First review Mercedes S 500 4Matic Coupe

With the S Class Coupe, Mercedes presents its new vision for the luxury coupes based on the S Class platform. First review with Mercedes S 500 4Matic Coupe along the Transfagarasan, the most beautiful road in the whole wide world.

Mercedes has a long term tradition in building fast, elegant and luxurious coupes. And the new S-Class makes no exception, as the new name clearly shows the affiliation to the S-Class family.

For the first test, we had the S 500 4Matic Coupe version at hand, as the luxury coupe is exclusively available with a 4-wheel drive for the sales start.

To see what the new luxury S-Class Coupe can actually do, we challenged it along the famous Transfagarasan, of which Top Gear said it is the most beautiful road in the whole wide world, even more beautiful than the Stelvio Pass.

Our first visual contact with the car emphasizes a more compact coupe than the former generation. Apart from the superb proportions that make the car look more compact, the new S Coupe is by almost 7 cm shorter, by 3 cm wider and by 1 cm lower. The lowered front grille, that comes down right under the headlights line and integrates the Mercedes logo backed by a single louvre reminds us of the SLS AMG, the long narrow tail lights comprised of two components, each immersing 39 LEDs and the chrome stripe between the tail lights gives the impression of refined sporty style. This is exactly what Mercedes wanted to convey.

The S-Class Coupe opens up a new design era for the Mercedes coupes, that give away the baroque style and ponderosity, favoring the refined sporty style.

The solution of no B pillar was preserved from the illustrious predecessors, as the chrome element surrounding the windows frame is giving the same feeling of consistency.

And on the inside, Mercedes managed to customize and differentiate the S-Class Coupe from the S-Class saloon, in the era of globalization and standardizing.

The dashboard has a totally different profile, as it is multistaged next to the front passenger, the center console expands to the rear and the multifunctional sporty wheel is dulled at the lower side and has a smaller diameter than in the S-Class.

Surprising for this sports coupe of this range, the rear space is much more generous than we would have expected, as even passengers of over 1,80 meters have enough headroom.

The inside atmosphere is luxurious and refined, especially for the test car that disposes of the Edition 1 package. The fine Designo Exclusive Nappa leather in Bengal red and black, wrapping up the seats, the dashboard and the door sides together with the poplar wood enclosure from the center of the dashboard, the elecro-plated trim details in Silver Shadow tones and the pure aluminium control buttons deliver that typically Mercedes luxurious atmosphere.

The seats sorbed from the S-Class are literally perfect. Actually, they dry  any collision course straight. They are large and comfortable like some luxurious armchairs, but when needed, they wrap up around you and the dynamical function allows the side stiffening according to the curve direction. And  the ventilation functions or the already famous „hot stones” massage added.

On the dashboard, we find the two TFT 12,3-inch displays, one for the instrument panel and one for the Comand Online unit. Apart from the standard deluxe equipment, that also includes electrically adjustable seats with a memory function, panoramic sunroof, the Comand Online unit, the LED intelligent light system or the ambient lighting, the Edition 1 package fills in the exquisite standard with Exclusive Nappa leather in Bengal red, the LED headlamps with 47 Swarovski crystals each or the Night View Assist Plus System.

Just like the S-Class limousine, the S-Class Coupe is the quietest model ever build in the automotive industry. Even at speeds of over 180 km/h, only a slight wind noise can be heard. Standardly, the S-Class Coupe has an Airmatic suspension, lowered by 10 mm in comparison with the S-Class limo, which can be adjusted in the Sport or Comfort mode. At higher speed, the suspension goes down by another 10 mm, rendering up the exceptional aerodynamics and the spectacular stability.

On a long distance drive, the comfort is imperial, as if you would drive above the road, up on Aladdin’s magic carpet. And this feeling is not affected by the small reinforcement tires mounted up the optional AMG 20-inch wheels. The long distance is felt like this in this car. In perfect silence, rolling as if on a air cushion and after some massage sessions in the ultra comfortable and perfectly designed by request seats, the 800 km of the test seemed way less.

The V8 biturbo 4.7 liter engine earned some extra 20 HP apart from the former generation and is by 0,5 l/100 km more economical. As a matter of fact, the official fuel consumption of 9,4 l/100 km is the lowest in the automotive industry for a V8 of this range. During our test driving along the Transfagarasan loops and in alert driving style, the fuel consumption was about 15 l/100 km, which means a good figure for this power range. Anyway, this engine is the most economical V8 in its range in the whole wide automotive. The automatic 7-speed gearbox is coming to a career end and is to be gradually replaced in the Mercedes range by the new 9-speed 9G-Tronic. But for the S 500 4Matic Coupe, the flaws are perfectly disguised by the all-present torque of 700 Nm, which is available along a wide range of revs. The slightly delayed response in the other Mercedes models is long gone in this case.

The output of this V8 is absolutely monumental. Even if the Mercedes S-500 4Matic Coupe is not intended to be an SLS AMG, the acceleration from 0 to 100 km/h only lasts for 4,6 seconds. The linearity of the engine feedback and the pure force dazzle.

Even though the S-Class Coupe is a luxury coupe, Mercedes did not let the pleasure of driving die out. In intesive acceleration, the V8 has a superbly husky and barytone sound, while in crusing speed, we couldn’t hear a thing. Anyway, we would have prefered to have a switch to activate the sporty sound of the engine like the Porsche has.

The all wheel drive provides impressive provisions up to the limit, but it helps a lot in the getaways and – which is most important – it leaves the typical pleasure of driving a rear wheel drive coupe untouched. With a sporty setting, which delivers more torque to the rear, the behavior on bends is sporty, poignant and inflaming for the driver. Challenged up the limit, the S 500 4Matic Coupe slightly and gradually slides the rear, as it turns out to be intuitively controlled. It is impressive that a 2-tone and over 5-meter long coupe is so pleasant to drive and so agile. From this perspective, the new S-Class Coupe irretrievably breaks the ties of the past.

By driving along the Transfagarasean at night, we realized how important the innovative assistance systems are.

The Night View Assist Plus System puts aside the stress of pressuring the eyesight for seeing what is going on at the side of the road and the strain for identifying a potential hop. The pedestrians or the animals at the side of the road are perfectly envisioned on the black and white poster in the central TFT central display between the two flasher control lights and adequately indicated by red quadrates. And the Intelligent Lighting LED System does not only render the safety of driving, but also helps the eyes repose. The white light is very relaxing, the light allocation is just perfect and the dynamic function on bends that makes the light follow the curve is quite helpful. Along the highway, the Lane Keeping System with steering correction and the Drowsiness Detection Assistance helps you always reach your destination.

Traditionally having the highest technological level, the S-Class Coupe has no reason to envy the Aston Martin DB9 design any more. The new S-Class Coupe could finely serve as James Bond’s car, as he would benefit from all the safety high-end systems.