Got back last night from the S560's first road trip, rolled over 4,000 miles on the trip too. Car really did great, such a highway machine. The faster you drive, the better it feels...cruise set to 80 feels like 55. Distronic did great, very relaxing having the car do most of the driving while I sat back and enjoyed my hot stone massage lol. The car handles twisty roads better than the Lexus did, there are several tight curves with 60MPH rated speeds that in the Lexus I felt like I needed to back off from the cruise set at 80 because it just felt too fast for the turn, not so in the S Class.

Its amazing how at 80 on level ground it loafs along at 1600 RPM. Charged right up Sandstone Mountain in 7th gear at 2200 RPM. 28 MPG running 80 consistently which is fabulous IMHO, 2 MPG better than the Lexus and this is AWD where it was RWD.

Another thing that REALLY worked well was the 4G LTE Hotspot. I run AmazonMusic HD on full quality and use Google Maps with the satellite image on. When running straight off my phone I would get interruptions in streaming and areas where the map wouldnt render as I would lose service in the mountains, not so with the hotspot. Even in areas where I had no cell service I had data through the hotspot and never had any interruptions. My guess is the car's cellular antenna is a lot more powerful than whats in the phone.

Seats were great, annoying that you have to restart the massaging seats every 10 minutes. My guess is thats so they don't put you to sleep...makes sense I suppose.

Didnt drive it around down there much, did take it to Beckley and took my cousin and his wife to dinner, they loved it. The places we go are hard to get to in a sedan.

A couple pics, the first is Distronic driving me down the highway at 80, second is the car parked at my cousins house, third is the trip data (it auto resets for every trip which I like a lot) from the trip back. That's with a heavy head/crosswind...

 

Pretty cool. Not surprised it did so well on the highway.

 

Yep it was a fun trip...

 

Sounds like a very finely engineered, very sweet ride. I love everything about what you said, right down to the fuel economy.

 

Supreme machine! My wife now has massaging seats as a requirement for at least one car we have. She uses it nearly every time we jump in the e-tron. The e-tron ones don't do the lower seat cushion like our X5 did, but the seatback portion is stronger, similar to the Mercedes implementation.

 

Yeah I really like the massaging seats, especially the heated massage.

 

There should be no comparison. LS460 would have been mid 00s engineering compared to your S class which is newer amd made for high speeds. The weak point in the LS460 was always the handling. I guess an Fsport LS460 would have been better than the regular.

 

Thats the LS in general. My 460 was the best handling LS of the 3 generations I had, especially the last one with the air suspension. The S Class stays much flatter though in corners, especially in sport mode but even in comfort. It does a really great job of combining straightline comfort with good handling.

 

Glad you enjoyed the trip. That car ought to be nice on the road....for two reasons. First, the arm-and-a-leg price. Second, the fact that it is designed to travel the German Autobahns at far greater speeds than you do on 66, 81, or 64, and negotiate lots-steeper grades, in the Alps, than the 7% grade on Sandstone Mountain. (but, even then at 80 MPH, you drive significantly faster than I do).





What happened to your front license plate? Doesn't Maryland require both front/rear tags? Or did some a** hole steal it?......that happened to me in my Verano.

And whose Nissan (Rogue?) there behind you?....your relative's vehicle, there in Beckley?

Kind of a fuzzy small image, but, across street there, in front of that white church-like building, just to the right of that (Toyota?) pickup, from that view, it looks like an Encore GX.

 

For sure. LS460 got better. But that is what the Germans do so well. My girlfriend has an S class like yours. My brother has a BMW and both say there is something about a German car feel that is just that. Once you move to a German car, I have heard that it is hard to let go. Lexus LS always have subpar handling compared to the German cars....LS460 even carried the large full size tire while yours sans the weight. You also have like 100 more HP for a smaller motor as well

 

I don’t run a front plate; haven’t since I got the 2017 LS and it didn’t have a front plate kit and the salesman talked me out of having It drilled on. This one didn’t have it installed either so I had them leave it off too.

That’s my cousin’s Rogue. That’s the one I posted the review of a couple years ago. Good eye! It’s actually an Encore, not an Encore GX. He’s actually in Fayetteville about 30 miles north of Beckley.

 

Yeah there is definitely a difference in feel. Yeah, 100 more HP smaller engine and better fuel economy, twin turbos and 9 speed transmission for the win lol

 

You also have like 135lb more torque as well it’s like a whole different tax bracket

 

That’s another thing I forgot to mention, the passing power is insane. Passing one truck on the right and then sliding over to pass another one on the left, going from 65-95 for a short burst comes in like a second and a half...

 

with 9 long gears and the full boosted 516 ft-lbs reached at only 2000 rpm it seems like a crime to have the cruise control set at anything below 100mph lol... even at that speed the thing's barely above a cold start idle, they really do a good job of making you feel discontent with the S450 knowing this engine is still out there

also car def looks better without the front plate