Simply Abu Dhabi XXX

2 8 1 S I M P LY A B U DH A B I P lease don’t tell me that ‘smell’ is the next big thing in car creature comforts? Right now the car design world is in the midst of an interior ambient lighting war to see who can out mood everyone else with rainbow-coloured LED lighting, but Mercedes-Benz has lifted the game to a whole new level with the facelifted S-Class and AMG models. Yep, while we were driving around the Swiss Alps in the range- topping S 63 AMG and S560 variants, I noticed the ‘Energizing Comfort’ menu which is designed to create an interior ambience via audio, lighting, seat massaging - and fragrance. You have the options of Refresh, Vitality, Joy, Well Being and Training and while it provides its own music to match, it can also tap into your collection so long as the beats per minute are appropriate with the aromatic themes. I wish I were making this up, but every word is true as Mercedes looks for that extra edge to keep its S-Class as the premium luxury car on the road. The midlife makeover for the S-Class comprises 6,500 new parts including new engines, interior and exterior tweaks as well as enhanced autonomous driving features taken from the E-Class. Its cruise control works off GPS info and so now can adjust its speed for corners, intersections and speed limit changes. It’s a weird feeling to witness it slow for bends then accelerate out the other side with no driver input but it even carries more corner speed when you’re in the Sport and Sport+ modes. When it’s in the default Comfort driving mode, the cruise control slows the car down quite significantly for the curves at a rate more than either I or the driver behind me were expecting. It then quickly accelerates back to the set speed which probably is not giving your driving prowess the best reputation for those behind who may want to overtake. So we preferred to keep it in Sport or Sport+ mode which carried the extra momentum through the corners. Active Lane Changing Assist has also been added and operates as easily as bumping the indicator stalk. Give it a nudge to change lanes and the car will scan the space and move into the next lane for you. It even includes a feature called Curve which tilts the vehicle while cornering by up to 2.65 degrees. This wipes out lateral g-forces felt by the passengers, giving the sensation that the car is gliding effortlessly through the bends at speed. Our test car for the most part was the S 63 AMG 4Matic+ which now uses the 4-litre V8, down from 5.5-litres, but is still twin turbocharged and puts out a very welcome 603bhp developed at 5500rpm and 900Nm of torque which comes on tap from as low as 2750rpm. Technically, this model isn’t the top of the S-Class range, as that honour goes to the V12-powered S 65 4Matic+, but personally I prefer the S 63 because it’s lighter than the V12 yet only fractionally less powerful.