“More.” The word can be a double-edged sword. “Extra” can easily become “excess.” That certainly was the case with Mercedes-Benz’s W140 S-Class. In 1991, the automotive press set out to chronicle the benefits of the newest, biggest Benz, but there was no avoiding the elephant in the room.
Noted automotive Journalist Georg Kacher provided a sneak peek of the new 600SEL in the June 1991 issue of Automobile Magazine. Right out of the gate, Kacher focused on the supersized dimensions of the new S-Class—no matter how superior the quality or driving dynamics, the sheer bulk of the car dominated first impressions.
With deflections that would do a smarmy politician proud, Juergen Hubbert, Head of Mercedes-Benz AG Passenger Car Division, tried to justify the relevancy of the big beast in an environmentally conscious era: “never mind the size, it feels smaller than it is! And it’s fully recyclable!” Uh huh. Note also the talk, some 26 years ago, of Mercedes-Benz developments in EVs and solar powered charging stations…..
It’s interesting to see the top-of-the-line 600SEL interior finished with the cloth trim. U.S.-bound S-Class models came standard with the leather interior.
The 12-cylinder 600SEL was ultimately seen as rather hard to justify, unless spending the most money possible on an S-Class was the objective. With dismal fuel economy and less well balanced than a 500SEL, the $125,000 ($229,597 adjusted) 600SEL was the the “too much” pinnacle of the “too much” W140 S-Class range.
And that automotive overkill came at a treacherous time for Mercedes, as the aggressively-priced Japanese luxury upstarts were making significant inroads in the U.S. market, and many luxury buyers were seeking more rational expressions of luxury.
The white exterior color of the 500SEL test car evaluated by Road & Track certainly highlighted the large size and slab sides of the W140.
Though Bruno Sacco oversaw enough masterpieces to firmly cement his spot in the pantheon of the world’s great automotive designers, the blandly gigantic W140 was not one of his best efforts. However, it did at least come across as unmistakably Mercedes-Benz, especially inside, with a beautifully crafted, very businesslike and extremely comfortable interior. In today’s world of convoluted digital screens and overabundant driver distractions, the W140 S-Class interior was an oasis of simplicity and logical ergonomics, even if it was seen as vexingly complicated by automotive testers back in 1991.
The 500SEL may have been a better value than the 600SEL, but it was still a shockingly expensive car. The base price was $93,500 ($171,739 adjusted), and that was before mandatory taxes, including the luxury tax at $6,350 ($11,664 adjusted) and the gas-guzzler tax at $1,500 ($2,755 adjusted). At least it was an exceedingly competent, sophisticated and well-built machine, suitable for an elite clientele.
To best define the new S-Class, Car and Driver used pop-cultural references by defining the car as appropriate for the then-hit TV show “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous,” hosted by Robin Leach (who just passed away a few weeks ago). Just like the locales and individuals chronicled in the show, the W140 S-Class embodied conspicuous consumption.
But that gluttony was hard to swallow for many people. There were other luxury sedan choices that offered far better performance, or better value, or both. The biggest Benz may have been impressive as a monolith, but it was hard to love.
To put the new 400SE in perspective, Car and Driver compiled a comparison with the flagship, V12-powered BMW 750iL. The E32 7 Series, though already entering its 6th model year on the market, still managed to beat the newest S-Class in the eyes of C&D’s editors.
Though Car and Driver reviewed one of the less expensive S-Class models, the price was still eye-popping: with options and taxes, the 400SE test car was still estimated to cost $90,995 ($167,138 adjusted). Even with that price tag, the Mercedes failed to earn top rankings in any category relative to competitors (except for price—the Benz cost the most!).
Representing overkill in size, weight and cost, the W140 hit the ground with a thud, never earning the following enjoyed by the preceding W126 S-Class range. Issues like the tires flat-spotting on cars that were sitting for a week or two did nothing to burnish the W140’s reputation—this was simply a pig of a car—a decadent, luxurious swine to be sure, but porcine nonetheless.
Seeing the W140 that Brendan chronicled last week as a $100 trade-in simply brings it home: this was not a Mercedes-Benz for the ages. And that brutal truth was apparent from launch.
I wish ”blandness” like this would make a comeback. Mercedes are now mostly tacky looking bling machines. This car is large and powerful and wonderfully reserved. It knows it’s cool – it does not have to shout it with LED Christmas lights, chrome scoops and giant rims. The interior design is beautiful. Plus it made a pretty nice living room for Jeremy Clarkson…
Agreed!! This is a true traditional luxury car and is obviously built with the same care and quality as a brick or stone mansion custom built at least 70 years ago. Today’s Mercedes are like cheaply built McMansions with a lot of eye catching frills. I have never driven one of these, but I have ridden in a few that were used as taxis. There is plenty of room inside and a secure feeling like one is riding inside a bank vault. I test drove an Audi A8 of the same generation. Not only was there not that same tank-like feeling, but every time I went over a speed bump my head hit the headliner.
I have no firsthand experience with these. But they have always seemed to me the cars that finally exploded any argument that Mercedes was a good value. For those of us who have lived with more pedestrian cars, “value” as applied to Mercedes was a silly idea, but there were always those with big pocketbooks who could say “sure it costs 80 grand but you are buying the kind of quality you could drive forever if you wanted to.”
This was no longer a “drive forever” kind of Mercedes. Ultimate prestige, ultimate cost. Someone willing to pay a fortune for maintenance could drive it forever, but a fortune to buy and a fortune to maintain was not value.
Well said!
Agree with JP. For me, peak Mercedes was the W123 and W116 chassis cars. They were heirloom-quality cars, ones you could pass down to your kids. A good W123 will still cost you what it cost new.
In 1992 my wife and I decided we could afford an upscale kid hauler, and opted for a Suburban. Her brother, newly promoted @ Microsoft, bought his wife the first of three Lexus LS’s. In retrospect, I think we were just a bit ahead of the curve.
The Jurgen Hubbert interview is interesting. He says unambiguously that they are not going to build a cost-no-object car again. Ofcourse, the next big release from Merc was the cost-cut W210, rather too much the other way.
He also refers, with surprising candour, to “quite a bit of” development time wasted on something called a “parameter frame”, that would have added luxury but also (his words) “weight.” Does anyone know what that is? The fact that he mentions it this way somehow to me hints that Engineering persisted in pursuing some advanced but too expensive and heavy idea, and that had this not occurred, the weight issue may not have arisen. Maybe too the late-running and profligate W140 was the beginning of the company saying “We can’t continue to let the engineers dominate.”
It’s also quite interesting that he specifies that BMW was not the rival they were portrayed in the press as, but rather that the Japanese were the real arch rivals. This certainly foretold the tale of lighter weight, “just enough” quality, lots of bling…basically the “Infinification” of Bimmers and Benzes by the dawn of the 21st century.
That caught my eye too. Did he mean a perimeter frame? Was this car originally planned to use body on frame construction? Because it wasn’t heavy enough as it was 🙂
I noticed that too. I don’t know what else it could mean. Had no idea they were considering that.
I, too, would like to know what this referred to. Was it some analogy of the Audi space frame, done in steel?
These always looked like a bloated W124 to me
What is just as telling is they compared the Lexus LS to the S class in this magazine and it looks like the LS more then holds its own with the higher priced German competition.
I guess the LS was starting to take a bite into sales.
I still think the W124 cars were the last of the great Benzes made. Easy to work on, reliable, did not rust if you looked at them to hard(unlike the ML)
That basically same Georg Kacher review ran in Britain’s CAR magazine at around the same time IIRC. Looking at the pictures of these various magazines, in my opinion, the angles chosen flatter the car quite a bit. It didn’t look quite as svelte as it does here in real life (or in pictures taken by non-professionals).
I haven’t driven any of these but have been in several. They are quite massive and very comfortable, the available second row sun visors are a touch of opulence bordering on the absurd though.
I greedily lapped up all these articles in 1991, as I was in love with all things Mercedes Benz at the time. I really wanted to love these cars, but when I saw one in the flesh, my jaw dropped: this thing is an overweight tank! Then I started hearing about all the reliability nightmares that went with these cars. They were so awful that very, very few remain on the roads, at least around here. It would be almost impossible to keep one running.
This was the same year the Lexus LS400 came out, which is probably one of the best cars ever built. How Toyota made any money on these cars is beyond my comprehension. They were superb cars, even by today’s standards, and they marked the end of the line for DB selling their cars at insane prices.
I owned an 98 S420 obsidian with grey leather in 2000, I enjoyed the car and in the metro Detroit area they maintained near iconic status long after the then new for 2000 GM like S Class came on the market. At stop lights everyone would be looking at the car and you, at times it was a bit discerning and by then I was use to having my cars admired but this was too much. My soon to be wife disliked driving the car for all of the reasons mentioned in the articles above. I sold it having obtained my holy grail auto and its impracticality driving weekly from the north to the south of the US where we ultimately relocated in Texas. For that I bought a Camy SE and a Highlander Sport both one of many and haven’t been seen since. We now drive late model Avalon & Highlander Limiteds we’re still among the automotive unseen but thats OK!
Interesting how the 2000 W220 is so negatively remembered these days, yet was pretty much thought of as the best sedan in the world in 1999. Check out some early reviews of the W220 – they are all gushing. The quality issues didn’t become apparent for a year or two.
The W140 always strikes me as the Mercedes version of the GM full sizers from 1971-1976. What seemed like a good idea on paper, was wrong for the market once it hit the streets. I had a 1997 W140, an S320. Short wheelbase, six cylinder gas, I bought used. It was a great car in that somewhat neutered used version (rational price point, smaller car, less thirsty, less powerful).
I loved it four about four years, and then at about 9 years of age and 120,000 miles it was one electrical failure after another. After leaving my wife stranded twice with bad MAF sensors, it was gone.
Although I have fond memories of it, it is hard to say why it would be a better choice than any number of competitors at the time. Especially when buying new in the 90’s, seems like a new LS or 7 Series for less money would be a no brainer in comparison.
” Juergen Hubbert, Head of Mercedes-Benz AG Passenger Car Division”
I misread it and thought it said panzer division, quite apt , but this is the last S class I considered owning though not a V12.
S class were not exactly rare on the roads in the UK and almost bought one about 9 years ago when the recession was biting. It is still the definition of what a saloon Benz is all about to me.
Today I think I would be more likely to buy the first gen Audi A8 rather than this Benz as the Audi is such a stunning sleek saloon, or even the Mk 3 Lexus LS400
Agree with the first comment totally, much prefer the looks to the current angry, ugly looking Benzes, though I do quite like the later interiors.
Given the excessive size and ostentation of American luxury cars I am quite surprised to hear this conservative Benz being considered excessive
I’m not fond of the styling but the W140 S-class (both sedans and coupes) was the last generation of Mercedes to be engineered on a “cost no object” basis and priced accordingly. Afterwards, Mercedes was looking over its shoulder at Lexus and BMW and began designing and building its cars to a price level.
Prior gen S class is the W126.
Fixed, thanks.
I won’t repeat my liking towards the W140, but I will say this.
This car looks like it was meant for the late 80s market. From a styling perspective, it seems like the sort of thing that would fit in perfectly with that coke-fueled, wall street, conspicuous consumption mindset and mentality of the late 80s. It had the misfortune of coming out delayed, just as the early 90s recession started to kick in, therefore a lot of the criticisms at the time were more social in nature. My question that I have is, had the W140 come out in the late 80s, when the sort of mindset that built it was more acceptable, do you think the press would’ve been more warmly receptive of it, or would it have still gotten criticism, just more toned down compared to when it came out on 1991? I’ve been curious as to the answer on that, if there even is an answer to that question.
One more note about the V12, in addition to being more expensive and less fuel efficient, it also ended up being notoriously unreliable. Pretty much any and all articles I’ve seen regarding the W140 as far as a purchase guide or an owner’s forum pretty much says that owning the V12 is a maintenance headache and nightmare, and that sticking to the 5.0 Liter V8 is the better option in the long term.
It’s an interesting question. I think that the “pre Lexus” world might have been more receptive to the W140, at least as sort of a massive, expensive statement car. But Lexus proved that excellence could be packaged and priced aggressively–plus being reliable as well. So the Japanese really did upend the market and I think impacted journalists’ expectations.
As for conspicuous consumption, after the ’87 stock market crash that zeitgeist began to taper off. So even had the W140 arrived for ’88 (which would have been a typical Germanic 8-year timeline), the reception still might have been muted, though better than the early 1990s.
But I’m not sure that the W140 ever would have a lust object for buff book writers in the same way as an E32 7 Series. It was just too big and bluff, even for the go-go eighties.
Dear Joseph of Eldorado,have you ever actually owned a v12 600SEL and by looking at the comment l believe that you have not.Sad to hear you are just repeating the usual comments from the public who never own one and bash about the M120 engine.Own one and you will see owning a v12 is not more complicated than any other lesser siblings.Ask me how l know it 😉
The silver stake thrust into the heart of MB, and additionally into the substance of BMW, was the the Lexus LS400. No explanations or apologies needed, accept the facts as they stood then, and now, even years later. After the appearance of the LS400 in late 1989, the seemingly invincible German game in the automotive hierarchy was over. Additionally the Lexus replaced the MB as the luxury brand for decades long (20 years plus long term reliability) ownership reliability. The torch was passed.
The equivalent was the introduction of the game changing Honda CB750 motorcycle in 1968 presaging the precipitous decline in the prestige of British motorcycles. Empires are gained, empires are lost. Such is life.
Not very.attractive styling. It appears to be a large car with small car styling… Kind of the opposite of the 1980 Thunderbird which was small with large car styling. Neither was attractive at all.
My thoughts exactly. These basically stretched the skin of the small W201 onto the S class footprint. That worked fine when they did the same with the earlier W124, but this was a bridge too far.
When Americans complain about size and weight …
… but the S-Class is still significantly smaller than the Crown Vic or Caprice sold at the very same time.
It’s only 7 inches shorter and 3 inches narrower than a Panther, that’s not very significant
That’s the SEL, the SE is 11 inches shorter, and I think it’s pretty significant. The SE is basically the same length and only an inch wider than a Taurus of the ’90s, and that was considered a mid sized car.
I just find it hypocritical to criticize a European luxury sedan for size, but not far larger American sedans; or to criticize a European luxury sedan for weight when the American design philosophy for decades has been that weight irons out bumps and makes the ride smoother, especially considering that a lot of reviews actually lauded the W140 for its handling, meaning you didn’t even really feel the weight behind the wheel, unlike in competing American luxury vehicles. A bit like the VW diesel witch hunt in a country where half the population faces no emissions testing and the national average fuel economy is slightly above horrible.
But the 400SE Mercedes that Car and Driver tested weighed over 700 pounds more than a 1992 Lincoln Town Car yet was 18 inches shorter.
The Town Car also had a full frame.
The second gen Taurus is 9” shorter than the SE. If 11” is significant, a +-2” error definitely isn’t, the Taurus is also lower and narrower.
And just as Tonyola mentioned, that handling comes at the cost of even more weight. Exterior dimensions within a foot have marginal effects on weight, but sophisticated suspension vs a solid axle, not to mention creature comforts larger engines and other amenities sure does.
The Jurgen Hubbert interview was interesting given the direction Mercedes has taken since then. This car was a high water mark for M-B; it kinda went downhill to some degree from here with the ‘glorified Smart car” that was the original A-Class in 1998 (but that was very technologically innovative, though) and worst of all, the rebadged Nissan Navara they just brought out. He said by 1998 they’d have their first electric car out, but that didn’t happen till about 15 years after that.
So much nonsense has been written about the W140. Compare the sales figures for it, the W220 and the Lexus, particularly today (2023) for what actual buyers decided. For all intents and purposes (excluding the first few years of the W220) Lexus did not best Mercedes, except in carefully crafted marketing/PR illusion. It’s generally thought Toyota put their car on the market at or below cost… It was the only fundamental point of difference they had to offer along with a notionally quieter engine. The W140 was also not a 1:1 direct competitor to the BMW. The market segment the W140 ventured into is similar to Maybach/RR/Bentley albeit with less fragility.