NAIAS 2014: Mercedes-Benz S600 Is What You're Expecting
No other car on the planet combines technological supremacy and ventricle-bursting depreciation like a modern V-12-powered Mercedes-Benz. For the newest take on the formula, the automaker’s turned all the knobs to 11.
First bit of good news: for the first time in longer than anyone would care to admit, that “600” decklid badge reflects reality. The six-liter V-12 turns out 523 horsepower and 612 lb-ft of torque thanks to a pair of turbochargers. It can make autonomous braking decisions at up to 124mph and execute a wide variety of other “pre-safe” behaviors. There’s a new heads-up display and a gesture-recognition system said to be able to accept “common smartphone gestures”.
Look for the S600 to appear at, in rough temporal order:
- Hollywood premieres
- international financial leadership conferences
- Rap videos
- major executive parking lots
- The Real Housewives Of Atlanta
- Mercedes-Benz service centers
- Detroit nightclubs
- Episodes of COPS
- the 24 Hours of LeMons
- Midwestern dealerships
More by Jack Baruth
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"ventricle-bursting depreciation" Excellent fake-out. I was lulled into buff book hyperbole and slammed with brutal reality. The used market tells the truth about this marque.
Actually quite a large number of S600s are bought by pro-athletes. If you are talking about S Classes in general, I would argue that most are actually bought by physicians. Panning back to the S600, you will almost never see one at a dealership in the Midwest for sale, if ever. They are almost always special order. In fact my NBA neighbor got his S600 when the W221 style first came out before the dealerships even saw it. When I took my car in for service they did not believe me it was out, so we brought it in for them to see. V12s are rare and hard to sell, even my local Audi dealership won't order one even though one of my neighbors has one.