MERE LUXURY; Could you settle for the world's best sedan?(News)

Byline: KEVIN A. WILSON

Only in a world of Blue Train Bentleys, Rolls-Royce Phantoms and Maybach 62s could a Mercedes-Benz S600 be considered second-tier. And yet that's the world we live in. Who ever imagined a V12 S-Class, top of the Stuttgart luxury sedan range, might be considered at least a rung below the aforementioned twice-the-price status symbols? In place of opulence and ostentation, it offers mere luxury.

Let's clarify. By "mere'' luxury, we mean a silky smooth ride even over rough pavement (unless you push a button asking for a more responsive chassis), an abundant and ultra-smooth flow of power delivered instantly, and enough gizmos and features to keep you ultra-safe, entertained and soothed. Heck, the seats inflate their bolsters on the appropriate side if you take an off-ramp rapidly, or deliver massages whenever you wish. From wood-and-leather cabin trimmings to the whisper-quiet progress at autobahn speeds (aided by a 0.26 Cd), the S600 caters to its occupants in every way imaginable. It just doesn't try to drive that point home to casual observers-it's long on luxury but relatively modest on the bling scale.

For those who prefer to fly below the radar of the hoi polloi, reserving our comforts for ourselves and not making too big a deal of it, the S600 is not quite perfect-it is new to America, freshly styled and costs most of $150,000, so it draws commensurate attention on the road. But it's attention of the admiring-glance variety, not the awed, gape-mouthed drooling inspired by a Rolls or a Maybach. No paparazzi mistook us for Paris Hilton's entourage, no one risked a collision craning his neck to see which NBA star or hip-hop artist might be aboard.

If they had, all they would have seen were two tall, adult male offspring who thought riding behind dad in the reclining, heated and cooled rear seats sounded like a better-and cheaper-way to get to grandma's for Easter dinner than driving their own beaters. No need to pull the front seats forward-even a six-foot-four guy finds enough room in back. With four aboard and the gas-sucking truck back home in the drive, we didn't feel so bad about doing 17.2 mpg in a car whose base price includes a $3,000 guzzler tax.

We did wonder some if the new seven-speed transmission found in the V8-powered S550 ("Technowonder,'' Nov. 28, 2005) might not improve the fuel ...