Category: Large Executive 
Price Range: £57,790 to £150,090
Remarkable refinement, especially lack of road noise. Agile for its size, rapid, fun to drive, laden with understandable and useful technology.
Looks brash and may date quickly.
With beauty on its side it would be a five-star car.
If your budget is tight you're hardly likely to be running an S-class, but Mercedes is proud to point out that the new V8 uses no more fuel than the old one despite its higher performance. Its combined-cycle fuel consuption is 23.9mpg, a good result for a car of its type if less impressive than the S320 CDI's 33.6mpg. As with the old range, the diesel model is likely to be the biggest seller and it's also likely to hold its value the best. The mighty S600 officially averages 19.8mpg, which isn't so bad for a 2105kg car able to reach 62mph in 4.6 seconds. Insurance groupings haven't been finalised yet, but the S-class is designed to be easily repaired after minor impacts thanks to replaceable crush sections front and rear. All S-classes come with the usual Mercedes Mobilo-Life 30-year 'mobility guarantee'.
