Highs and Lows
Highs
Beautiful design outside and in, smooth delivery of massive power, more technology than NASA Mission Control
Lows
Actually slower than the S63 V-8 version, Body Control not Magic enough for potholed
pavement, champagne cooler shrinks already-tiny trunk.
ehold these Teutonic chariots that mix sumptuous luxury with earth-shaking power. Huge front air intakes, big wheels, and quad tailpipes hint at the powertrains: The S63 has a 577-hp twin-turbo V-8 with all-wheel drive; the S65 wields a 621-hp twin-turbo V-12 that sends 738 lb-ft to the rear wheels. The cabins are awash in leather and carbon fiber. There’s a sedan if you need four doors; the coupe is one of the most beautiful cars around. Note: These models replace the Mercedes-Benz versions.
Worth It?
Lifestyle baubles like this aren’t valued by normal automotive standards. Whether it’s the hot-stone massage function in the front seats (standard!), the Magic Sky Control roof ($2500) that converts from transparent to opaque or anywhere in between via electronic switch, the rear-seat console refrigerator with two champagne-bottle-shaped recesses ($1100), or the active parking assist, this is a machine that caters to desires most people didn’t even know they had.
Befitting the S-class’s role as technological flagship, the car bristles with advanced features. Mercedes calls out more than 50, some—such as auto stop-start and surround-view cameras—you’d find on more-mundane cars, but most are dazzlers pioneering the path toward autonomous operation, such as the ability to take your hands off the wheel for up to 16 seconds at a time and one of the most capable active-cruise-control systems out there. There’s night vision and voice recognition and telematics upon infotainment. These layers of tech make for a dizzying array of stuff for a driver to command and manage, but the layout and function of the controls do a decent job of making things intuitive, if not simple.
One technology the S65 lives without that comes standard on the S63 is 4MATIC all-wheel drive, presumably because the V-12’s 738 lb-ft of torque exceeds the system’s capacity. It turns out that 4MATIC matters at the track. The stability control cannot be fully deactivated, and our tester noted that it intervenes to prevent hard launches (Mercedes has launch control on its more overtly sporting products, but not here). More power and less available traction mean low-speed sprints can’t match the S63’s: zero to 60 mph took 4.1 seconds and the quarter-mile 12.2 in this car versus 3.7 and 12.0 flat with the V-8 4MATIC. Once rolling, the V-12’s power advantage shows up in a higher speed through the quarter-mile at 122 mph rather than 120, and the S65 gets to 150 mph in only 19.7 seconds, three-tenths earlier than did the S63, and will keep pulling away from there. This matters on Germany’s autobahns and almost nowhere else.
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