Every Mercedes S-Class, Ranked

The W220 arrived 26 years on—OK, it’s technically not a teen—and featured uncertain design and uneven execution. It heralded a series of new features, including Airmatic air suspension, wheel-input COMAND infotainment system, though both received usability demerits. (Consumer Reports originally classified the W220’s overall reliability as “poor,” before later amending it to “average.”) The saving grace was under the bonnet: the 2003 S65 AMG’s honking 604HP V-12? This gratuitous mill remains one of the great engine options in the sedan’s history. The forbidden fruit was a 70-unit run of 2001’s S63 AMG V-12 (with 438HP), only offered in Europe and Asia.

The angular W140 screams power broker in a double-breasted suit, yakking into a brick of a cell phone, while carrying a briefcase the size of a small country. It’s an unapologetically large, overengineered beast. And it cost Mercedes dearly. The W140 reportedly cost a billion dollars to develop. While the expenses ballooned, so did the timeline, meaning the W140 hit the market 18 months late. BMW’s shock V12 debut forced Mercedes engineers back to the drawing board. Then again, it was the start of Merc’s own V12, so that evens out the scales. It had Rolls-Royce-level touches, including double-pane windows and self-closing doors. What it struggled with was sales; it arrived at the start of a global recession and was priced 25 percent higher than its predecessor, underperforming in units moved.

The W221’s design aesthetic is unmistakably of its era, yet it holds up. Those comely fender flares, the angular head and taillamps that have presence; this is the Mercedes that made stepping out of one feel like a statement again. Or driving. Technological leaps included the Distronic Plus adaptive cruise control, Pre-Safe braking systems, and infrared Night View Assist, all helpful, welcome features, as was the 26 percent boost in power in the various engines. The 536HP 5.5L V-8 was a proper workhorse that sounded divine. The optional Designo interior packages elevated the cabin to something approaching bespoke, too. After the W220, the W221 restored the brand’s reputation for quality and desirability. 

The W222 arrived after the competent W221 and made its predecessor feel like a warm-up act. Magic Body Control—a camera-assisted suspension system that reads the road surface 50 feet ahead and adjusts damping in real time—was the W222’s signature trick, and it worked as advertised, sopping up road imperfections. The AMG S65’s bi-turbo V12 was the last truly excessive thing Mercedes would offer in this class, a swan song for purists and enthusiasts. The interior, particularly in long-wheelbase Maybach guise, was so thoughtfully executed that passengers routinely forgot they were moving at unrestricted Autobahn speeds.

The W116 deserves reverence. The car that gave the S-Class its name and set the framework for every generation that followed. Its upright, almost parliamentary stance established a design language that Mercedes would spend the next two decades refining. We have the W116 to thank for advancing road safety; it had the first anti-lock braking system ever offered in a production car. The 4.5-liter V-8 was robust and authoritative, just what a flagship sedan of its era demanded. This was Mercedes at its most confident; a car that knew precisely what it was, made no apologies for it, and turned out to be right.

The current-generation S-Class is one of the most bleeding-edge production automobiles. The MBUX Hyperscreen—a single curved display stretching the full width of the dashboard—immerses the drivers in advanced controls while giving passengers a first-class entertainment suite. Rear-axle steering sharpens a car this size in ways that defy its footprint. The 48-volt mild-hybrid system makes the powertrain feel seamless in a way that pure combustion no longer can. The available Burmester 4D surround sound system fills the cabin with music—and vibrates through the seats, making the listening experience physical. The Energizing Comfort system coordinates climate, ambient lighting, fragrance, and massage functions into a unified wellness program, which means you can spend four hours in the seat and arrive feeling better than when you left.

The second-gen W126 is, for a certain generation of enthusiast, the platonic ideal of a luxury sedan. It ran for twelve years—the longest production run of any S-Class—and sold nearly 900,000 units. It was sober and handsome in a way that didn’t shout, built to standards that made used examples last for hundreds of thousands of miles without complaint. Taxi fleets in Europe ran them into the ground and then kept running them. They still look handsome on any concours lawn. That combination of longevity, stateliness, and build quality is what makes it the gold standard, the S-Class that all others, however brilliant, still chase.