Yaz
Autotechnik Ace
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FINALLY, a review by the New York Times of the new S-Class. I've been waiting for this review for months 
.
Just like the WSJ, The Times is a newspaper of potential customers of the S-Class. I think their reviews are unbiased and that's one reason I read it every Sunday.
Now, the review. I thought it was a fair one, but it could've been a lot better - more details is what it needed.
The reporter complained about an ABC malfuntion warning on the instrument cluster when all he could've done is restart the car. Like the WSJ reporter, he didn't like the Multi-contour seats, he felt as though someone is "jabbing" him in the kidneys. It seems like he didn't like to use COMAND or talking to the car, he prefered more buttons.
And last but not least, he made an @$$ of himself here when he said MB mispelled the name of the car's onboard computer, COMAND. He could've done a little research about what COMAND stands for: COckpit MAnagement and Navigation Display.
Anyway, here's the article....
My favorite paragraph
:
The Mercedes S550 has a new V-8 engine, a new system to control its electronic gadgets and a wealth of additional comforts.
By JEFF SABATINI
Published: May 28, 2006
THEY used to be called "idiot lights," those little red warning signals on the instrument panel that you hoped you never saw glowing. While today's electronics-intensive cars can report all manner of errors and problems inconceivable in the analog era, I am afraid there is still a bit of idiocy involved in informing the driver.
For instance, what exactly is an "ABC Malfunction?" Better yet, why is a new car with a $103,895 window sticker flashing that message 200 miles from home?
After all, this is the new ninth-generation Mercedes-Benz S-Class, the most technologically replete car on the road today. Large, spacious and silent, it drives as nicely and cossets as comfortably as any sedan that came before — and better than many cars that will come after.
It is everything you expect a luxury cruiser to be, and then some, and therein lies the problem. "And then some" may include more technological razzle-dazzle than you want or need.
At least Mercedes-Benz is betting that it has exorcized the electronic demons that plagued the previous-generation car and caused Consumer Reports to give the S-Class a "much worse than average" rating for reliability.
But there are only so many things a car company can do to make a mature product "new and improved," and building an option list that reads like a Sharper Image catalog is a surefire way to generate interest. Remember, the credo of the consumer electronics business is to add new features at every product release, regardless of whether the stuff has any utility.
Take the front seats in my S550 test car, for example. You can easily spend 15 minutes fiddling with them before even putting the car in drive. As expected, they adjust in every way imaginable, including firmness. And not only are the seats both heated and air-conditioned, they also have a built-in massager. As if that's not enough, you can choose to have the seats automatically inflate for extra side bolstering when you go around corners. This feels as if someone in the backseat is jabbing you in the kidneys.
To control all this gadgetry, there are well over a dozen buttons devoted to the front seats, including some that allow both the driver and the right-rear passenger to control the front passenger seat. Of course, some of the functions you might be most interested in — notably the "please stop sucker-punching me" control — are accessible only through a submenu in the Comand system (their misspelling, not mine).
The new ninth-generation Mercedes-Benz S-Class is the most technologically replete car on the road today.
As I do not have the space to explain all the trials and tribulations of Comand — the 700-page owner's manual does a merely adequate job of it — suffice it to say that this is the operating system you have to learn if you actually want to use many of the features of the S-Class, notably the stereo and navigation system.
The Comand screen has been around a while in various Mercedes models, but it has a new twist: its functions are now controlled by a rotary knob on the center console, right where the gearshift was before it became a puny stalk attached to the steering column.
If you have been shopping for a luxury sedan and were intimidated by BMW's iDrive computer interface, or the Audi version called M.M.I., you will find no consolation here. Mercedes has effectively taken the same path, though its approach may be somewhat more intuitive.
There are redundant controls for some of the Comand functions, by way of either buttons on the dash or a voice-activated system. But if you plan to use the buttons, you will still be spending a whole lot of time asking yourself, "Which one does what?" Though Comand has been considerably improved over its previous generation, not all menu-driven functions are replicated with buttons. If this were the case, the seats might have to be upholstered with them.
As for using the voice activation, if you feel comfortable talking to your car, go ahead, but if I want to have a conversation, I will stay home with my wife.
There is a third option: Forgo exploring the mysteries of Comand and just drop the car at your local Mercedes-Benz service department to let the people there set things to your liking. Even if you take this route, however, you'll still occasionally have to fiddle with the interface, if only to figure out what to do when something goes wrong.
In my case, this led to opening that telephone-book-size manual to try to understand the nature of an ABC Malfunction. (By the way, ABC stands for Active Body Control, a system that is supposed to adjust the suspension automatically for optimal handling.) While thumbing through the manual, I wondered why some clever engineer hadn't figured out a way to let the driver know what to do when the car is having an alphabet-related problem. Certainly a descriptive warning message would be more useful than the PCMCIA slot in the dashboard.
At last, on Pages 570 and 571, I found a list of 13 possible solutions to my problem. These ranged from "wait" to "listen for scraping noises" to "call roadside assistance."
When I talked with a Mercedes spokeswoman after the fact, she suggested that I could have just pushed the "S.O.S." button on the headliner of every Mercedes vehicle, and someone at the call center would have explained what to do.
Instead, I applied a different skill, one honed over years of using personal computers: I turned the car off and started it back up. The reboot must have worked; the warning message vanished and the car had no further problems as I drove home.
Ah, yes, the driving. When you actually pull yourself away from the distractions and pay attention to your captain's duties, this is a pleasurable yacht to pilot. A new 382-horsepower, 5.5-liter V-8 — now with dual overhead camshafts and four valves per cylinder, instead of three — is beyond criticism, as is the seven-speed automatic transmission. This impressive powertrain moves the 4,270-pound S550 fast enough to lay a foundation to justify its price.
That would be $87,175 to start (including $775 for delivery and a $1,000 gas-guzzler tax), though you can spend much more if you want the features that make the car special. And you will, because among all the technology — including Night View Assist, a gee-whiz $1,150 option that lets you see in the dark beyond the headlamps' range — is one brilliant application: Distronic Plus.
This is a cruise control that uses radar to maintain an appropriate following distance to the traffic ahead, but not just by applying the throttle. The S-Class also brakes for you, using up to 40 percent of the maximum braking power. This means the system can bring the car to a complete stop, thereby reducing freeway driving to a no-pedal affair. Even in heavy stop-and-go commuter traffic, the car inches along automatically as you lounge back and enjoy the massage. If you read a newspaper while driving to work, I hope it's The Times.
In all seriousness, the system works shockingly well once you become accustomed to being a spectator to the car's braking and acceleration. Of course, Mercedes suggests that you still watch the road and adhere to the conventional 10 o'clock and 2 o'clock grip, though there will certainly be those who entirely stop paying attention to the road simply because they can.
Indeed, the S-Class goes further toward removing the driver from the road-going equation than any vehicle not running the Darpa Challenge for robot cars. On an empirical basis, that's pretty cool, but it's also at the heart of a growing problem with the cars in this class.
There is belief in the scientific community that solutions to problems caused by technology can always be found in applying more, newer technology. This is clearly displayed in the S-Class, with its complicated features seemingly offset by sophisticated driver's aids. But in the end, this game of technological one-upmanship (one that DaimlerChrysler's rivals also play) no longer has much to do with driving.
The new S-Class is still a luxurious and capable luxury sedan, and I'm willing to say that it's a better car than the departing model. But as the car part of the overall package shrinks in importance, so, too, does my esteem for the S-Class.
It is everything you expect a luxury cruiser to be, and then some, and therein lies the problem.
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/pages/automobiles/index.html
.Just like the WSJ, The Times is a newspaper of potential customers of the S-Class. I think their reviews are unbiased and that's one reason I read it every Sunday.
Now, the review. I thought it was a fair one, but it could've been a lot better - more details is what it needed.
The reporter complained about an ABC malfuntion warning on the instrument cluster when all he could've done is restart the car. Like the WSJ reporter, he didn't like the Multi-contour seats, he felt as though someone is "jabbing" him in the kidneys. It seems like he didn't like to use COMAND or talking to the car, he prefered more buttons.
And last but not least, he made an @$$ of himself here when he said MB mispelled the name of the car's onboard computer, COMAND. He could've done a little research about what COMAND stands for: COckpit MAnagement and Navigation Display.
Anyway, here's the article....
My favorite paragraph
:The Mercedes S550 has a new V-8 engine, a new system to control its electronic gadgets and a wealth of additional comforts.
By JEFF SABATINI
Published: May 28, 2006
THEY used to be called "idiot lights," those little red warning signals on the instrument panel that you hoped you never saw glowing. While today's electronics-intensive cars can report all manner of errors and problems inconceivable in the analog era, I am afraid there is still a bit of idiocy involved in informing the driver.
For instance, what exactly is an "ABC Malfunction?" Better yet, why is a new car with a $103,895 window sticker flashing that message 200 miles from home?
After all, this is the new ninth-generation Mercedes-Benz S-Class, the most technologically replete car on the road today. Large, spacious and silent, it drives as nicely and cossets as comfortably as any sedan that came before — and better than many cars that will come after.
It is everything you expect a luxury cruiser to be, and then some, and therein lies the problem. "And then some" may include more technological razzle-dazzle than you want or need.
At least Mercedes-Benz is betting that it has exorcized the electronic demons that plagued the previous-generation car and caused Consumer Reports to give the S-Class a "much worse than average" rating for reliability.
But there are only so many things a car company can do to make a mature product "new and improved," and building an option list that reads like a Sharper Image catalog is a surefire way to generate interest. Remember, the credo of the consumer electronics business is to add new features at every product release, regardless of whether the stuff has any utility.
Take the front seats in my S550 test car, for example. You can easily spend 15 minutes fiddling with them before even putting the car in drive. As expected, they adjust in every way imaginable, including firmness. And not only are the seats both heated and air-conditioned, they also have a built-in massager. As if that's not enough, you can choose to have the seats automatically inflate for extra side bolstering when you go around corners. This feels as if someone in the backseat is jabbing you in the kidneys.
To control all this gadgetry, there are well over a dozen buttons devoted to the front seats, including some that allow both the driver and the right-rear passenger to control the front passenger seat. Of course, some of the functions you might be most interested in — notably the "please stop sucker-punching me" control — are accessible only through a submenu in the Comand system (their misspelling, not mine).
The new ninth-generation Mercedes-Benz S-Class is the most technologically replete car on the road today.
As I do not have the space to explain all the trials and tribulations of Comand — the 700-page owner's manual does a merely adequate job of it — suffice it to say that this is the operating system you have to learn if you actually want to use many of the features of the S-Class, notably the stereo and navigation system.
The Comand screen has been around a while in various Mercedes models, but it has a new twist: its functions are now controlled by a rotary knob on the center console, right where the gearshift was before it became a puny stalk attached to the steering column.
If you have been shopping for a luxury sedan and were intimidated by BMW's iDrive computer interface, or the Audi version called M.M.I., you will find no consolation here. Mercedes has effectively taken the same path, though its approach may be somewhat more intuitive.
There are redundant controls for some of the Comand functions, by way of either buttons on the dash or a voice-activated system. But if you plan to use the buttons, you will still be spending a whole lot of time asking yourself, "Which one does what?" Though Comand has been considerably improved over its previous generation, not all menu-driven functions are replicated with buttons. If this were the case, the seats might have to be upholstered with them.
As for using the voice activation, if you feel comfortable talking to your car, go ahead, but if I want to have a conversation, I will stay home with my wife.
There is a third option: Forgo exploring the mysteries of Comand and just drop the car at your local Mercedes-Benz service department to let the people there set things to your liking. Even if you take this route, however, you'll still occasionally have to fiddle with the interface, if only to figure out what to do when something goes wrong.
In my case, this led to opening that telephone-book-size manual to try to understand the nature of an ABC Malfunction. (By the way, ABC stands for Active Body Control, a system that is supposed to adjust the suspension automatically for optimal handling.) While thumbing through the manual, I wondered why some clever engineer hadn't figured out a way to let the driver know what to do when the car is having an alphabet-related problem. Certainly a descriptive warning message would be more useful than the PCMCIA slot in the dashboard.
At last, on Pages 570 and 571, I found a list of 13 possible solutions to my problem. These ranged from "wait" to "listen for scraping noises" to "call roadside assistance."
When I talked with a Mercedes spokeswoman after the fact, she suggested that I could have just pushed the "S.O.S." button on the headliner of every Mercedes vehicle, and someone at the call center would have explained what to do.
Instead, I applied a different skill, one honed over years of using personal computers: I turned the car off and started it back up. The reboot must have worked; the warning message vanished and the car had no further problems as I drove home.
Ah, yes, the driving. When you actually pull yourself away from the distractions and pay attention to your captain's duties, this is a pleasurable yacht to pilot. A new 382-horsepower, 5.5-liter V-8 — now with dual overhead camshafts and four valves per cylinder, instead of three — is beyond criticism, as is the seven-speed automatic transmission. This impressive powertrain moves the 4,270-pound S550 fast enough to lay a foundation to justify its price.
That would be $87,175 to start (including $775 for delivery and a $1,000 gas-guzzler tax), though you can spend much more if you want the features that make the car special. And you will, because among all the technology — including Night View Assist, a gee-whiz $1,150 option that lets you see in the dark beyond the headlamps' range — is one brilliant application: Distronic Plus.
This is a cruise control that uses radar to maintain an appropriate following distance to the traffic ahead, but not just by applying the throttle. The S-Class also brakes for you, using up to 40 percent of the maximum braking power. This means the system can bring the car to a complete stop, thereby reducing freeway driving to a no-pedal affair. Even in heavy stop-and-go commuter traffic, the car inches along automatically as you lounge back and enjoy the massage. If you read a newspaper while driving to work, I hope it's The Times.
In all seriousness, the system works shockingly well once you become accustomed to being a spectator to the car's braking and acceleration. Of course, Mercedes suggests that you still watch the road and adhere to the conventional 10 o'clock and 2 o'clock grip, though there will certainly be those who entirely stop paying attention to the road simply because they can.
Indeed, the S-Class goes further toward removing the driver from the road-going equation than any vehicle not running the Darpa Challenge for robot cars. On an empirical basis, that's pretty cool, but it's also at the heart of a growing problem with the cars in this class.
There is belief in the scientific community that solutions to problems caused by technology can always be found in applying more, newer technology. This is clearly displayed in the S-Class, with its complicated features seemingly offset by sophisticated driver's aids. But in the end, this game of technological one-upmanship (one that DaimlerChrysler's rivals also play) no longer has much to do with driving.
The new S-Class is still a luxurious and capable luxury sedan, and I'm willing to say that it's a better car than the departing model. But as the car part of the overall package shrinks in importance, so, too, does my esteem for the S-Class.
It is everything you expect a luxury cruiser to be, and then some, and therein lies the problem.
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/pages/automobiles/index.html
Just a simple interior with switches and knobs for everything will do for me.
