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Model S 85kwh - Mercedes S550 comparison

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Zythryn

Custom Warming Stripes wrap.
Mar 18, 2009
2,323
1,583
Minnesota
So I thought I would go out for some test drives in other cars in the same category as our Model S.

Today we test drove a Mercedes S550 luxury sedan.
On the plus side, the Mercedes has tons of toys! I am a toy guy so for me this is a plus. The seats will actually automatically 'bolster' the right or left side of your torso/seat cushions when you take sharp turns.
The navigation has settings for the quickest route, most economical route, avoiding toll roads, avoiding highways and about 3 or 4 more. Really nice.
Seats are both heated and cooled.
Auto "pre braking" if the car senses a collision.
And heaps of other toys.

On the minus side, the user interface is a nightmare. You have a phone sized keypad, a puck/joystick which can spin or moved right,left,forward,backward. 15-20 buttons. And it is not all that intuitive.
The car accelerates from a stop very 'jerkily'. Especially if it is in 'sport' mode. Once moving above about 10, acceleration is much smoother and acceleration is good.
However, there is this incredibly annoying rumble all the time. I am amazed how spoiled I have become driving an EV.
The car drives like a wounded bronco out of the gate. Just made me cringe. It turns very well actually. The steering handles very similar to the Model S on 'comfort' setting. However you 'feel' the weight of the car more than you do in the S.

In short, in my opinion the winner is:

Tech 'toys' : E550

Drive experience: Model S

Interface: Model S

A caveat in the tech toys, Model S screen blows away the screen size and definition on the Mercedes and the interface of the Model S blows away that of the E550.
But on pure quantity of toys the E550 handily wins. Some of these are things I would like to see in the Model S 2.0 such as electronic folding side mirrors and auto braking IF that is reliable and does indeed help in accidents.

BMW next I hope:)