S550: A Final Grab Bag of Little Things


So many features. It's an infinitely deep well, and I suspect most S Class owners don't even use a majority of the little features that Mercedes engineers throw into this car. After a year's ownership, I'm not sure I've done more than scratch the surface. But, alas, my year of #SClassLife has ended, so let me sum up for posterity a bunch of little things that I did use and appreciate: 

  • Media Register: these cars have a built-in 10 gigabyte hard drive that can copy CDs from the CD changer or copy files from a USB drive. It's a built-in iPod, essentially. I'm guessing most owners have no idea, especially as "Media Register" is hardly an evocative name.
  • Rear Seat Privacy Screens: window tinting? Way too low rent for an S Class. Instead, there are perforated screens that roll up from the rear doors and rear deck, allowing rear seat passengers to obscure themselves without any cheap-ass "tinted windows." 
  • 360 Camera: in addition to having six cameras to assist you with parking, you get a 360 degree overhead view that stitches all the images together. This is increasingly common in contemporary luxury cars (and all Teslas), but it was certainly an advanced feature in 2015. And I never want to be without it again, as it makes parking so much easier.
  • Reverse Tilt Side Mirror: when you put the car into reverse, the right-hand mirror automatically tilts down to give you a view of the curb and your rear tire. This is relatively common in European luxury cars (my 2002 Porsche 911 had it), but it's an invaluable feature for preventing curb rash. 
  • Front Seat Massage: this was mostly a feature Jennifer loved, but yes, this car offers in-seat massage (several different patterns and intensities) for both the driver and front passenger. 
  • Active Front-Seat Bolsters: when you go into a corner, the car automatically inflates the side seat bolster opposite from the direction you are turning, the better to brace you against sliding around in your seat. I left this feature deactivated, but some people like it.  
  • Easy Entry/Exit: when you turn off the ignition, the driver's seat automatically adjusts down and backward to make it easier to get into and out of the car. I initially turned it off, dismissing it as an "old man" feature. And then I realized I am an old man and turned it back on. :-)
  • Rear Comfort Seats: the rear seats are independently everyway adjustable and offer 3 memory settings, just like the front seats. Oh, and the passenger-side rear seat also has the ability to control the position of the front passenger seat. You know, so a busy executive sitting back there can adjust the leg room without having to ask anyone up front. 
  • Brake Hold: this apparently is standard across the Mercedes line, but was new to me. When stopped, a firm press on the brake pedal puts the car in "hold" mode, so you can take your foot off the brake without any rolling. I think this should be standard on all cars with automatic transmissions! 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Fixing the clock in a C2 Corvette

Image
After fixing the radio in the Corvette, it was time to tackle the clock. We tried mightily to revive the patient, but in the end, a heart transplant was necessary. The clocks in the "midyear" Corvettes (1963-67) are electro-mechanical units made by Borg Instruments. They were used in a bunch of other GM cars of the period, in addition to the Corvette. This article gives a nice description of the clock and what commonly goes wrong with it. These are analog, spring-wound clocks with an electric winder that is supposed to reset the spring mechanism every 3 minutes or so. To see how it's supposed to work, check out this video (currently at 460 views, many of which are from me!). The design doesn't exactly inspire confidence, as it depends on a set of 12 volt contact points reliably closing every 3 minutes or so, pretty much forever. Those contact points build up corrosion over time, which will kill the rewinding mechanism. Thanks to a bunch of threads on the...
Read more

Five Year Miataversary

Image
  Five years, fifteen thousand miles. Time flies.  The car remains a joy to drive. As I anticipated when I bought it , I don't miss the extra horsepower you get in the 2019 and onward model years (aka ND2). That extra power is reportedly mostly at the top of the rev band, an area where I don't spend much time. The joy in this car, for me, is less about going fast than about the ways it engages you in the act of driving.  Cost of ownership? Here's the math:  Maintenance = $1,057 (basically oil changes, plus an engine air filter and transmission oil change) Depreciation = $500 (yes, Kelly Blue Book says I can basically get what I paid for it!) This makes the Miata by far the cheapest car to own that I've had, beating out my 2010 Honda Fit . Most of this is down the the crazy high post-pandemic used car prices holding depreciation in check. But that doesn't diminish the joys of simple reliability, which not all newer cars can provide.  Here's to the next 5 years!...
Read more

S550: 12 Month Cost of Ownership

Image
Everyone knows that a Mercedes S Class is an expensive car to own. That's partly why they depreciate so quickly. Well, this car more than lived up to that reputation, proving to be far and away the most expensive car to own of those I've discussed on this blog (compare 2018 Mazda Miata , 2010 Honda Fit , 2002 Porsche 911 Turbo , 1965 Chevy Corvette ).  Deep breath. Total one-year cost of ownership = $27,853. Holy smokes. $2,321/month. I could have (maybe should have) leased a new one for that (although the shortest leases are 24 months, so I'd have ended up spending a lot more total).  The inflated pandemic used car market certainly accounts for a bunch of this. Yes, I knew it was a bad time to buy, and yes I overpaid to get the car I wanted , but I didn't count on another $10k of depreciation in one year. The problem with selling an S550 is the plethora of cheap, minimally optioned cars out there. If you want to get above those prices, you need to find someone who valu...
Read more