Mercedes-Benz S-Class COTY Review: Does it Still Stand at the Head of the Class?

Pros

• Quiet, quick new V-8
• Opulent interior
• Loads of new tech

Cons

• Big screen at the expense of craftsmanship
• Can get pricey
• Seeing too many stars

Mercedes-Benz has been honing its flagship S-Class sedan sedan for years and has gotten good at it. For 2027, the luxury car gets a major upgrade, including a new V-8 engine that purrs like a kitten.

Although it’s technically a refresh of the seventh-generation S-Class, the luxury sedan has about 2,700 new or revised parts, a new operating system for infotainment, Mercedes’ latest advanced driver assistance system, some design upgrades, and of course that new V-8.

The first thing you’ll notice is the abundance-some would say overabundance-of stars. There are now more than 50 stars on the larger front grille and a skyful on the chromatic sunroof. The grille also houses four vertical chrome bars, and the frame is illuminated. Lighting the three-pointed star on the hood is optional. The headlights and taillights now have star-shaped daytime running lights, and the headlights feature blue lights that illuminate when the car is in hands-free mode.

“Looking at the hood and seeing the Mercedes star up front reminds you continually how special the car is,” associate editor Billy Rehbock said. “I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of that.”

Inside, there’s a festival of opulence. The optional Manufaktur package of our test vehicle added rich chocolate brown with quilted and bolstered leather seats and headrest pillows, along with copious layers of Alcantara, wood, and chrome trim. Not everyone was a fan of the standard 39.0-inch Superscreen spanning the cabin, which adds a screen where lovely wood used to go.

As mentioned, the S-Class now has Mercedes’ new 4.0-liter twin-turbo mild hybrid V-8, a flat-plane-crankshaft V-8 with a new firing order, intake camshaft, turbos, injectors, and port designs to improve performance while meeting global emissions standards for years to come. In the S580 it generates 530 horsepower and 533 lb-ft of torque in a superbly smooth manner. It’s quiet, with virtually no vibrations at idle. The S-Class is also available with a 3.0-liter I-6 that was slightly modified. Both engines are paired with a nine-speed automatic transmission.

“Superlative is probably the simplest way to describe this car,” said guest judge Johan de Nysschen, a former Volkswagen, Audi, Cadillac, and Infiniti executive. He said its agility is absurd for a vehicle of this size, and it has excellent body control.

We were impressed with its E-Active Body Control for intelligent damping, which collects data from other vehicles with the Mercedes operating system traveling on a given stretch of road. The car tagged big bumps and adjusted the shock and spring rates accordingly. Another cool tech feature: Curve drive mode acts like a counter lean on gentle curves, lifting the outside of the car like banking a plane.

The 2027 Mercedes-Benz S580 4Matic sedan starts at $136,050 but was optioned up to $180,500. The lineup includes the entry-level S500, which starts roughly $11,000 below the S580, and will expand to include the S580e plug-in hybrid, which is a late joiner to the lineup.

Pricey? Yes, but “I’m not sure there’s anything really comparable for any price,” buyer’s guide senior editor Matt Taylor said. “The S-Class is understated opulence with some new future-forward upgrades without compromising S-Class legacy aesthetics.”.”

This review was conducted as part of our 2027 Car of the Year (COTY) testing, where each vehicle is evaluated on our six key criteria: efficiency, design, safety, engineering excellence, value, and performance of intended function. Eligible vehicles must be all-new or significantly revised.