2014 Mercedes-Benz S-Class Wins World Luxury Car Honor

mb s class

Mercedes describes the all-new 2014 Mercedes-Benz S-Class as "not just our flagship, but the industry's," and it looks like the jurors for the annual World Car Awards agree. After all, in presenting the S-Class with this year's World Luxury Car trophy recently at the New York International Auto Show, those judges reported that: “Mercedes dominates the big luxury sedan market worldwide and the challenge of the sixth-generation S-Class was to be even better than the fifth-gen model. They did it by creating a car so far advanced in this segment that competitors pretty much have ceased trying to go head-to-head with the S. The exterior is completely new and the interior is spectacular on a whole new level."

That high praise comes from one of the most highly regarded global automotive awards programs, which this year based its selections on input from 69 international auto journalists, from 22 different countries, all working to provide an independent analysis of today's best vehicles. In fact, the World Car team goes out of its way to note: "There is no affiliation with, nor are the awards in any way influenced by any publication, auto show, automaker, or other commercial enterprise."

On the other hand, it was a bit odd to see the 2014 honor roll dominated by Deutschland. All five of the winners recognized by the World Car panel were from Germany, with the 2014 Mercedes-Benz S-Class being joined by the Audi A3 (overall World Car of the Year), Porsche 911 GTS (World Performance Car) and BMW i3 (World Car Design and World Green Car). Be that as it may, the S-Class certainly makes for a worthy choice, with a stunning array of lux features, from its hand-crafted interior with seats that can provide a hot-stone-style massage to its comprehensive, 360-degree obstacle-detection technologies to its 449-hp biturbo V8 engine.

The party line from Prof. Thomas Weber, member of the Board of Management Daimler AG, responsible for Group Research and Mercedes-Benz Cars Development: “It is not only our customers who expect a new S-Class to set standards—but also the journalists. The success of the S-Class in this category makes us very proud indeed, and once more demonstrates that we have met these expectations."