The S class of Mercedes can trace its roots to past many of the decades, but it was in 1973 that company took up the S-class name for its sedan. In 2000, the generation of S-class which was codenamed W220 was introduced. The W220 was quite smaller than its original S-class, but it has a more of leg space's-class came with variety of engines in different markets, the North American ones had V8 power under its hood. In 2000, 4.3 let and 5.0 its engines were there. Mercedes added 5.5 liter and 5.8 liter in 2002 to power the S55 AMG.
The 4MATIC all wheel drive was introduced in S430 and S500. The S55 got supercharged 5.5 its V8 while S600 got a turbocharged 5.5 liter V12 along with an awesome 590 lb ft of torque. W220 continued to be same throughout 2006, the S500 was removed and S550 was introduced which had the next gen S class design and S65 AMG had a turbocharged 6.0 V12 at 604 HP and made it to the top range of cars.
This model variant was a flagship of the Mercedes Benz lineup, the S-class has seen many of the latest innovations being fitted onto it, including the drivetrain mechanism, several of the interior features like climate control and safety systems like seatbelts. In 2005, the S340 used to be sold in 4MATIC and seven speed forms, the S500 could be in RWD or AWD form and S55 and S600 came with the rear wheel drive and a five speed gearbox for the required power. In the year 2006, the new style S550 used the seven speed gearbox while the others used five speed grearbox.The short wheelbase version was offered only in the S430 while the normal length model was about 100 mm more between the wheels.
The electronics and the power equipments as well as the audio systems were the worst performers. The climate control was also not proper in the earlier S-class versions. Many of these problems were sorted out in the later versions which came in market. The common points of failure were Instrument clusters. The reason for this was the three different faults which occurred at three different points in the production line of the car. Mercedes Benz had the recall done to replace the instruments which gave fault in W220's on case to case basis and this offer could be transferred to other owner. The fuel consumption rating for S-class was 13.5/8.8l/100 kms (city/highway) in the S430 and 14.3/9.6 in the S500. S600 which came in 2001 was rated at 15.2/903.
Ratings of S55 AMG came out to be 16.4/10/0 for the 2004 model, while the 2004 S600 was at 18.6/11.4. The ratings of S600 and S65 models were the same. The all wheel versions normally use ten percent more fuel in the city whereas the fine for driving on the highway if not too severe. The S class pricing ranges from $17,000 for a 2000 S430 which was a short wheelbase model to high of around $86000 for 2006 S600. The 2006 S600's value of $86000 is a sound indicator of how fast card in this range depreciate. The MSRP when new was around $190,000. In 2004 S500 is worth $27500 which is again a far cry from its @121000 price tag.
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