WHY YOU WANT ONE
The W116 S-Class Mercedes was probably the most formidable all round saloon car on the road in the Seventies. Beneath its authoritative double-bumper styling lay the most thorough engineering you could find.
There were lots of fast barges on the roads in those days but none of them handled with the four-square tenacity of Stuttgart's flagship. Others may have equalled or exceeded its luxury but there was nothing to top the uncompromising build quality that permeated every aspect of the car. Replacing the classic 'stacked headlight' 280 series S-Class saloons of the Sixties, this new series of straight-six and V8 luxury cars turned Mercedes' game up several notches.
Safety was suddenly fashionable. The company had taken an active interest in safety since the Fifties but now it was used as a persuasive marketing tool; the S-Class brochure talked of the car's energy-absorbing passenger cell, its extra strong roof pillars and abundant interior padding.
In terms of active safety Mercedes had ditched its controversial swing axles in favour of advanced semi-trailing arms while the front suspension and steering had zero-offset and anti-dive technology.
The S-Class probably had the best power steering of any car on the road at the time and its three-speed automatic transmission was the smoothest and most responsive Mercedes had ever built.
An anti-lock brake option was pioneered on this model and in North America there was even a diesel model, the 300SD. To sit behind its substantial wheel and look down the bonnet at its three-pointed star gave the S-Class driver a feeling a satisfaction and security unmatched in any saloon car of the seventies. Jaguar owners might have preferred the greater silence and ride comfort of the contemporary XJ series but the build quality and reliability of the S-Class was in another league.
Then again so was the price. The first 350SE saloons, quite austerely equipped, cost £7000 in Britain in 1973 which was nearly double the price of the much faster Jaguar XJ12.
Even so this proved no impediment to sales and tycoons lined up to buy the S-Class. Those who didn't feel the need for the 200bhp V8 could buy the entry-level 280SE with its still lively twin-cam straight six. Those who wanted more authority in the outside lane could order 450SE or four-inch-longer-wheelbase SEL. Those who required the ultimate sling-slot limo ordered the 450SEL 6.9, of which more later.
Production of the W116 S-Class gave way to the more smoothly styled W126 series in 1980 but the survival rate of the earlier cars is fairly good.
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