BOLD RIDE
Typically, when I get a car to review, I have a general sense of direction. Am I going to illegally drag race it? How many dogs can I fit in the back seat? Where’s the worst place to park it?
But when I got a hold of the new Mercedes-Benz S550 Coupe, my brain turned into mush— and I wasn’t exactly sure how to handle it. The Mercedes S-Class Coupe has so many features and is so ridiculously posh, I felt like I needed an Adderall just to figure it all out in a week.
Obviously, the first thing you notice is the exterior. Though I’m not quite in love with the rest of the Mercedes lineup (sans the AMG GT), it’s hard to fault Mercedes designers here. The S-Class Coupe is beautiful, as it always has been, and it imposes a presence on anyone who comes face to face with it. Kind of a ‘Look at me, I’m clearly better than you,’ sort of vibe.
The front end is sculpted beautifully. The grille and headlights form seamlessly together, and the body lines from front to back look like something out of a dirty magazine. There’s even Swarovski crystals in the headlights because luxury (a $10,000 option). Once you’re done ogling over the exterior, you open the door to find an interior that deserves even more of your attention.
The S550 is coated in red leather from top to bottom. If Mercedes hasn’t perfected the art of red leather, show me someone that has. It’s like they’ve been breeding a single species of cow since 1926, just to get the leather perfect on the new S-Class. It’s supple, it has great color and texture, and it covers pretty much every inch of the interior from the dash to the seats to the door sills.
As soon as your arousel level goes from strange to relatively sane, your eyes lose focus of the red leather, and shift to the center console which houses a dial knob, a touchscreen mouse, some dynamic buttons, some more touchscreen buttons, a back button, another back button— it’s kind of a mess at first. But honestly, it’s still one of the easier systems to use once you figure out what each button does. That should take you a few days of playing around with it.
Under the hood is a not-so-intimidating 4.7-liter V8 Biturbo. Though, it doesn’t really need to be in a $150,000 luxury coupe. You get a sneaky amount of horsepower at 449 and the option to drive it in either Comfort or Sport. Surprisingly, as big as it is, put it in sport and the thing actually handles pretty well.
So you get a jaw-dropping design, a plush interior, and enough power and handling to keep things interesting— it’s not just some big luxury cloud. The Mercedes S550 Coupe seems to tick all the right boxes, and at $149,575 (as tested), it’s pricey, but not astronomically more expensive than anything in its class.
If you’re looking for a way to transform your life from bland to ballin’, then the Mercedes S550 coupe might be the perfect vehicle for you.
Specs:
Horsepower: 449
Engine: 4.7-liter V8 Biturbo
Price (as tested): $149,575
Positives:
Gorgeous design
Surprisingly good handling
Plush interior
Negatives:
Cluttered buttons
Cramped rear seat
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