New Mercedes S-Class 2026 review: flashy and luxurious, but so is an E-Class

Verdict

The Mercedes S-Class is still a mighty impressive piece of engineering that’s lost none of its grandeur and it continues to excel in all the areas an executive limousine needs to: space, comfort, refinement and quality. However the new version has sacrificed some subtlety and class for flashier looks and a more screen-focused interior. It’s also hard to see this car as the true pinnacle of the Mercedes line-up when some of its much less expensive models already have the same technology or are more advanced. Regardless, the S-Class will continue to more than satisfy the affluent and successful individuals in the market for such a car – and their chauffeurs.

The world’s elite and their chauffeurs will be faced with a tricky decision in the next few months: do they get the newly updated Mercedes S-Class or BMW 7 Series? Both highly distinguished luxury limousines have received major changes inside, outside and under the metal, creating what is quite possibly the ultimate first-world problem.

The new S-Class has arrived first, and while it still has an understated persona, the 20 per cent bigger grille – adorned with dozens of tiny chrome three-pointed stars and illuminated – makes the car look even more imposing. It also means lesser motorists know sooner to get out of the way, so that the people in this car can take care of their important business. 

Used - available now

2023 Mercedes

S Class

31,145 milesAutomaticPetrol3.0L

Cash £64,304

View S Class

2019 Mercedes

S Class

60,000 milesAutomaticDiesel2.9L

Cash £31,990

View S Class

2026 Mercedes

S Class

21,000 milesAutomaticPetrol3.0L

Cash £77,990

View S Class

2019 Mercedes

S Class

64,807 milesAutomaticDiesel2.9L

Cash £22,700

View S Class

The bigger transformation is inside, because the out-going model’s simple portrait touchscreen is gone and in its place is a sea of screens, which Mercedes seems hellbent on putting in all its cars at the moment. 

Every new model gets a 14.4-inch central touchscreen and a 12.3-inch passenger display beneath a single piece of glass, plus a 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster. If this ‘Superscreen’ set-up looks familiar, that’s because it was introduced in the much less expensive E-Class three years ago. 

There’s no denying the screens are very sharp, the graphics are big and clear, and the new version of the brand’s MBUX infotainment system is easy to use, if packed with a vast amount of menus for all this car’s features. However it’s slightly awkward that Mercedes has recently introduced a far more impressive-looking ‘Hyperscreen’ design in the (again, less expensive) C-Class Electric and GLC Electric. This is just a single display spanning the entire dashboard and quite a show-stopper, we think.

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It’s not a great look when what’s supposed to be a brand’s flagship product doesn’t have the best stuff the company can offer. Especially compared with the new 7 Series, which comes with BMW’s cutting-edge new Panoramic iDrive cabin design and technology. 

Mercedes and its designers may have become slightly obsessed with screens, but thankfully, the quality in the S-Class is still nothing short of sublime. The models we drove featured leather everywhere, right down to the bottoms of the doors, and some exquisite pinstriped wood trim almost worthy of a yacht in Monaco’s Port Hercule. We’re glad to see there’s less piano black in the cabin now, although the glass dashboard collects dust and fingerprints as soon as anyone sits inside. 

Other changes include a redesigned centre console that has dual wireless charging pads, while the steering wheel now has physical rocker switches after customers complained about the last model’s touch-sensitive panels. Another new addition are heated front seat belts that reach up to 44 degrees to create the feeling of a warm gentle embrace. 

As you’d only expect of an S-Class, the best seats in the house are in the back. The rear centre console now holds two detachable smartphone-like remotes, instead of a single tablet, which control, among other things, the new 13.1-inch displays that are a £3,995 optional extra.

Again, the screens are good and they have HD cameras built-in for video conferencing, allowing owners to turn their car into a boardroom on wheels, or they can be used to watch Disney+ if you just want to unwind. However these seatback-mounted screens don’t match the spectacle of the 7 Series’s 31-inch ‘Theatre Screen’ that descends dramatically from the roof. 

Meanwhile, for £7,950 the Rear Comfort Package Plus offers the full business-class experience. At the push of a button you can recline the rear seats in the S-Class until they’re nearly flat and a small footrest reveals itself from underneath the front passenger’s as it slides forward and folds down. Activate the hot stone massage setting, get acquainted with the incredibly soft pillows attracted to the headrests, and you’re ready for a long haul.

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Rather than the multiplex of a dashboard, arguably the most important and impressive tech in the new S-Class is hidden under the metal. For instance, it has a water-cooled supercomputer that provides power for its autonomous driving technology. This is currently only available in China, but Mercedes is working on bringing it to other markets, where possible. 

There’s also a new ‘Intelligent Damper Control’ function for the air suspension system that uses data from other Mercedes cars to anticipate potholes, speed bumps or imperfections in the road ahead. It can increase the damping rate up to 10 metres before larger imperfections to preserve the car’s luxurious ride comfort.

This technology isn’t exclusive to the new S-Class either, because it can also be found on the GLC Electric and C-Class Electric. That might be a good thing, though, because the comfort-boosting system requires data from cars with the same set-up, and the more there are on the road, the better the ride in the S-Class should become.  

That may take some time, but even now the wafting ride ebbs and flows with the road, soaking up any bumps or cracks supremely well. Going over the most severe potholes we encountered on our route out of Hamburg, Germany, and into the countryside merely resulted in a slightly louder noise entering the hushed cabin. And that was easily masked by the Burmester surround sound system which is so clear that you’ll find yourself noticing details in your music you never have previously.

The ride isn’t of Rolls-Royce quality perhaps, because you can feel the ripples or ridges in more imperfect tarmac on motorways, but it’s still incredibly comfortable and has a floating quality at higher speeds, creating a serene place for occupants to let the world pass them by. 

The S-Class is equally effortless to drive in town thanks to rear-axle steering, which comes as standard, and the car remains composed along the twists and turns of a country road.

Mercedes has made improvements to every powertrain in the S-Class line-up, with perhaps the biggest being a brand-new V8 engine for the S580. It’s a genuinely impressive piece of engineering: incredibly smooth and quiet through town, disguising what’s under the bonnet. Once you start to get a move on, the engine sounds suitably mean, like the old V8, and with 530bhp on tap, it makes this roughly 2.3-tonne luxury liner stupendously fast.

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Unfortunately we’re not getting this engine in the UK, but we don’t think it’s a huge loss because, to our ears, the straight-six engine that is available here sounds at least as good. The 375bhp S 450 4Matic and 443bhp S 500 4Matic feature a turbocharged 3.0-litre in-line six with mild-hybrid tech that not only helps with stop-start, but also works to eliminate any turbo lag when the driver puts their foot down. It works too – the power delivery is incredibly smooth and linear. 

Meanwhile, the entry-level 308bhp S 350 d 4Matic features a six-cylinder diesel that’s been developed to meet future emissions legislation. It’s a mild hybrid too, but also has the first electrically heated catalytic converter on a production car, to help clean harmful pollutants from the exhaust faster and more efficiently. 

We saw 38.2mpg during our drive in the diesel, which wasn’t too far off what Mercedes claims it can do, and the engine softly growls as you accelerate swiftly up to motorway speed, with 0-62mph taking just over five seconds. There’s plenty of torque low down in the rev range, so you don’t have to work the engine hard, but even so we didn’t find this particular powertrain to be quite as slick in town traffic as the others we tried.

If you’re a city banker or just spend more of your time driving in town, the two plug-in hybrid versions will be the better option. The 429bhp S 450 e and the 577bhp S 580 e offer up to 73 miles of pure-electric driving from their 22kWh battery, which feeds the e-motor paired with an upgraded six-cylinder petrol engine. 

A gripe we had with all the variants though was the nine-speed automatic transmission’s tendency to kick down quite suddenly. Not alarmingly so, but just not as smoothly as we might expect for an S-Class. 

The new Mercedes S-Class is available to order now with prices starting from £103,450 – roughly the same as the previous version and its arch-rival from BMW. But, if you add a bigger engine and upgrade from the base AMG Line Premium trim to Premium Plus or Premium Plus Executive, the price tag can climb to over £135,000.

And that’s before you start experimenting with Mercedes’ Manufaktur personalisation programme, which offers exclusive paint finishes such as Black Sparkling that uses glass flakes to create a head-turning shimmer. If you want to go all out, the newly launched Manufaktur Made to Measure programme has been designed to allow the most discerning S-Class customers to create something even more distinctive, with more than 150 paint colours and over 400 interior colours to choose from. More hard choices for the world’s elite to deal with... 

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