S-Class (W223) [Spy Shots] Mercedes-Benz S-Class (W223) Spy Shots and Info

[hannaz]

I’m not sure to be called as influenced or inspired, IMO there is no harm in getting inspired for a good cause and using it in Merc’s way. We have seen Mercs been inspired from others on good cause. For instance steering column mounted gear lever is inspired from E65 7er & RR Phantom, but since W221 its been carried in almost all Mercs, which is quite good & convenient, but BMW left it with E65.

 

[275others]

I’m not sure to be called as influenced or inspired, IMO...

Being influenced by a a good trend is great! But as you probably know, interior design and interior quality is considered the weak point of Tesla.

 

[Serpens]

Being influenced by a a good trend is great! But as yo...

Yet the touchscreen location and orientation itself has been a huge positive for owners.

 

[Merc1]

Is there any word on when we will see this officially?

M

 

[sako97]

Is there any word on when we will see this officially?

M

Was supposed to be October, surely they’ve scrapped that with how viral the leak has been. We’ll probably see something official from MB in the next few weeks.

 

[Merc1]

I hope so.

M

 

[DjordjeC63]

Mercs been inspired from others on good cause. For instance steering column mounted gear lever is inspired from E65 7er &RR Phantom, but since W221 its been carried in almost all Mercs, which is quite good & convenient, butBMW left it with E65.

Mercedes had steering mounted gearbox waaaaay before E65 BMW.

 

[Serpens]

Mercedes had steering mounted gearbox waaaaay before...

You can give BMW some credit here. When Mercedes started commonly using column shifters again, it looked and functioned much like BMW’s. Its not a sin to be inspired by others.

 

[hannaz]

Mercedes had steering mounted gearbox waaaaay before...

That I know, my W114 had column shift & have seen it in all the previous models. I meant in the modern era it after E65.

I’m a huge Merc fan, esp S-class, but I don’t admitting a good inspiration taken over by S-class and implemented it well. Another example is the intra-red night vision camera is introduced by Cadillac in Deville, but S-Class implemented it way better and still S’s night vision is the best.

Being influenced by a a good trend is great! But as yo...

I just meant the screen position and vertical layout on Tesla, I hate rest everything in Tesla, quality of Merc something Tesla can dream of as of now.

Being an auto journalist I hav extensively used different Volvos with vertical layout & find it convenient among touch interfaces. But still its not safely convenient like a rotary knob. Hope Merc hav revised and made MBUX voice control highly flawless in a way she can understand all kind of accents.

I hope so.

M

I too hope so.. but in that case it’ll be a digital launch for sure. And can’t expect to have an elegant & class welcome like had for W222 cos of this Covid situation.

 

[martinbo]

Mercedes had steering mounted gearbox waaaaay before...

Yes, BMW crossed over to the dark side for an instance. And then straight back to the light because steering column mounted transmission selectors are shite.

 

[Deleted member 1071]

Proper official press presentation images of the finished product in glossy, elegant metallic hues and fitted with attractive rims will leave most of us quite awestruck, I imagine.

 

[Rolf]

I wouldn't be surprised if Mercedes have added in some more gesture control, pointing and selection functions with this S-class similar to the GLE/GLS/CLA but with more advanced features like in the AVATAR concept. This combined with improved Voice Assistant will mean that they can get rid of the touch pad.

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[Centurion]

Yes, BMW crossed over to the dark side for an instance. An...

They are especially ugly if they look like the ones in a 2020 Cadillac Escalade.

 

[martinbo]

Apologies to the community and @M.N.D - I shouldn't have turned this back into another BMW vs MB thing.
To reiterate, there's a great thread to have your MB vs BMW ding dong right here: https://www.germancarforum.com/threads/bmw-vs-mb-off-topic-posts-from-the-mercedes-benz-s-class-w223-spy-shots-and-info.60530

In context of what we're seeing in terms of the move to extensive screen-based driver interfaces, the column mounted shifter - now more than ever in the W223 - is a logical placement.

Back on topic to the W223.

 

[ccdan]

This cars interior doesn’t look anything like the crap interiors in all Tesla cars. The level of design and quality in this S class is in another league. The only thing they share of some similarity is the central screen

Oh, it does look like tesla. Materials and fit and finish are expected to be better in any german car, but that hideous and amateurishly-simplistic "design" from Tesla - which feels more like a way to save money than actual interior car design(let's hack a tablet into the cockpit) was adopted for one of the most iconic models ever.

Why would anyone want to have various tablets stick out from what was formerly the instrument cluster/dashboard/center console ? It's very, very ugly what they did, I'll never understand this obsession with tablet-like car displays, nor will I ever understand the tendency to get rid of USEFUL buttons in favor of digital screens. I have no idea what the origin of this trend is, as most people I know and most people I encountered online, seem to dislike tablet-like displays and the disappearance of useful buttons like those for climate control and others that one tends to use often.

 

[Ozy]

There is improvement on voice and gesture control as well, you won’t use your hands too much for doing stuff on the instrument panel anymore, will be safer to the driver and to everyone. Also once autonomous driving will be usable in real life you can use those screens for entertainment. The world is moving forward, as you all know, Ford said if we asked people what do they want, they would say a faster horse.

Anyways, somehow in the end people are more satisfied with the new generation than the previous one. It’s really not only about you like it visually or not, that’s a bias we all have all the time, that’s why we favor one brand over another one style over another, but technologically they need to be in the game or good bye, and technology also has requirements.

 

[wagnechris]

Just saw the first leaked pics of the BMW 8er. The car looked ugly - the same wide range mobil phone pics like the S-Class.
A few month later the car looks great - with the right trim.

 

[ccdan]

Voice control has been around for quite some time. It's far easier to turn a knob than to start a "dialogue" with your car. Such simple and efficient things can't be replaced by high-tech.

Far too often, when we criticize products that include new technology, some people will assume that any criticism is a rejection of technological progress - but they couldn't be farther from the truth!

Did the W222 include any tech improvements over W221? Lots of! But it was super well received! Why? Because those improvements were very well implemented, because the car was designed to be almost universally appealing - perhaps not perfect, but with many tasteful touches both at the interior and the exterior.

The W223? It seems like a gamble. Bangle-era reloaded, possibly worse. An experiment by a controversial designer, who's already done some questionable work, like the CLS - once a fabulous car - which from the rear says about nothing, from the front can be mistaken for an A class.
The W223 seems to be the first S-Class(at least in recent times) to borrow important design elements from already existing, lower class models(rear lights from cla/cls, front grille/headlight from e-class).
Normally it should be the other way around. But not this time.

 

[Ozy]

^

Well, on the technology I agree with you, but we don’t know how it works yet. I mean voice control will be more intuitive over time, by hand gesture we still have no idea how did they use it. They also put in a gigantic HUD, how will that work we don’t know either, I doubt that it will be simply larger than before. When I first got my hands on an iPhone X after having the usual iPhones with home buttons, I was not sure about the experience, but when I got back to an older model after a while it was very uncomfortable to use. All such changes will be more clear with reflection over time, so I’m optimistic that they won’t mess up their best car.

On the other hand from design point of view I very much disagree. As I said previously the subjective bias can’t be generalized. What you call “borrowing” from other cars along the Mercedes model range is called design language, which I think was quite lacking before, and even though it might not be the perfect overall Mercedes design language now, at least we see that they make a family of products instead of a neighborhood.

That controversial designer didn’t only made the pretty average back of the CLS, but also the completely gorgeous Maybach 6, Silver arrow, avatar concept, EQS concept etc... lets be honest about one’s accomplishments.

And even though technology has advanced quite a lot and carmakers can make the cars more similar to the concepts, it is still a bit far from making concept level car designs, but we are getting there.

 

[Deleted member 1071]

Personally, I cannot quite grasp the "W223/Chris Bangle" analogy. The W223, so far, strikes me as being a conservatively penned car with a modern, minimalistic dashboard/screen architecture. Save perhaps the large HUD cavity, there is little "revolutionary" about it. I quite clearly remember my first encounter with the E65 7 series. It was genuinely "different" and hardly a "predictable" but rather an "unexpected" car from BMW. And immensely polarizing.