New 2014 Mercedes S-class India review, test drive

Time to find out what it's like to drive through Mumbai's streets. Start the 4.7-litre, twin-turbo petrol V8 and as expected, you would be hard pressed to tell there are eight pistons thumping out 453bhp and 71.3kgm of torque. It is incredibly smooth and quiet and equipped with a fuel-saving start stop system that works almost imperceptibly. It'll hit a 100kph in a claimed 4.8sec but more impressive is the way it picks up speed in such a smooth and unstressed manner. Cabin insulation is first class and the only sound you can hear from the engine is a distant purr when you extend it to its redline. It is a motor befitting the kind of car the S-class is. The S500 comes with Merc's 7G-tronic seven speed auto and we know it’s a smooth shifter. Driving through the chaos of Haji Ali, the gearbox in 'D', the S-class glides serenely through traffic in manner similar to a whale shark among plankton. Gearshifts are barely noticeable and the engine's torque reserves mean there's more than enough grunt even at low speeds. 

 

On the way out of Mumbai, we get our first taste of the S's open road manners on the Eastern freeway. The long gearing and strong reserves of torque provide a superbly relaxed yet flexible quality that makes it an incredible tourer.

 

 

And what a tourer it is. The Mumbai-Pune expressway is no longer smooth and has developed ridges and depressions over the years. Still, even on the standard air-suspension and adaptive dampers, the S500's ride is difficult to fault. The car simply glides over bumps and even sharp edges are dispatched nonchalantly. Infact, of all the roads we drove through, we didn't come across a surface that disturbed the calm inside the cabin. As always, the double glazed glass and the incredible sound insulation keeps you an arms length from the outside world. 

 

As for the handling, the suspension has 'Sport' and 'Comfort' modes, but even in the former, it isn't terribly sporty. What it does though is provide that beautifully fluid steering feel that we've come to associate with big Mercs good body control and lots of grip from the 245-section front and 275-section rear tyres. You can carry huge amounts of speed through corners.   

 

In the end, there's no denying that the S-class is an exceptional car. Like its predecessors, this one has successfully moved the boundaries of what a car like this should do, forward and sets the benchmarks for its rivals to match up to. Priced at an approximate Rs 1.6 crore, the S500 is not cheap, but then again, you are buying the best car in the world.