Mercedes S-Class W140: The greatest S-Class of them all?

So much sweat, toil and cash was spent on the development of the Mercedes-Benz S-Class W140 that it was nicknamed the Billion Dollar Car. At the time, it was the most refined and luxurious saloon you could buy, and as a result the German brand sold nearly half a million of them over its seven-year lifespan.

If you’re the sort of person who finds the S-Class interesting (and who could blame you?), you’ll probably understand why the luxury saloon acts as a pioneer of new technology - and never more so was this the case than with the W140.

But aside from the self-closing doors, double glazing and surprisingly rocky reception at the 1991 Geneva motor show, what else makes this car so interesting? Read on to find out…

This was Mercedes’ fattest saloon for decades, conceived during an economic boom, built as solid as a pyramid and rammed with technology. It carried as many motors as a robotics factory, its seats whirring every which-way, its doors soft-closing themselves shut, its rear bumper so distant that a pair of chrome prongs motored skywards from the rear wings so that you could see where this Benz ended rather than hearing it. 

But the W140 was all about bad-timing; this fat, arrogant, ugly-looking car arriving on the crest of a fresh-whipped recession, like Mr Obese making a dive-bombing arrival at a pool party just as the drinks are running out. Mercedes got flack at its Frankfurt show unveiling, and lots of it. Its case wasn’t helped by the W140’s look, which was heavy, ill-proportioned, graceless and unsubtle. 

Just as you’d expect, the W140 was luxuriantly spacious, plushly accommodating and hermetically quiet with those double-glazed doors, and despite its heft, most of the six and eight cylinder motors could propel its three-pointed star with the authority of the dictators who would ride in it. But the best bit of S-Class motoring, the most unexpected bit, was the way that you could pilot a car that was as big as a continent through a set of s-bends. 

This Mercedes could move with the alacrity of gymnasts and GTIs. It stopped, too. The unlikeliness of this performance would be rammed home if you glanced in the rear-view mirror to see a living room’s worth of carpet, upholstery and woodwork following on. 

Driving the door handles off a W140 is best performed alone rather than with ricocheting passengers, and preferably with a throbbing V8. Or better still, with a BMW 7 Series. 

This is because S-Classes are best spent with more sedate lives, shuttling business types, hotel guests, bankers, diplomats and politicians around the world, with many racking up moon-shot mileages in the process. 

Looking at the prices of S-Classes in 2024, the cheapest example we could find was a 1996, 160,000 miles S320, priced at £2300. We also spotted a 1998, 68,000 miles S320, which was on sale for £6000.