While it is silly to claim that any car is the "best in the world" (best at what, exactly?), there are people who reckon Mercedes is doing a pretty good job of making the S-Class exactly that.

Nearly all S-Classes are luxury saloons with a choice of short (but not very short) and long wheelbases and a wide range of engines with between four and twelve cylinders. There are three hybrids, one of them a plug-in whose battery pack can be charged through the mains.

There are also Coupe versions of the 500, the 63 AMG and the 65 AMG. Previous cars of this type were known as CL-Class until Mercedes changed its naming policy in 2014.

Performance

The slowest S-Class of all is the S 300 BlueTEC Hybrid, which can accelerate from 0-62mph in 7.6 seconds and carry on to a maximum of 149mph. It's very unlikely that anyone would need (as opposed to want) to go faster than this, but all other S-Classes can do so.

Everything from the 449bhp S 500 upwards can get from 0-62mph in under five seconds. The ultimate straightline performance is provided by the 621bhp S 65 AMG Coupe, which does the same run in 4.1 seconds. The S 63 AMG Coupe is just 0.1 seconds slower. Saloons trail Coupes by 0.2 seconds.

Ride and Handling

Grip levels are very high, but the faster versions can occasionally feel as if they have a little more power than they can cope with.

Despite the above, every version of the S-Class feels more like a luxury car than a sporting one. Grip levels are very high, but the faster versions can occasionally feel as if they have a little more power than they can cope with, and it would be unwise to take liberties. Ride quality is generally extremely high, and not badly affected if the car in question has been fitted with large wheels and low-profile tyres since the suspension has been set up with these in mind.

Interior and Equipment

The S-Class was named the World Car of the Year for 2014 by an international jury of female motoring writers.

The technology available for the S-Class, either as standard or in the form of optional extras, is little short of phenomenal. Highlights include the ability to read the road ahead and prepares the suspension to deal with sudden bumps, a function for leaning into corners and an ability to display infrared images of hidden people or animals on to the instrument panel at night. The front passenger seat can be moved very far forward, giving whoever is sitting behind it a phenomenal amount of room in long-wheelbase models. As should be the case with a luxury car, noise levels are extremely low. To take two examples, the four-cylinder note of the engine in the 300 BlueTEC Hybrid is disappointing, but you can rarely hear it, and when you're cruising at 50mph in the S 63 AMG Coupe it's almost impossible to tell whether you're in third, fourth, fifth or sixth without checking the gear selector display. Luggage capacity depends on the exact model, and varies between 470 and 510 litres for the saloon. Coupe boots are roughly 100 litres smaller.

Cost

It could not be cheaper to tax, for both private and business customers, and it's one of the few cars still to be exempt from the London congestion charge now that the threshold has dropped to 75g/km.

The more powerful models are inevitably very expensive to run, but the S-Class experience can cost surprisingly little on a day-to-day basis. The outstanding model in this respect is the S 500 Plug-In Hybrid. Cars of this type generally have very impressive official "green" figures, and this one is no exception with its combined fuel economy of 100.9mpg and 65g/km CO2 emissions. It could not be cheaper to tax, for both private and business customers, and it's one of the few cars still to be exempt from the London congestion charge now that the threshold has dropped to 75g/km. It should be remembered, though, that the fuel economy of plug-in hybrids depends on how you drive them even more than is the case with more conventional models. Perhaps more reliable are the 61.4mpg and 120g/km of the S 300 BlueTEC Hybrid (a non-plug-in diesel model), which will cost just £30 per year in Vehicle Excise Duty. The petrol/electric S 400 Hybrid is also worth mentioning for its combination of 44.8mpg combined economy and 328bhp maximum power output. Running costs are to some extent inversely proportional to purchase cost. S-Class pricing starts at just under £63,000, but the cheapest hybrid (the S 400) costs nearly £70,000, the S 300 BlueTEC over £72,000 and the S 500 Plug-In not far short of £90,000. These things are relative, though: the S 65 AMG Coupe costs more than £180,000 before you start asking for optional extras.

Our Verdict

It's a tribute to the breadth of ability within Mercedes that the same company which builds vans, lorries and the A-Class hatchback can also turn its hand so effectively to a range of luxury saloons and coupes with such a wide variety of powertrains.  The S-Class may not have the visual drama of a Bentley or a Rolls-Royce, but it's tremendously refined, dynamically impressive and, depending on which one you go for, astonishingly economical or thunderingly fast or something in between. There isn't an S-Class for everyone - few people will ever be able to afford even the least expensive example - but there is one to suit a remarkable number of people within its potential customer base.