[Saarth]

Mercedes-Benz S350 CDi (W222)

It was around that time of my garage that we were looking to add another vehicle in our midst. My facelifted 3.0 litre V6 Jaguar XF that I used as my daily driver was ageing – albeit gracefully. In the last four years that I’ve owned it, I’ve been its sole driver nearly 98% of the times, with a chauffeur having driven it fewer times than the number of fingers on my hands. Adding to that, just a couple of months ago we sold of our beloved 2009 BMW 320i that was mainly used by my mom to be chauffeured around it. This meant that a spot had opened up, and I could give my XF to her.

With this I started my search for a replacement to my Jaguar. In the recent times, my work sees me travelling from Mumbai – Pune nearly thrice a week, with a daily round trip. Its quite a hectic round trip in a day, and I find myself more and more annoyed to do the drive myself, however within the city I would definitely be driving the car myself. Therefore I thought I needed a car which I could drive enjoyably, at the same time be driven in, in supreme comfort.

Secondly, being used to the 3.0 V6 in the Jag, it was clear that there was no way I would downgrade. So it had to be either a Diesel V6 or a Petrol V8. Of course with my current levels of usage, the diesel made way more sense. Slowly, I was narrowing down my choices.

Looking at the above criteria, it was clear that the 2.x litre diesels and petrols were out of the running, which meant the entry level mid-size sedans (E250 –which I already own, 520d and A6 2.0tdi) were out of the running. I wanted very comfortable back seats, and it had to be a sedan. The choice was simple then. It had to be one of the Diesel V6 powered, full-size luxo-barges!

A further note on my choice for a diesel; even with the current running of my car I would still consider the petrol V8’s. It wasn’t the consumption that I was really worried about. But rather, the availablility of fuel even in remote locations. Even thought the V8’s can run fine on regular petrol, they always suggest using the high octane version, which sometimes would be hard to come by in the locations I frequent. With a diesel I could fill it up anywhere with regular diesel and be on my way. And as a bonus, I would also get gifted with the ridiculous amounts of Torque that these European cars have in their DNA.

[Saarth]

Options Considered

Jaguar XJL - 3.0 V6 Diesel

Having had a good experience with my Jaguar (which I still find surprising given the horror stories I read around here), my first choice was actually the XJL. So I called my Sales Assistant and immediately set up a meeting in my office, and he obliged by bringing down a 3.0 V6 Jaguar in the most amazing white shade. The XJL is quite arguably the prettiest looking luxo-barge in the market currently, I thought to myself while getting into the car.

It’s quite amazing to think really, that four years ago when I bought my XF, I was actually gunning for an XJ, but the reasons I turned it down at the time was because I found it too large, and the face-lifted XF had just freshly been launched, and looked gorgeous, along with a better and more aggressive drive.

Once inside, the interiors are amazing, but the quality of materials lets it down. Quite a lot of cheap plastics in the car, and the rear seat lacks room and isn’t nearly as comfortable as I had hoped, that even with the discounts don’t make the car feel worth the money. Surprisingly, eve though the car is getting old, the interiors don’t look like they’re ageing, fitting in quite well even with the current market trends. The drive was good, but it left me wanting more in terms of features and creature comforts.

This is when I realized; this is going to be harder than I thought. A quick note; the face-lifted XJL was just recently launched and should make its way to our dealers soon. But the changes are very subtle, and this is a good time to take advantage of the discounts JLR is offering on these barges – in case any of you guys are in the market for one.

Maserati Quattroporte Diesel – 3.0 V6

As I was browsing through Team-BHP Forums, I read that Maserati too has entered the market, and boy was I excited! I thought this was it, my search was over and I’m going to drive home the Tridente. When you actually get down to it though, the Italians still can’t manage to do the whole “luxury” concept as well as the Germans can. I didn’t really get to try out the car as the dealership hadn’t opened, but I did my research on the internet.

The Italians have just like the British, used quite a lot of cheap plastics and materials. Adding to that, the price these were launched at in India is just ridiculous. Being a CBU, the on road price with a minimal amount of options comes really close to 2cr, something I wasn’t looking to spend really. The suspension would be too hard for Indian roads, and could become a headache in the future. I thought its best that I get my mind out of Italy and drive up to Germany.

Audi A8L 50 TDi – 3.0 V6

After the XJL experience, I went into my dads cabin one slow Wednesday afternoon and suggested we try the Audi A8. Now my father, for whatever reasons of his own really dislikes Audi cars – thinks they all look the same. So I thought he’s going to refuse right away, but to my surprise we found ourselves in the Audi Mumbai West showroom just 30 minutes later. The A8 had loads of tech, the interiors looked rich and the black interiors of the showroom car just looked like an amazing sculpture, accented with those large LED’s all around. I even saw my anti-Audi father look impressed with the car.

Even though we were impressed, I just didn’t see this as my next car. I don’t know what it was, I can’t really put my finger on it. Maybe it could be the fact that it was more expensive than all the other cars I checked out, including the new S-Class (crazy strategy right?), or it might be the fact that the interiors are similar to what you get in the much cheaper A6.

Mercedes S350 CDi – 3.0 V6

Now you all may have wondered why I was putting this off till I tried the other cars. I have a couple of reasons actually. Firstly, we already have a W221 in the garage, a 2012 S500 that is used by my father. “A second would just not make any sense”, I told myself. Also having owned dozens of merc’s in the past, I was just never too impressed with the driving dynamics of any of them, be it something as serious as the softer nature of the drive, or something as petty as the notoriously useless LRVM. However, my father did have a point.

It is the newest, far more advanced, and globally applauded luxo-barge currently in the market. And even though it commands a huge premium over the XJL and BMW 730Ld, those cars are ageing – with the new generation 7 series coming out soon, and honestly the current generation available is not really any competition for the Big Daddy Merc. So I called my friendly neighborhood Merc dealer, Shaman. Having dealt with them numerous times in the past, I have a very good relationship with the concerned people higher up in the food chain at Shaman, and getting test drives wasn’t difficult at all. In fact, they told me I could have the car for a two day extended test drive, so that I could feel how the car behaves in day-to-day situations.

When I finally saw it up close and personal, my views were reluctantly changing in favour of the Merc. Once inside though, it’s a completely different world. Soft leather everywhere you touch, and the machine just oozes luxury. I took it for a quick spin and many of the Merc niggles that I had hated in the past had seemed to have disappeared. The LVRM was actually useable, the performance and drive of the car, though not as aggressive as my Jaguar, was still pretty good with tons of torque (more on the performance later).

This car really comes with all the bells and whistles you might need. I had nearly made up my mind before I even got out of the car. It was going to be the second S Class in the family. Oh Boy!

BMW 730Ld

Note, the 730Ld was actually never considered during this purchase as even though they have some extensive discounts going around, the next generation model is already launched in the west, and I don’t believe in buying a model just months before it gets phased out, especially in this price bracket.

[Saarth]

Dealer Experience

I called up the Assistant GM of Shaman, who arranged to send the Sales Assistant for a meeting again, to my office to finalize my decision. Now you can note that due to my relationship with the dealer, I was able to pull some strings and have the car delivered to me within a month of signing the cheques, and as a part of the deal received some other freebies as well, (which I’d rather not discuss on a public forum). I was pretty firm on my colour choice, which was a metallic black that Merc calls Obsidian Black. My father actually loved the Palladium Silver, which is a dark silver shade but we decided against that because of the black leather interiors, and the fact that our entire garage consists of black cars.

Everything on this car comes standard, and there isn’t really an option list. The only thing I was offered a choice was between four alloy designs. The standard 18 inchers that come with the S350 CDi. These are really bland and boring, and do not suit the car at all in my opinion. I don’t even know why merc would offer these as standard on the Indian S350. The second choice was either the multi-spoke 19’s that come standard on the CKD S500 – which also are just horrible looking, they look worse than the S350 alloys; or the Sporty 5x2 spoke 19’s that ran duty on the CBU Launch Edition S500. Last choice was a 10-spoke 20’ design, which I rejected without even seeing it, as I knew 20 inch rims would be too much for our roads. Eventually after deliberating between the standard 18 inch rims and the 19 inch Launch Edition rims, I decided to spend the extra dough and go with the 19’s as they look really nice on the Launch Edition CBU S500’s. These come in a staggered set up; R19 – 8.5J – 245/45 at the front, and R19 – 9.5J – 275/40 at the rear.

And then it was finalized. The car I had booked was an S350 CDi, in Obsidian Black with Silk Beige and Espresso Brown full leather interior, with S500 Launch Edition 19 inch rims in a staggered tire set up, a whopping third S Class in the family.

[Saarth]

Design Impressions

At first glance although it appears to be a radically new design, once you look closer and longer you do realize it more evolutionary. It has a lot of cues from the previous, gen and that’s a very good thing. Maybe it should have had the fender flares in some shape or form like the previous one but I’m not complaining, that design has started to show its age. My personal favourite feature of the car is the massive chrome grille at the front. You can’t really tell when you look at it in photos, or even when you see the car by itself in real life, but when its standing next to another car, especially another Mercedes, you can really tell how large that front grille really is! The front headlights are notorious for being all LED, with a total number of 56 LEDs. In fact, the car boasts to have all LED lighting all over without even a single conventional incandescent bulb!

The tail lights have a more vertical design than the horizontal assemblies Mercedes has been putting into their recent designs, including the S Class Coupe, but I think this vertical shape makes it look classier. The boot is quite short, not coupe-like but very sporty looking. The thing I hate about the rear is the plain-jane bumper, with hidden exhaust tips. The S500 gets nice big dual exhaust tips and it really enhances the look of the car. I have been thinking about getting an AMG-Kit rear bumper with the dual exhaust cut-outs, I really think it would look much better than this.

Driving Experience

To start with, this is the same V6 Turbocharged Diesel engine that Mercedes equips its ML350 and GL350 with, mated to the same 7G Tronic Transmission. This gives it 255 bhp and a massive 620Nm at 1800-2400 RPMs.

The engine is surprisingly refined. There is some noise if you like revving it hard, but it isn’t a typically diesel sound, its quite a nice note – a good V6 burble. Also, I was pleasantly surprised to find this engine is very rev happy, something I wasn’t expecting in a diesel car. Low end torque is just something else. There is an endless amount of power on tap, and its very impressive given that this car isn't exactly winning any bikini contests (if you know what I mean). The torque is just monstrous. I have no idea how the narrower stock tyres even got close to putting it down on the road. Even though I upgraded the real tyres to a really wide 275mm size, off the line there is slight screeching if you floor the pedal. Haven't tried it yet with the traction control off, as it's still within the running in period.

As with all recent Mercs, the S<->E button allows you to switch the engine between Eco and Sport Mode. I usually do my driving in Sport Mode as it suite my style more, as I’m used to the much more aggressive nature of the XF. Sport mode gives the engine a shot of adrenaline, makes it rev higher, makes the gear shifts quicker and makes the steering and throttle response sharper. The steering in this car is by no means heavy and the sport mode actually gives it a slightly better tug.

In Eco there is a handful of times when the gearbox struggles to make up its mind during spirited driving, but it hasn’t happened often enough to be a problem yet – and of course, one would be foolish to push hard in eco mode. Kick down in Eco mode is average at best. The gearbox hesitates to downshift a little too long, and when it finally does happen it feels like a large jump and jerk, after which the torque just propels the car like a missile. It's bound to unsettle any occupants.

The suspension too has a “Comfort” and “Sport” switch. As the names suggest, Comfort is a softer setting that is intended to be used if you are being chauffeur driven, and Sport stiffens it all up in case you feel like driving the V6 Torque Monster. I’d like to note that many a times the “stiffer” suspension offered by the sports mode is more comfortable on highway drives as it reduces the already negligible amounts of body roll. The car feels nice and firm and less like a boat, sturdier and more immovable on the road. This coupled with the heavier steering in the "S" mode of the engine, it does instil a lot of confidence in the driver. With that said however, "Agile" is not an adjective I would use to define this car. The steering is accurate and on point, yes, but in no way can you cut corners in very high speed. Maybe you can, but I haven't found the courage to do it yet. In my experience, its best to leave that kind of driving to a more appropriate vehicle.

In Comfort mode though, city driving feels like a dream. I can’t believe how well it cushions our bad Mumbai roads, its just surprising. However this is just the Airmatic suspension, as in India Merc doesn’t offer us the Magic Body Control as it uses radar frequency that isn’t allowed in our country for civilian vehicles. Comfort mode as times can get a little too soft. Even though it is more raised than sports mode, the softer springs make it bottom out on nearly every moderate sized speed breaker. One must take it over these bumps REALLY slow to avoid that. The button below "Sport - Comf", that depicts a car with an upward pointing arrow manually raises the suspension by 20mm. I haven't really tried this in conjunction with comfort suspension to see how the car clears bumps, but I'm sure it would do fine as it raises the height quite a bit.

In normal driving modes I find the steering wheel to be too light, especially at low speeds. This has always been a Mercedes flaw. It does get a lot better at higher speeds and in sports settings, but it could be a little more taut. The LVRM is more convex than usual Mercedes style, and is of some use. Not quite enough for Mumbai traffic, but it is a lot more useful than the previous generation Merc's, where the LVRM was literally useless. I can't believe they can't get something this simple corrected.

The one major complaint that I have is with the brakes, and I find this is the case with each an every merc I’ve driven. The breaks are rather soft compared to what I’m used to, and it always seems like the pedal needs more application than my Jaguar or any other brand that I’ve driven. But this is the case with our old S500 and E250 as well. I wonder is upgrading the brake kit would get rid of this issue?

[Saarth]

Interior

The interior of the W222 S-Class is definitely where the designers put their emphasis on. It just literally wows you, everything you’d expect in a car with this exorbitant price tag. Literally every surface that you can touch is either leather or wood; there are no cheap plastics in sight. The interior claims to have 300 LEDs making up the ambient lighting. Now this is a bit hit or miss. It actually looks wonderful at night, however some of the colours the lighting is offered in can quickly change things from classy to tacky at the touch of a button, but hey, maybe that’s just me.

The seats are what Mercedes calls "Fully Contoured Seats". They are massive, and they envelope you in just the right way.

There are countless positions that you can adjust the seats in. The adjustment settings are featured on the side door panel, which is classic Mercedes, but in the new generation models they have really restyled the buttons in a very modern way and it just really fits in well with the rest of the look of the interior. I believe this style has made its way into the new C-Class as well.

The lumbar and seat heating settings have to be adjusted through the central Command control module and these too have numerous options and settings you can configure. All these seat functions however seem hollow without memory function buttons for the front seats, which is a VERY surprising omission considering even the base E200 has this! The seat heating control allows you to change the amount of heating you want through the seat. This is quite useless in India however, the seat cooling options would have been a better fit in this car.

The seat heating can be manually switched on or off with this button near the seat position controls. Around it you can see the empty placeholders which is actually where the seat cooling and 3 memory functions would have been. It's quite an eyesore to have such a large bit of plastic emptiness in a car like this, where everything else is immaculate.

The lock/unlock buttons are situated in the well of the door open lever. It's an unusual position, but actually very useful as you don't actually have to be in the car to unlock all the doors. What happens often, is I have the key in my pocket and can open the driver's door but the rest of the car remains lockes and passengers have to wait till I get in the car and unlock it via the centre console, but not anymore! You can also see the purple ambient light here.

The RVM and all four window controls. The buttons for the rear windows are two-step. The first push rolls away the window blinds and the second push actually opens the windows.

The left/right indicator stalk, wiper control stalk, steering wheel position control stalk AND the cruise control stalk is all located to the left hand side of the steering. But this is highly non-ergonomic as you can't really see the controls till you turn the steering and look at them through the void.

The centre console has the manual buttons to control all the functions on the Command system. The rotary knob can move up, down and to either side as well as being rotational. An interesting thing to note is you can only rotate it depending on how many options the particular function has. If something has only two options, for example, the knob will only turn two clicks and any more rotational movement is locked. The volume control is a scroller, and can be scrolled upwards or downwards, and pushed in to mute and pushed in again to un-mute. Really convenient instead of having to turn the volume down all the way!

The central palm rest cover can be pushed back to reveal a keypad. They are touch sensor buttons that can control your radio inputs. You can also configure your favourite functions to the numbers, kind of like a speed dial. The favourites menu can be pulled up by pressing the top most key denoted with a star.

The central Command screen at 12.3 inches is really massive. So much so that you can split the screen into two components. The small part of it on the right (which I've configured to be the navigation) permanently stays on this selected function, and the remaining part of the screen allows you to go through the rest of the functions of the system.

The navigation can also be changed to full screen by pressing the "Navi" button, and it brings up the huge map, that really takes advantage of the screens size and is really helpful!

The Burmester sound system is absolutely amazing. The sound is very nice, but only if you have any content that you've purchased through the iTunes store or other HD material. It won't have a big impact on the way you listen to the radio. The speakers have a very nice looking and nicely machined cover on the front doors.

The appreciation also goes into little things that they've put into the car. The diesel tank content is shown as a percentage, that makes it very easy to know how much fuel you actually have left. You can also view your travelling speed in miles/hr.

The bottom of the steering wheel has a small insert with the Mercedes-Benz script in vintage styling, lends a very classy touch. However the CKD's have missed out on the wooden inserts on the steering wheel. This omission can make maintaining the light leather of the steering wheel a pain!

Even the rear seats are fully contoured, recline and have the same controls at the back, and you can even move the base of the seat forwards and backwards. The back seat is really the place to be in this car. It even has three memory functions to remember your favourite positions for the back seats. The rear seats have Hot-Stone Massage functions, which I haven’t really used yet so I can’t comment on that. The rear headrests have a soft pillow attached that just feels absolutely amazing. It’s so soft, that you have to really feel it to understand what I’m talking about. The central armrest can be folded up to make space for a third occupant at the rear.

The single front, and twin rear Command Rear Entertainment Screens each get a remote to operate them, and can be operated independent of each other – the rear passengers can each watch different things on their screens, which is a really handy feature.

Features

The feature list to be honest is very extensive. From reclining rear seats with hot stone massage functions, to two 12.3 inch TFT panoramic displays in the front and everything between. For details on all the features, have a look at the T-BHP official preview at this link Link.


Upgrades?

I don’t have much in the pipeline in terms of upgrades, however I am trying to source a wooden/leather steering wheel for the car, preferable from the S Class Coupe, as I just love the 3-spoke sporty design of it. Along with that, I might get an AMG-Kit rear bumper with the dual exhaust cut outs at the rear, but I’m not really quite sure on that one yet.

Also I apologize in advance for the bad photos. I haven't really got the time yet to get some good ones, but I'll do so soon and post them in this thread.

Thanks guys!

[GTO]

Thread moved from the Assembly Line to the Initial Ownership Section. Thanks for sharing!

[predatorwheelz]

Wow! I actually felt like Alice in Wonderland while reading this. We mortals don't usually get to see in-depth reviews of Luxo Barges, so thanks a lot for taking time out and writing this.

Would be interesting to know how the barge shapes up over a long term ownership. Please keep updating this thread.

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Nice detailed review of 'the best in the world!' I feel there is no need to apologize really on the pictures front, as the review itself is surprisingly detailed!

I do have a request though- since you have a W221 in the garage as well, would like to see them together.

[Sahil]

Hey there copy-cat Just kidding ! Our cars are exactly the same, besides me having the s500 rear bumper too: http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/test-d...-s350-cdi.html I am glad you changed the alloys. I am guessing you bought the alloys from Shaman and swapped the tyres at saifee? Hope you didn't have to pay for the buyback and got the staggred tubeless as barter. Also, did the dealership buy from OEM rims back? I am guessing now as they didn't do so for me and I managed to sell them on OLX for 60k for the set, not a bad price. Perhaps you should get rid of them online too. Enjoy the ride

[karan561]

Congratulations Saarth the W222 S is sheer beauty on wheels.

Upgrades?
I don’t have much in the pipeline in terms of upgrades, however I am trying to source a wooden/leather steering wheel for the car, preferable from the S Class Coupe, as I just love the 3-spoke sporty design of it.

^ Go for that 3 spoke design;



^ Image Source

Though the existing 2-spoke is very classy but surely the 3-spoke design will transform the driving pleasure too

[Sahil]

You can source the steering wheel here: http://www.mercteil.com/en/my-style/...ng-wheels-1138

[Saarth]

Originally Posted by predatorwheelz

Would be interesting to know how the barge shapes up over a long term ownership. Please keep updating this thread.

Thank you for the kind words! I plan to update this regularly, so please do keep following!

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR

I do have a request though- since you have a W221 in the garage as well, would like to see them together.

Thank you! I've actually been meaning to do the comparison photos for a while, but there is no space in my garage to actually do them side by side, therefore I'm waiting for the right opportunity to take both the cars out together! It's in the pipeline!

Originally Posted by Sahil

Hey there copy-cat Just kidding ! Our cars are exactly the same, besides me having the s500 rear bumper too.

Haha! I was actually planning on doing the bumper too but ditched the idea last minute as I couldn't make up my mind between the AMG or the S500 rear bumper.

How did you manage to source the rear bumper anyway? And how much did it cost you?

Also, about the steering wheel, I've been in touch with the guy from Mercteil. They have the 3-spoke leather steering wheel in stock but they are trying to source the leather/wood too.

Originally Posted by karan561

Congratulations Saarth the W222 S is sheer beauty on wheels.

Though the existing 2-spoke is very classy but surely the 3-spoke design will transform the driving pleasure too

Thank you!

I am actually more keen on the 3-spoke design too! Apparently they already have it on the "AMG-Sports Pack" option in Europe and USA!

[ariesonu]

One word, AMAZING.
I completely agree with you when you say that XJL is not a comfortable car at rear. For me, the rear is quite claustrophobic. The range on seats in limited and barring the sunroof I didn't find anything of appeal there. Though it is a completely different story in front seats but then after spending over 1C, I want to be driven & not drive.
But then again MERCS have always been over-engineered cars than its contemporaries.

Wishing you lifetime of happy miles on your BARGE.

Regards-Sonu

[bhavukjain]

Hey. Amazing review and enjoyed reading each and every line of it. With the range of tempting rides in your garage, would love to see the picture of your garage too. Maybe asking for too much.

[psispace]

Congrats on your second 'S'!

Thanks for the lovely photos. Considering the size limit for images on our forum, they are quite good enough.

Seems like the 'S' bug has bitten everyone, especially in this forum!
MBIL seem to have a runaway success with this version of the car in India.

Just curious, have they started badging the car as S350d in India? Or is it continuing as S350 CDI ?
I thought I saw the former badge in Kochi and wondered if it was rebadged.

Recommend you change that bumper ASAP. You can look to Sahil for inspiration.

Congrats on acquiring the newer 'Best Car in the World'.
Wish you many happy and comfortable miles in your ride.