Before we start, I'd like to announce the fact that this post is about the entire Mercedes S Class range from the first version in 1959 to the current 2012 S-class.
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| 1959 Gen. |
Technology development around the world is much the same. The military or the company who made it usually get first dibs, followed by industrial companies, commercial companies, the public as a whole and finally the poor people who buy it, 20 years later as a $3 bargain at an op-shop. Think of fax machines. In 1964, the first fax machines were huge, and cost huge sums of money to large multi-national companies (who were the only people who could afford them) Then, they became smaller, cheaper and slowly they became printers, scanners and faxes all in the same machine. Finally, Facebook and Twitter arrived with swords and pitchforks, ready to render the poor defenceless fax machine obsolete and doomed to the most horrific and humiliating of any technological lifestyle: The op-shop shelf.
This kind of technological timeframe can be applied to pretty much any type of technological breakthrough. When the original iPhone first came out, it was a hugely advanced and hugely expensive piece of kit, out of reach for most individuals. But then everyone had one, and soon the generation 1 iPhone became a $1 reserve item on eBay. What I'm trying to describe here, is the classic trickle-down effect that technology perfectly demonstrates. And there's only one car that perfectly demonstrates the car technology trickle-down effect: The Mercedes S-Class.
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| 1979 Gen. |
Luxury cars are a perfect platform for any car company to introduce a new piece of technology that will eventually make its way onto the manufacturers entire car range. Very few manufacturers (usually conservatives like Rolls Royce, Bentley and Bugatti) leave their top models with few creature comforts and technological advancements. The Mercedes S-Class was famous for being the car with the most 'firsts' on any car at any given decade. In fact, when you look at what most manufacturers are installing onto their cars nowadays, you'd be surprised to know that the S-Class had most of those so called 'new features' a whole decade before anyone else.
Just to illustrate the point, here is a list of features that the S-Class was first to be fitted with:
Three point seatbelts, airbags, anti-lock brakes, electronic stability program, automatic climate control, double glazing on all windows, rain sensing wipers, dark-sensing headlights, infrared night vision system, cruise control and radar guided cruise control, a car TV and to top it off, satellite navigation and voice activation.
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| 1991 Gen. |
Now, I'll be honest here, this is a hugely impressive list of firsts. Especially when you take into account that Mercedes had the ability to fit the mind bogglingly amazing radar guided cruise control system (which effectively allows the car to drive itself, though in straight lines only) in the 1980s S-Class, but couldnt because the radar system needed military clearance first. Remember that 1980s cars were considered high tech if they had anti lock brakes, and here was a car that could come to a complete stop from 100kph ALL ON ITS OWN!
So what do we have here? A yardstick? A flagship of progress? Or is the Mercedes S-Class just another luxury barge for the world's bankers and dictators to be driven around in? I believe that the S-Class is a perfect tool for predicting future groundbreaking advances in car technology. Every S-Class since the first one came out in 1959 has had some sort of new technology that no one else has had at the time. It is a way of looking into the future to see what sort of features will be fitted to everyday cars of the future. The S-Class may not have the same luxury spirit as a Rolls Royce, or the occasion of a Bugatti. It may be out of reach for most people (unless you get an old one) but for me, the S-Class remains the ultimate in technology and luxury. Plus, what other production cars need military clearance before they can be sold?
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| 2011 Gen |
