Driven - James May drives the Mercedes-Benz S-Class (10/11/1998)

don't worry you don't have to look like a fashion victim or a failed bus driver this 2.5 litre turbo diesel volvo v70 estate the veers for versatility also carries seven people okay so the two seats in the back are suitable only for small children but guess what families have small children it's a proper car and it's the cheapest here twenty five thousand and fifty five pounds so tons of kids tons of stuff you can have a mini bus you can have a big off-roader or you can have a plain old estate car which offers the best solution out in the driven test track we're going to find out but first james may that aspiring captain of industry has been driving mercedes-benz's new s-class could it be the best car in the world [Music] poor old mercedes-benz if rolls-royce claimed to make the best car in the world most people would accept it without question it's a part of folklore but if mercedes were to make the same claim for this the new s-class well i mean mercedes-benz are all jolly nice but wasn't that a rattly old merc diesel i rode in from the airport a taxi no less best car in the world frankly we need to be convinced never mind best for the moment the mercedes s-class has always been without doubt the most serious car in the world whilst very important people are smoking around in bmw 7 series and lexus ls400s the really important ones the indispensable ones they're in the back of an s-class somewhere not only does this car talk to you you can talk to it expressions eins nine nine this is pretty good actually uh full nine nine no nine no no i mean no shout out world summit meeting if you don't turn up in one of these you probably won't get in and quite right too we don't want the automotive riffraff delivering our leaders to lunch uh i mean important conferences why did margaret thatcher fall from power policies lunacy nah because she kept riding around in that jag a positively flippant car in the company of this one so the old girl had to go there was a similar problem with the old s-class it was very good car but it was a bit big and it was a bit ugly and to be honest seemed to have been inspired by the blitzkrieg and it arrived at a time when the world became all snooty about conspicuous consumption so new chancellor new s-class the new car is softer more rounded and this is the 90s totally non-aggressive it's also quite a bit lighter and mercedes is very quick to point out smaller all round but even so this is an enormous car [Music] in the end size is important and this is also true of the price it has to cost enough to be credible this five liter v8 engine s-class will cost you your company or the country you represent 75 000 pounds but don't worry there's a much more expensive v12 version on the way the s-class has always been a showcase for mercedes-benz gizmology a previous s-class was the first car with an airbag and the tradition of baffling the driver continues this is the command cockpit management and data system it controls everything from telephone radio cd tape satellite navigation probably the stock exchange for all i know alternatively you can press the off button and enjoy serenity today's s has suspension that automatically lowers its speed and seats that massage your back as you drive no really oh and you can have radar radar for pete's sake it detects the speed of the car in front and then locks your s-class onto it when you're using the cruise control thus leaving you free to receive a fax or whatever ironic really that it should appear on a german car because if it hadn't been for the germans the british would never have invented it and here's another interesting feature discovered on this swiss mountain road it's the incredible shrinking car big it may be unwieldy it is not this is amazing though i've already forgotten how big it is actually i really have forgotten how big it is it's pretty good [Music] so what are our plucky lads saying over at rolls-royce look out chaps s-classes over the briny actually i doubt it the two are completely different a rolls is a luxury good but the s-class is the supreme consumer durable the car that archaeologists will unearth in a million years best car in the world maybe some people will want to dismiss this new mercedes as just another big german barge i've invented a new german word for it fonder barge

Channel: Rare Top Gear Content

Views: 263,899

Rating: 4.8778734 out of 5

Keywords: Top Gear, James May, Driven, Channel 4, Mercedes, Benz, S-Class, 1998, Test drive, Switzerland, Road test

Id: r37XZJcIKrw

Length: 5min 31sec (331 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 29 2020