PEEP SHOW: 2021 Mercedes S-Class Caught Almost Totally Nude

Very unimpressive. The face looks like a bad Chinese counterfeit. The tail lights look like they come from a yesteryear Mazda or Infiniti.

Genesis called - they want their car back...

Genesis wishes.

No, flek, it is that horrible looking.

But Darringer you said the same thing about the X7 (if I recall, called it a turd vs. the Telluride) and now you fap over it. Not saying it's bad or you're wrong for the initial opinion, but maybe wait for the production version.

The Telluride is definitely the better luxury crossover versus the BMW X5/7 for two reasons: (1) astounding value and (2) better reliability. BUT no one will cross shop them so the point is largely moot. We have an X7 and while I love it, the Telluride loaner I had, I would take over the X7 in a heartbeat. The Telluride is 90% as good for 50% of the price and that is hard to dismiss.

Put the Stinger turbo in a 2-door version of the Telluride, with wide track and wheels/tires and I'd be in there in a heartbeat.

A market of one vehicle

Sales will be in the toilet now that the SUVs have much nicer interiors than the previous generations...

One day the grille is gonna gulp the headlights

Interior is a mess. I’m okay with the screens, but the steering wheel, the sweet back dash and the vents are horrible. Not a good look. Also why was it at a junkyard???

I'm convinced that part of Tesla's success is that they are the only company who has not adopted the massive grill design language.

My grille is bigger than yours, no its not, yes it is, no its not etc etc.

What goes in the hole in the dash behind the LCD screen?

That is a plain burger interior for a Mercedes Benz S-Class. Very much on the Tesla minimalist bandwagon here. They can do better. The Model S will get a new lease on life if they give it a new look and interior.

Not sure how I feel on this. Not a fan of the squinty headlights and taillights. Those taillights look like they can stab an eye out. And they both seem to contradict with the rounder design of the rest of the body. Odd choice.

On the interior, I love the clean(er) design, which the S-class has leaned on for a few generations now. That said, that's better be on heck of a head up display based on that cave behind the primary display. The dashboard vents look cheap,but I said the same in the GLE/GLS and they are quality. The outboard vents look like they should have been incorporated into one unit, with two separate directional functions - looks weird as two separate outlets.

Guess we'll wait for finished product. I will say, despite my comments, it's better than either the A8 or 7 Series. So, there's that.

Hoo boy, lot to digest here.

The back end looks really low-rent, I'm surprised by that.

The front is hard to gauge; it's one bad angle, so it's hard to say right now. That being said, the shape of that grille looks like a child's drawing. The corners and angels don't have a precision or sophistication to them. Grilles of that size and that shape don't look good with such widely-spaced bars; the brightwork needs to be much denser (a greater number of more tightly spaced bars, or a mesh pattern). On the other hand it's also very upright so it has the chance to invoke an imposing stance as well. We have to wait until the official premier though to pass final judgement.

On the inside, I think this thing is going to be very sensitive to color and trim. In black with black trim, it's not amazing but also not bad the more I look at it. The center air vents look kind of after-market to me, not a fan (no pun intended). The way the instrument cluster hangs there over the steering wheel is not appealing to me; the fact that you can see the lower corners and edge makes it look really tacked on. People are speculating about that huge cavern on the dash, it might be either a crazy augmented reality HUD, or maybe the instrument cluster retracts into it, or maybe it retracts and becomes the HUD display driver? Who knows, it's very intriguing. I actually like the side vents too. This interior with a light color and a rich-looking wood trim across the whole dash could really look like an upscale yacht, there's major potential there. I wonder if what we see here is (shockingly) cheap black plastic like in the Audi A8, or true lacquered "piano" black wood?

The seat pattern is a Bentley rip-off, but it works.

In the back, I'm seeing removable tablets a la 7-Series and A8.

Of course, the elephant in the room is the touchscreen. I'm still on record as saying this is not the best way to control functions in cars, at least not at the expense of hard buttons. I miss the way the buttons give the appearance of fine metalwork throughout the cabin. I bet it looks great in the showroom, but you'll have problems on the road, unless the UI has been given some amazing overhaul.

Looks like a refresh of the prior gen..same droopy soap bar shape, new front end and rear end, more flat-screens.

Very derivative. Doors, windscreen, back-light all seem (to my naked eye) to be about the same size as the prior generation. Did they keep the platform and just layer on new styling?

OK, I've stared at this during my morning conference calls. While my initial reaction still stands, I've warmed up to a lot of the key elements. The rear taillights will work better here than on the E-class because of the flow of the C-pillar. The headlights are non-issue, thought the grille is a bit too rounded for my tastes, thought gladly not angular in the way the Audi grilles are today and certainly a far cry from Lexus' grilles.

The interior, the more I look at it and imagine the true angle of seating is going to be gorgeous. The screen placements are much better than Audi's current config. That expanse of wood/metal in the section right of the main instrument and behind the center screen is going to add a nice, modern clean touch. The cavernous HUD display unit will be out of sight of the drive. The symmetrical placement of the outboard and center vents works well, though I'm still not a fan of the small rectangular center vents - would have worked better as one seamless unit with 4 different directional functions.

It just isn't patrician enough to be an S Class.

I get the feeling more and more that big auto giving design preference to EV models over ICE units in an effort to gain acceptance.

And if this plus the EQuuS sell more than the S Class by itself, Mercedes wins.

The Model S will get a new lease on life if they give it a new look and interior.
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So you think they'll just scrap this one?

tail lights look like they come from the current gen A class, whoch is turn looks like old japanese cars, been there done that... Merc is going downhill if they think this is the latest and greatest

Mercedes-Benz missed the mark on the new S-Class. The front grille is far too big (just like the Audi A8 and BMW 7-Series) and the headlights are too small. The tailights do not give a grand presence. The lack of buttons will be a turnoff for the older traditional crowd that is the S-Class customer.

The sales will be lower for the S-Class than in previous generations because of the design that lacks presence along with increasing sales of SUVs that will steal some potential S-Class buyers.

You do realize that there are very few buttons in the last 2 generations of the S-Class, right?

I’d choose the LS or A8/S8 way before this.

The new XJ apparently is a damned hatchback.