped the ball. He knows he's got to get out the road. I want to give him some money. Lewis, have you got any money? Should we just give him a GoPro? Look, they're giving him money. We've got no money. We're English. Lights change. Lights change before he comes to us. It's going to be really embarrassing in this. Let's get the out of here. This city is just full of quality randomness. God, that could have been embarrassing, wouldn't it? Sorry. No, I've got no money. Just in a car that costs over £100,000. That's for the entry level one. You know, when you go up the different trim levels, they can be £120,000. And if you got the engines as well, the maximum price you can pay is around £140,000 for the new S-Class. So, if you're thinking about changing your car, you need to head over to Car Wow to make sure you're paying a fair price, and you can browse all the latest offers and deals. To do that, click on the pop out banner, scan the QR code, find the link in the description, or the pin comment. What did we do the days before sat nav? I mean, how would you ever know? You'd be absolutely screwed here. But I've actually got one, two, three, I've got about four satnavs helping me out. Do you know what I think about this new S-Class? So, the drive is impeccable. The tech is impressive. I do think it's the best driving luxury saloon car. The problem is is it's just let down in certain areas. some of the quality of the materials, the plasticky exterior design. It's almost like the engineers have nailed the brief, but the accountants have reduced the luxury vibe slightly. And I don't think that's the case with a BMW 7 series. And it's such a shame because as a thing to drive, as a motoring journalist, I can just appreciate the S-Class. It's such a good car. But as a buyer wanting a bit of like top of the range luxury in some areas just a little bit lacking.