Photo by Tory Kooyman.
Driver's Notebook: A Change of Face
April 2, 2003
; function voidFunc() { } voidFunc(); "Interior of car")
CEC replaced all wood trim with a green-tinted wood kit. The two-tone green and black leather interior is another custom touch. (Click image to enlarge)Performance is virtually the same as in the standard S500, which was introduced in 2000. Acceleration is brisk without being blistering (Mercedes-Benz says the zero-to-60 dash takes 6.1 seconds). The massive Brembo brakes provide more than enough stopping power, but can be touchy at low speed. The 20-inch wheels sharpen already-precise handling ability and somewhat increase articulation of the road’s imperfections; the diminished smoothness is not overly intrusive for a sports-oriented sedan. The speed-sensitive rack-and-pinion steering system provides excellent feel regardless of speed and is far less numb than in previous iterations. Although the car is nimble for its size, there is no getting around its bulk when driving along narrow and crowded city streets, where an E-Class feels utterly comfortable and an S-Class can seem ponderous. On the freeway, however, the S comes into its own as a luxe cruiser, its girth enclosing limousine-like space and its heft adding gravitas to high-speed travel. An irritating feature that this car has in common with conventional S-Class cars is the navigation screen, which also houses controls for the trunk-mounted CD player. Anything more than adjusting the volume or scanning preprogrammed radio stations requires the driver to turn a knob that selects options displayed on the screen; it cannot be done by touch and forces a driver’s eyes to leave the road for far too long.
advertisement
