[TheGame]

I called my dealer today out of curiosity to see if they had an S-Class that's touring dealers for display, and it turns out they got their very own demo model an hour before I called. I drove straight down to the dealer. The salesman and I found it in the back of the lot (it literally just came off the truck) and got in. Which was cool being the first person in the car and peeling the protective saran wrap off the steering wheel and dash!

We started it (couldn't drive yet due to no plates, plus the body was covered in the protective wrapping). What's funny is we played with the new Comand interface and figured out how to use everything in the car - everything - in under 20 minutes. It is MUCH easier to use than the W220 Comand, which isn't as hard as people make it out to be if you ask me. Finally, the Germans have added more features and technology and made it all easy to use! Nice! Even the nav was much easier to enter an address and use. And the map looks awesome on that screen, and you can pan around on it much like you can with Google maps. Cool!

Also gotta love the radio tuner. Go to radio and it brings up a graphic of an old-fashioned slide rule tuner, and turning the Comand controller lets you tune up and down the slide. Manual radio controls to override the Comand mouse are located on the console at your fingertips.

The quality of the interior is greatly improved over the 220. I mean it's really nice. The switches feel very, very solid, much more so than the 220. The overall quality of materials is far superior. The wood trim looked perfectly smooth (I can see imperfections in mine in sunlight) and the fit and finish is just beautiful all around. The dash is covered in leather, a nice standard feature to have considering it was only available on S55 and S600 before. It really adds a lot of depth to the interior and rids it of the plastic feel.

And speaking of feel, being in the car just feels more solid all around. Even the way the doors close harken back to the "bank vault" days ... the pneumatic door closers aren't overly intrusive like on the 220. The door closes with a lighter touch and with that signature "thud."

In any case I'm impressed. I'm going back tomorrow to drive it once it's road-ready. And likely putting down my deposit to order a new one ... it's already at least 6 months out to get one!!!!

(An afterthought: I don't like the body design as much as the 220. This new car has a sort of stubby look to it and it reminds me of the Ford 500. The 220 is sleeker. But after being in the inside I can easily look past the body and have been daydreaming all day about driving in that lap of luxury!)