Mercedes S500 AMG Coupe
The S500 AMG Coupe arrives at ss8000cars and we take it for its first drive on camera. We had in London yesterday having picked up the car but unfortunately our camera let us down. Always have a spare is the lesson, we had ignored!
Mercedes has been the benchmark for the worlds finest luxury saloons for many a year. This new coupe is based on the S class saloon which is acknowledged to lead the luxury saloon field. The new S-Class Coupé is a luxury four seater that differs little from the saloon, suspension wise, and therefore offers the same class leading capabilities, which is crucial to its success in this market place. The competitors are few and at £96,000 the Mercedes undercuts them. The Bentley V8 comes in at 140K and the Aston Martin DB9, soon to be replaced, at 142K. Neither of these cars is as quiet and as comfortable for long journeys as the Mercedes. The Ferrari GTC4 Lusso does much the same thing as the S Coupe but at a higher price and performance level, so is not a direct competitor.
The S500 AMG Coupe’s V8 produces 449bhp output and has 700Nm of torque – the 0-100Km/h sprint is covered in around four and a half seconds. On tick over the AMG makes a light V8 burble and sounds restrained but under hard acceleration, the car makes a good aggressive sound growling all the way through to the red line. However on the motorway it is capable of travelling in near silence making this car a truly wonderful travelling companion. The standard double glazed side windows contributing to this lack of noise.
The Mercedes has a nine-speed conventional automatic box that helps make long journeys seem much shorter and allows you to arrive feeling fresh. The ride is a tad soft for us on the standard air suspension but select the sport setting and the cars suspension firms up as does the steering to a degree which helps you place the car on the road with a degree of accuracy but you never completely forget you are driving a comparatively heavy car. This car is therefore a cruiser and as long as you bear this in mind you can obtain pleasure from punting it around the country lanes, our advice is always slow in fast out, though admittedly this would not be it’s natural habitat.