Announcing The Not So New S-Class
Daimler presented its new S-Class yesterday night in the airbus factory in Hamburg, and with the pomp and circumstance appropriate for a car that is supposed to bring the big turn-around at Daimler. German Spiegel magazine promptly grouched “that the most revolutionary part in the car is the fact that in large parts, it is not new at all.” Der Spiegel called an unimpeachable witness: Germany’s Kraftfahrtbundesamt, the agency that issues type approvals in Germany. It simply amended the type approval for the old W221 model.
That way, Daimler gets around using the new R1234yf refrigerant, and can continue the old. Instead, the new S-Klasse has “six eyes and six ears – is sounds like Frankenstein, but it looks much better,” quipped Daimler’s Zetsche. The car points cameras in all directions, it even visually acquires cars that are about to rear-end the new S-Class, and it takes appropriate action.
The S-Class doesn’t have a single light bulb, instead, it has some 500 LEDs. As a nod to China, the new S-Class was developed with a long wheelbase, the shorter wheelbase is a derivative, and not the other way round.
Reuters says the new S-Class is “make or break” for Daimler. It also claims that “a larger and longer S-Class, widely expected to be dubbed “Pullman”, will compete head on with Rolls-Royce and Bentley for the hearts of the super rich.”
Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.
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Is it safe to assume that General Motors will be congratulated for being extremely early to the its-not-actually-new new model production style? I am pretty sure that they perfected it long before Lexus and Mercedes even gave it a shot and realized how great it was. Perhaps they paid consulting or licensing fees to GM; it only seems fair. Regardless, I will be checking the opinion pages of the WSJ for the inevitable TTAC-authored congratulatory piece.
As regular cars become more and more luxurious + refined big luxobarges like this grow more and more irrelevant. These things are ponderous to drive and a nightmare to own out of warranty. By any measure aside from badge snobbery the midsize luxury segment is a better deal.