My Third Unicorn – Finally Scored an S600!

Here’s the reason I haven’t blogged recently.  Been stalking another car.  Only took me a year plus to stop rueing the S600 I passed up in order to buy Etta, my 911 unicorn.  To do that, I had to buy an S600.  Here’s the story of the 2008 Mercedes S600 that I transferred in from Nevada in December only to have my local CarMax dealer decline to sell it due to a dying transmission.  Was pretty pissed, but two weeks ago this 2010 S600 with 45,000 miles surfaced in Lancaster, PA – two hours north of me, and although it was $8,000 more it is nicer (the 2010 model is a facelift refresh with a few more electronic gizmos) and it is now mine.

The 2010 Mercedes S600 sold for about $160,000 new, and I picked it up for less than a quarter of that with a five-year MaxCare warranty good for 125,000 miles.  The V-12 beast has 510 hp, 612 ft-lbs of torque, and rips a mid-four second 0-60 mph run.  Here’s a review of the 2010 S-class, including the S600 in Car and Driver from back then.

My initial thoughts after a 300 mile run to North Carolina last weekend – the most comfortable 300 mile sprint I’ve ever made – are simple.  The car rides like a spa, on living room furniture, in a bank vault, on a bullet train.  Five feet of leg room is plenty.  Heating and massaging seats kept me fresh.  The Harman Kardon sound system was bright and clear and in minutes I mastered the console control knob to change Sirius channels and adjust the seat massage and flip to the map occasionally.   But it’s all about the engine.  I’ve owned an S-Class before (Guenther) that was almost as fast – but the V-12 is special.  Silky smooth even when the twin turbos are twirling – and rockets from whatever speed you’re at to whatever speed you want effortlessly, and my only complaint, silently.  I loved the raw power and rumble of my S55 V-8.  The S600 is a stealth bomber – the silent cockpit and refined engine totally conceal the violence under the hood.  This will take some getting used to.

On the drive to North Carolina I covered 300 miles with the auto cruise control set on 80 for much of the trip, ran it up above 100 a couple of times for thrills, and tried not to doze in peace when stuck in traffic – all said averaging 19 mpg.  I suspect I will get far less in traffic.  And my bonus – I finally own a car with night vision.  I still don’t know why this intrigues me so.  We shall see how the reliability goes and how soon I have to draw on MaxCare.  Will keep you posted, and will get back to finding unicorns for all.