Mercedes 560SEL - an automotive milestone

Sometimes there are pinnacles of engineering that set the standard for an entire industry. In airlines, it was the Boeing 747. It came out just in time for the the fabulous polyester lifestyle of the 1970s. It had two decks, and on early versions the upper deck was used as a bar/lounge, where passengers could go and be funky in their Afros and bell bottoms whilst listening to Three Dog Night.

What made the 747 special though was that it was by far the best plane in the air. It held more passengers than any other plane, in fact it took 35 years for any company to build a larger plane. It had four huge engines, and it looked different from any other plane on the runway. I once flew on a 747 from Seattle to New York and the upper deck was used for something called Ambassador Class which was designed for important people like me who consider First Class accommodations quaint. (OK, I got a free upgrade for some reason, but that seat was practically the size of a small couch and at 6'5" I appreciated the space.) The 747 set the standard for planes for nearly four decades, and it is hard to imagine any current plane setting a standard quite like that in our lifetime.

In the car world there is a similar pace setter, a car so great that everyone else tried to mimic its greatness. That car is the Mercedes S-Class, and in this case I am looking at the 560SEL. (Model years1986-1991 if you're counting.) To give you an idea of how great the Mercedes S-Class is here is a list of equipment that first appeared on the S-Class before almost any other car:

-Anti-lock brakes
-Air bags
-Traction control
-Seatbelt pre-tensioners
-Crumple Zones
-Three Point seatbelts

Although some of these features appeared on other cars first, Mercedes opened the door to making these features standard in cars throughout the auto industry.

But the 560SEL is special not just for the technology it brought, but also for what it represented. In the eighties if you were a big shot on Wall Street you drove to your home in the Hamptons in an S-Class. If you were a ruthless dictator, you would not be caught dead oppressing anyone in anything other than an S-Class. If you were the bad guy in a movie about international intrigue you would be driving an S-Class. If you were a rich oil tycoon in the Middle East you started each day with your driver opening the door to your gold-plated S-Class.

In 1988 a 560SEL would cost you $70,000, that is a lot of money even today, but think about how much that seemed like 17 years ago. If you sit in a 560SEL today the cabin will feel a little dated compared to today's cars. The original stereo was not that great then to be honest, and it seems especially weak nowadays. But you forget all that when you turn it on a drive.

The 560 had a huge 5.6 liter V8 engine, and considering how massive the car was, it needed all 5.6 liters to move it. It was rear wheel drive and as soon as you got this car on the highway it was apparent that it was made for long cruises. The leather seats were practically indestructible so don't be surprised if you see one today with seats that look pristine. (Although I have noticed that the driver's seat can develop wear spots, especially if the driver was, how can I put this delicately? Had some junk in the trunk.) It is a car that is easy to drive on a highway and it makes you want to find excuses to drive long distances.

What I loved most about this car is how it made me feel. I felt like I was a head of state, or a big player on Wall Street. If you had passengers in it each one felt like they were in a swank hotel lounge, rather than a passenger in a car. It looked so dignified and respectable, people would pull to the side of the road and let you by because they figured you had someplace important to be. OK, maybe I exaggerated on that last one, but you get my point.

After the 560SEL car the luxury car market became diluted in the nineties. Lexus came in and built the LS400, which looks remarkably similar to the 560SEL, only it was more reliable and more refined. Acura began producing the Legend, BMW beefed up the 7 series, and Jaguar began building better cars than they had in the eighties. But all of them were essentially odes to the greatest luxury sedan of the past 30 years, the Mercedes 560SEL.