There it is, the ultimate ‘90s German luxobarge. The Everest of the range, the crown jewel of the three-pointed star, the Big Bad Benz. Two doors, four seats and twelve cylinders, all for the price of a left appendage, your first-born or your soul, depending on who the dealer is. Massive, yes. Powerful, to be sure. Superbly (over-)built by the best in the business – no doubt. And so very expensive. So why was it styled like a Ford Scorpio with a glandular condition?
I’m being a tad uncharitable, perhaps in an effort to win over some of you by way of a little cheap humour. But I do believe this S-Class is both the best of Benz technology wrapped in the least appealing body they ever designed for their flagship series (we’re only talking 20th Century designs, though – present-day S-Classes are silly ugly).
I’ve been fortunate enough to have found all the postwar luxury Mercedes coupés for CC over the years. They all exude an air of conservative superiority that typifies the breed – the ornate 300 S (W188) of the ‘50s and its prewar-like fenders (top left), the discreet W112 with its extra chrome (bottom right) and the clean-looking C126 (bottom left) ready to devour the ‘80s Autobahn. The W116, a.k.a the first “proper” S-Class, didn’t really have a coupé version, Mercedes preferring instead to elongate the R107 and add a roof to make a halfway attempt at one without really saying so. Even then and in buttercup yellow, the resulting C107 (top right) was impressive, if less than completely adequate.
And I’ll even throw in (but not add a photo of) the CL215 that took over from our featured car in 1999. That big Benz two-door had a lot of élan and gave a wink back to the W111/W112 days. Our C140, on the other hand, suffers from the same ailments that its four-door version does: it’s too heavy-looking. Big Benzes have always looked pretty chunky, and that’s part of their charm. For the W140 though, Bruno Sacco changed his name to Rubens.
In all its dimensions – length, width, height, wheelbase and weight – the W140 was the largest of its kind. That was especially evident compared to its predecessor the W126, but even the W220/CL215 was trimmed down. This was in direct consequence of the criticism that was widely levelled at the W140 when it was launched: it was just too big and it looked it.
The coupé version, to be fair, fares better than the saloon in that regard. The shorter wheelbase helps, as does the steeper angle of the C-pillar.
The least objectionable angle would be the front, were it not for those nondescript headlights and that pot-bellied grille bulging over the bumper, looking like some beer guts spilling over a tight pair of jeans. If this were a person, it would be Jeremy Clarkson.
Where the C140 has an advantage over its illustrious predecessors is in the engine department. The 3-litre straight-6 that was Mercedes’ top motor in the ‘50s and early ‘60s, brilliant though it was with its fuel injection, was a mite too small for the job. The V8s that came after were much better suited. But for sheer prestige, nothing can top a twelve. They apparently had an 8-litre V16 ready for production, but ended up nixing it because that would just have been too much. Twelve cylinders, 6 litres and about 400hp would have to suffice.
The C140 also scores a point in the interior department. It’s less exclusive than the W112 in here, but as luxury cockpits go, it’s one of the more technologically intimidating, with that console crammed with switchgear. To think this was the first S-Class to have cruise control… All this came at quite a hefty cost, of course. And it’s time to look into that a bit with the usual tool we have at our disposal: a table.
First off, isn’t it weird how the top-end of the coupé market in the mid-‘90s had two ‘70s holdouts? When Bentley and Maserati have newer models than you do, alarm bells should be ringing. But the Jag and the Porsche also help our Mercedes with its image problem a bit: the XJS, in this final form, was a lot uglier and the Porsche was well past its sell-by date. The danger was not necessarily from BMW’s slightly anonymous 8-Series so much as Aston Martin – the DB7 had just landed, the first new Aston in about 25 years – and a Ferrari 456 that looked, sounded and drove like a dream compared to the big Benz. It also cost quite a bit more, but at that level, who’s really counting?
When Mercedes quit manufacturing the C140 in late 1998, over 26k units had been sold since 1992. But only 8573 of those had a V12 – the others made do with either a 5.0 or even a 4.2 litre V8. The model had gone through three appellations too, starting its run as the SEC 600, then re-named as the S 600 Coupé and, from MY 1996 onwards, being known as the CL 600, turning the S-Class coupé into a spin-off series of sorts. Why they named it CL and not CS or SC is anybody’s guess, though I’m sure nobody cared much about the letters as long as that 600 number was prominent. It still shows that the W140, far from being the calm, confident and somewhat elephantine flagship it ought to have been, was facing major PR headwinds in the ‘90s.
Still, the fact that they managed to sell as many of these as they did is quite a testament to the fact that looks aren’t everything. However, it’s worth mentioning that both the CL215 and, to a much greater extent, the C126 that came before it, both outsold the C140. As did the BMW 8-Series – a much more significant blow to Daimler-Benz’s ego, no doubt.
Related post:
My New CC: 1996 Mercedes S600 V12 Coupe (W140) – Massive Depreciation Is My Friend
Oh, a little cheap humour is all we afford in current times, so I’d worry not. And the idea of Clarkson’s beer gut as a styling feature is actually pretty funny.
And anyway, surely this is the elegant, square, and spare, W124 coupe as drawn by the beers in that gut. The result is a panzer out of which one cannot see, on (then) big wheels which look like tucked-under ball bearings, the nose somehow visually higher than the cabin (with lights later copied by the 2nd Gen Lexus ls430 to equally gormless effect). What a saggy bag, at once witless, excessive, windowless, over-weight, and wholly unattractive, even if built like it could invade Poland on its own, and win.
Ah, but if we knew then what we do now! This thing seemed an aberration. It didn’t seem to be likely then that the otherwise upward progression of humanity would lead to the current atrocities of Rolls Rice, or the S-class, or 7 series, let alone the degraded and morally devalued likely occupants of same, nor how quickly those occupants would lead us into the gold-festooned regressions of empty greed and hate with which we all now live.
The poor thing! Can’t even fit in the white lines of the parking space!
IDK, there seem to be more and more “people” out there lately wiling to sell their soul and probably their first-born for far less than one of these cost back in 1995, if not what one on blocks with a broken timing chain fetches today. Not sure about their left appendages though, those might be needed for them to demonstrate what the rest of us can suck on as far as they are concerned.
I’m quite impressed that a full third of the production of the coupe actually had the V12. (While probably another 20% just went the parts counter route for two V12 badges and a 6 to replace the 5 on the back.) While of course the coupe is in a bit of another league compared to the sedan, the take rate for the V12 there was surely significantly lower on a percentage basis.
As pointed out by anyone who has ever seen one, the wheels, though not small, just don’t appear on the same scale as the rest of the car and massively contribute to the visual problem(s). Add a set of, I don’t know, 22s (?) along with a wider track or judicious use of wheel width and offset and set it down without other cars nearby for reference and it almost works. But in the real world, as supplied stock, not so much, not that most with the money and desire really cared.
The successor CL600, for all the issues with that next generation of S-Class (W220), at least visually dragged the coupe into the 21st century with a sublime new roofline on the coupe at least marking a new era whilst the next sedan kept it classy. And then it kind of went off in a different direction again with the W221…
Amazed it’s been almost exactly 35 years since this shape went on sale…
the wheels, though not small, just don’t appear on the same scale as the rest of the car and massively contribute to the visual problem(s).
I would say that 235 /60 R16 tires were on the small side for such a large and expensive car. But this was universal at MB back then, speccing very modest wheel and tire sizes. My 300E W124 came with 195/65 R15 s, and they looked quite dinky. The problem with all of these W124 and up Bruna Sacco designed Benzes is that they have a lot of visual massing when seen from the side, due to them being rather narrow but quite tall. It makes the tires look even smaller than might be the case on another car.
Speaking of, the greenhouse massing of the W140 sedan was a serious stylistic problem, and they carried that over into the coupe. Yes, it’s somewhat better but it’s still way to tall (the roof), It really begs for a chopped top, and of course that came in subsequent models. From the side, it actually look like a much smaller car that had to have a tall roof to accommodate the passengers. It was the last serious gasp of MB’s obsession with tall roofs and practicality Uber alles.
I’ll take a W112 thanks, or better yet a Pagoda roof SL. Nothing Benz made after about 1972 is of any interest imo.
To think this was the first S-Class to have cruise control…
CC was available in the W116 back in 1975.
I have had an ’86 560 SEL, an ’88 420 SEL and now have an ’88 560SEC and they all had cruise control. And it worked on every one of them, even with over 200k miles (420)