S-Classic

The S-Class is the top of the Mercedes line, but even loyalists will need some time to appreciate the features on the ninth-generation S-Class, which is just becoming available as an early 2007 model.

“For more than 50 years, each new S-Class has defined the benchmarks of safety, design, technology, and luxury,” Mercedes product manager Bernhard Glaser assured media at the car’s introduction in Phoenix. Glaser almost convinced me that the COMAND control knob is simple to use for adjusting climate, audio, navigation, and other settings, because you can set it for voice control. “It’s like you’re having a conversation with the navigation lady,” Glaser said.

Real walnut and leather glow beneath the fiber-optic ambient lighting. Air chambers firm up the seat cushions on one side or the other to compensate for the force of a sharp turn, or they can be set to pulsate for an invigorating back massage. When you get out, touch the driver’s door handle anywhere to lock all four doors.

NightView makes objects beyond the reach of headlights clearly visible on an instrument screen. Distronic Plus adaptive cruise control maintains a preset interval between you and the car ahead, stops the S-Class short of that other car at a red light, then re-establishes the interval, even around corners. If the S senses that more braking is needed to avoid an object ahead, radar-induced brake force kicks in.

Perfect parallel parking is easy: Steer to align the layered, color-contrasting radar grids on the navigation screen, just like you’re playing a video game.

A speed governor limits you to 130 miles per hour (no autobahns here, after all). Adaptive suspension keeps the car low and stable in high-speed swerves, and a seven-speed automatic transmission has fingertip controls for manual upshifts or downshifts.

Glaser was right. The 2007 S-Class does reach beyond its luxury-sedan competition, assuring you a very comfortable setting for that conversation with the lady from the navigation department.