Should You Buy a Mercedes S-Class? (Test Drive & Review W222 2013-2020)

Alright guys, how's it going? Welcome back. Well, today I'm in this late-2014 Mercedes S-Class. This is the sixth-generation S-Class, which ran from 2013 until 2020. What I propose to do today is spend the next ten minutes telling you all about it, and then what you do with that information is entirely up to you. Now, the Mercedes S-Class is the flagship of the Mercedes range. It competes against the Jaguar XJ, although that's no longer in production, the Audi A8, the BMW 7 Series, the Lexus LS, and others, although I think I have mentioned them all. Anyway, as much as I like them all for various reasons, I always consider the Mercedes S-Class the daddy of the lot. They're always imposing, elegant, sophisticated. I'm a big fan, as you can probably tell. Now, this is the first W222 Mercedes S-Class that I've ever bought, or driven in fact, so I was quite excited to get my hands on it. And honestly, it hasn't disappointed, not one bit. Firstly then, let's talk about the styling. Now, I know styling's subjective, but I think this is a good-looking car. In fact, I'll go one step further, I think this is the best-looking Mercedes S-Class of all time. It's a really balanced design. The designers really nailed the brief with this, because it looks rich and imposing, but it doesn't look too showy. I think it's just right. I think this is one of the few cars where you can pull up literally anywhere in it, and you'll always get the reaction that you want, whether that's a good reaction, positive one, or no reaction at all. I suppose this is why rich people buy these, because you get a beautiful luxury car, but it still has the ability to fly under the radar. Many people genuinely wouldn't know that this wasn't just an E-Class, for example, and I really like that. At just over five metres long, I mean, this is no wallflower, but you can still turn up at a nice restaurant, and it still looks inconspicuous. It's really clever. I've got one quick piece of advice, though. I would advise you go for an AMG line model. They just look sportier. It's just a cleaner, sharper design. I wouldn't buy the non-AMG line, personally. They look a bit... a bit soft, and a bit dull. For example, I love the wheels that you get on this AMG line. They just really complement the car. This is the standard wheelbase car. They also do a long wheelbase version, which is much better if you're planning on chauffeuring people around, because the rear legroom in this standard wheelbase model isn't that great. It's alright, but I've seen better. The extra legroom you get on the long wheelbase models, though, isn't the detriment of the styling. I think they look a bit weird. All long wheelbase cars do, in my opinion. The rear doors are that big on the long wheelbase models, they just look a bit photoshopped. The whole thing just looks a bit ungainly. I love the lights, both front and rear. It's all very simple, yet very effective. Also, I must say, driving this car at night with its auto-adaptive lights is a real game-changer. I now wouldn't want a car without them. They're that good. It just gives you real confidence while you're negotiating some of these narrow country lanes at night without streetlights. They just do all the hard work for you. Moving inside, the beautiful design continues. It's a really nice car to be in, this. It gives you that buzz from the moment you open the door. It's hard to believe, but later this year, this car will be ten years old, and you can never tell. Can you imagine how futuristic this car must have looked back in 2014? If you've ever been in any modern Merc, then all of this will be familiar. That's what always happens with the S-Class. All the modern features always start out right at the top of the tree, and then they filter down to the other models. It's just so classy. I love the analogue clock, I love the dash, I love the colour combination, I love the big screens. And what's interesting, at night, these screens almost blend into one. It's quite impressive, and it's backlit like the television in a footballer's house. The clarity of the display is also crystal clear, as is the reverse camera. Everything you touch or press feels of the highest quality as well. You get plenty of storage compartments, nice soft armrests, two cup holders, decent-sized door bins. There are also two USB points under this centre armrest here. The next thing I'm about to say is nothing new for Mercedes, but I really love this colour-mounted gear selector. When you're manoeuvring this car, it's just exactly where you'd need it to be. You just really don't need to think twice about it. Everything on this infotainment screen is controlled by this dial down here, which is really easy to use, and quite intuitive actually. You only need to spend a couple of minutes with it, and you'll have it figured out. And you know something else that's great about it? There are no touchscreens. Everything's controlled with a physical button. It's really refreshing. Sadly though, that's all gone with the latest S-Class. You get a huge screen, and everything's covered in fingerprints. The front seats are typical of an S. They're very wide and sofa-like, and without wishing to offend, I think they've been made with the American market in mind. These bad boys would accommodate the very widest of buttons. But what's great about this model, if you are of a smaller, European build, you can adjust the seats so that they hug you a little bit more. You can bring the bolsters in, and the shoulder part as well. And that's all before we discuss the massage feature. You know something else that's interesting about this, which I discovered the other night? You can set it so that, what's it called, dynamic seats, so the minute you go around a bend, the opposite bolster hugs you in. A bit like an E60 M5. It's a really good feature, that, because as you start to hustle it around some country roads, you don't slip and slide all over the place. It keeps you firmly in your seat. Look at this. There we go. I can feel it. It's almost winding me. I was very grateful of that feature, because let me tell you, the Mercedes S-Class doesn't handle like a BMW 7 Series, or an Audi A8, that's for sure. This might actually sound like an odd comparison, but you know what this drives like? It feels like a saloon version of my full-size Range Rover. It has the same pillowy soft ride, which, granted, isn't for everybody, but I like it. Of course, that might be because I've got the mental age of David Attenborough. I'm secretly quite an old soul, which is why I got so excited about driving an old Mercedes S-Class in dark blue with a beige interior. The steering's very light and over-assisted, just as you'd expect. This one has a beautiful wood steering wheel. Some people, you know, refer to this steering wheel as the clown's face, or the clown's head. I think because of that smile at the bottom. But I don't really see it. For me, what I can see every single time is Blakey from on the buses. Only older viewers will get that reference. That reference that no 34-year-old should even know about. Told you I was an old soul. Up front, there's plenty of space. Loads of headroom, loads of legroom, loads of elbowroom. It's really very comfortable. But moving back, like I said earlier, it does feel a bit cramped. More than you'd think, anyway. If you're planning on being driven around in one of these, then you really must go for the Stretch version, where you get almost a foot of extra legroom. And the boot's very spacious and accommodated at 510 litres. Moving back to the front, under the bonnet of this one, this is the S350 CDI. This uses a 3.0-litre turbo-diesel V6, and it produces 255 horsepower, which, in today's world, doesn't sound like a lot. But trust me when I say this, it's plenty. It's all you need, really. It's enough to give this big, angular Merkel-mobile a 0-62 time of just 6.8 seconds, and it keeps going until it reaches 155mph. You might think you do, but you really don't need more than that. Nobody does. I'm going to sound like a hypocrite now, because I'm always very anti-diesel. But, but, but, in this kind of car, it does work perfectly well. You fill up the 70-litre tank full of diesel, and that gives you a range of around 600 miles. In addition to that, there's plenty of torque for overtaking, and the seven-speed automatic gearbox is seamless. You really can't tell when it changes cogs. I've done a fair few motorway miles in this recently, and it is the perfect motorway cruiser. The insulation's so good, you can barely hear it running. You'd never know that under the bonnet lay a dirty oil burner. A few times I've been driving this on the motorway, and then I've glanced down and looked at the speed that I'm doing, and had to back off quickly before I ended up with points. Or, you know, worse still, a complete lack of licence. It flies, this thing. I think the reason it's so easy to speed in this car is because you're so detached from the real world. You're in your own little bubble. And as we all know, that's a good thing, because the real world sucks. The other good thing is, the diesel's even EULA's compliant. This is Euro 6, which means you can drive into any big city, and you won't get your backside tanned. My biggest issue with the diesel is that, yes, you'll buy this, and you'll be getting 50 miles per gallon. And you run it, and you think, wow, I'm saving a lot of money here. But then a year down the line, you'll have an issue with the EGR or the DPF, and then wallop. You're presented with a three grand bill, and you think, there's all my forecourt savings gone out the window. I should have just bought the petrol V8. That's what I always think, anyway, because sadly, I've been here too many times. I've come to realise that with diesels in general, you just defer in a big bill. You might not have to pay it, but the next owner definitely will. Wait until you've got to get the helicoil guy out, because your glow plugs are C solid. I've just had too many bad experiences. But still, while it's all working, it is a really good option. So each to their own, I guess. If you're like me, and you prefer petrol over diesel, then there's a V6, there's a V8, and there's even a V12. I often see one, you know, driving through Wilmslow, and it's driven by an older chap who's got a cigar on the go constantly, and his dog on the passenger seat. And every time I see it, I just think, that is goals, isn't it? That's his goals right there. Forget all your Euruses and your Cullinans that I see on my way to work, they're just crass, aren't they? What you really want is in my back. They also make a hybrid version of this, too. And they offer it with all-wheel drive. This one isn't, this is just rear-wheel drive. But if you see one badged as a 4MATIC, that's what it means. I guess we're sort of seven or eight minutes into this review now, aren't we? Listen, I love cars. I always try and think of a reason to keep something. I bought this the other day, and straight away I thought, how can I keep it? What purpose is there for it? Then I thought, I know. Sometimes, about half a dozen times a year, I have to drive from Manchester down to London. I'll just keep it for that. These are real petrolhead problems, aren't they? Obviously, I can't do that. I'm not doing that. That would be stupid. But I did think about it. I suppose it's a compliment to the car, because it really is that good. But there is one thing that's always put me off buying a luxury car like this for myself. And that's the spec. Because the spec on these cars, all luxury cars, are the same. It's a bit hit and miss. You know, with a Range Rover, I know exactly where I stand with spec. You get a Vogue, a Vogue SE, or an autobiography. If you want everything on it, you get the autobiography. But with these kinds of cars, it just doesn't work that way. Take this, for example. There's no keyless entry or start. No sunroof. No double glazing. No cooled seats. No heated steering wheel. No heated rear seats. No power tailgate. No soft-close doors. And why? This was once a £70,000 car. Why not just load it to the gunnels with everything? Or at the very least, give us three options. One, two, three. Vogue, Vogue SE, autobiography. That works. Everyone knows what they're going to get. And as silly as that sounds, that's the main reason why I haven't bought one of these cars for myself as my own car. Because you'd see an advert on AutoTrader, especially with big main dealers, and the advert isn't very descriptive. It'll just say, blue, three owners. Okay, right. Well, I want soft-close. I want cooled seats. All that sort of stuff. Anyway, these are First World problems, aren't they, of the highest order? In terms of running costs, then we've already talked about fuel economy, haven't we? Well, on this diesel, the annual road tax is only £240 a year. Which is a bit of a bargain, isn't it? £21 a month. The servicing costs aren't ridiculous. What I'd recommend, as I always preach, find a decent specialist and just stick with them. Expect to pay about £220 for a minor service and double that for a full. It won't break the bank. Something else I also preach is service the gearbox. Service it every 60 or 80,000 miles. Also, run it on premium fuel at least every other fill-up. The tyres weren't particularly expensive. I've just put two brand new Bridgestones on the front because they had odd tyres on the front, and I didn't like that. I had Bridgestones on the back, so I thought I'd better match them to the front. And they weren't expensive. I paid my bill on Friday, I can't remember off the top of my head, but below here, I'll leave the cost. But anyway, whatever the cost was, they were nowhere near as expensive as tyres on my Range Rover, for example. One word of warning, though, and I can't do a review with a car like this without talking about it. These are very complicated, highly strung cars, and parts are expensive. So what you need to do is have a rainy day fund. Put a few grand aside and keep topping it up, because as and when things break, and they will invariably, you won't be caught short. You know what's funny? On this main roundabout, you've got car spotters here, all taking pictures of Lamborghinis and all sorts of stuff that doesn't interest me in the slightest. And I was there the other day and there was a mint Jeep Cherokee on a W reg, the old XJ, the boxy one. Nobody battered an eyelid. That was the one that would have made me take a dozen pictures. Anyway, they were more interested in the SVJ or whatever crass car was behind, wrapped in gold. You've either got it or you haven't, as they say. Moving on to used prices, then. Now, I know cars in the UK are some of the cheapest in the world, so any viewers watching this from outside of the UK, you won't be able to believe what I'm about to tell you. You can pick up examples of the W222 for just £15,000. Fifteen grand! It's so much car for the money, isn't it? So much car. Granted, that would be a high-mileage example, but still. For £20,000, you should get yourself one with average miles on. This one, for example, this one's done 53,000 miles, and it's up for sale for just a smidge over £20,000. It's a tempting proposition, isn't it? This is just one of those cars that makes you feel special from the moment you open the door. And for me, at least, that's worth paying slightly higher than average repair costs. Well, I think that's about it, then, ladies and gents. So thank you once again for watching. Make sure you give the video a thumbs up if you enjoyed it. Make sure you subscribe if you haven't done already. You can follow me on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter. I'll leave the link below. If you've got any comments or questions, let me know, and I'll do my best to get back to you. Cheers, guys. See you next time.