2007 Mercedes-Benz S-Class Preview

The Mothership Has Landed

For the sake of my own journalistic integrity, I am going to attempt to refrain from any excessive sarcasm or gratuitous

DaimlerChrysler has pulled out all the stops for the brand new 2007 S-Class. (Photo: Mercedes-Benz Canada)

mockery of so revered an institution as the Mercedes-Benz S-Class. And by institution I am not referring to its massive size or the multitude of features with which it sells, but rather the esteem and respect it garners on all avenues and boulevards.

The previous S-Class was widely lauded as a machine designed with a large measure of classic tastefulness. It was a bridge to distinguished limos of the three-pointed star marque's past, like the 1963 600 or the mid-50s 300D, with technological innovations fit to usher in a new millennium.

The millennium is now past and Mercedes is looking to continue a longstanding tradition of innovation while maintaining a historical connection with over a century of car building and design. As even Mercedes designers will point out, theirs is an evolutionary progress.

"An exorbitantly luxurious car, designed, as rumour had it,

The S-Class was a bridge to distinguished limos of the three-pointed star marque's past, like the 1963 600 or the mid-50s 300D. (Photo: Mercedes-Benz Canada)

to outclass everything that had been available to ambitious customers all over the world in the category of top-notch limousines."

That's a quote from the Mercedes-Benz history site about the release of the much-anticipated 600 limo in 1963, also available at the time in regular and long-wheelbase versions. It seems that DaimlerChrysler has carried forward those same principles and pulled out all the stops for the brand new 2007 S-Class. Those stops include Brake Assist PLUS, DISTRONIC PLUS, second-generation PRE-SAFE, as well as various other features that have nothing to do with stopping.