I had the pleasure of driving a W222 for over a month while my W221 S600 was being fixed; my verdict on the W222? I still day dream about driving it.

I am not a fan of the way it looks on the outside, and the interior is not as luxurious as a 221, but the way she handled.....I was in love.

I especially liked the noticeable change between sport and comfort mode. I took the W222 to the local track and did one lap in comfort and could barely keep up with the pace car, laps 2-4 were amazing. You can feel the car change when you press the button, suspension in noticeably tighter and she shifts at higher rpm's and faster.

I was not happy when they said my 221 was ready; it's only 40 miles to the dealership but somehow my trip that day was 113 lol!

Anyhoooo I really liked my W221 S600, but after driving the 222, I was scouring the Internet looking for ways to improve the suspension on her, I tend to drive my cars the same way I ride my motorcycle (on two wheels in a corner); and I found the W221 was like a ship (she was called the Enterprise), great for straight line speed, but not great for maneuvering up and down twisty roads.

Now I unfortunately crashed my car in December last year; and in my search for a new car; I stumbled upon a 2008 S63, and that was the answer to my prayers. A body style and interior that I love, suspension that tucks into corners better than Valentino Rossi and that AMG exhaust growl that turns heads when I start her up.

I'm sure one day the W222 body style will start looking good to me (took 7 years before I liked the 221) and when it does, the day dreams will be over.


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Oh sorry forgot, get the 222, you will be impress by just how responsive the V8 is. And all the electronic doo-dads on it make driving a pleasure.


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Way over priced. You can find a fully loaded s550 4matic for the same price, and I mean loaded... you just have to be patient and subscribe to Autotrader, Cars.com etc....

 

Thanks, Kawagirl - always love your writeups!

Despite coming very late to this thread, I just traded my W221 for a 2015 W222 - here are some observations.

Although I do not drive in the environments that Kawagirl does, I love the feel of the W222; as one commenter said recently, like a rolling cloud. It is smooth, but its handling is great - and one can certainly tell the differences in the various suspension and transmission modes.

The electronics are marvelous. I LOVE the wide screen display- and note that while MB stopped providing nav map data updates for the 2013 W221 in 2014 (the year after I bought my '13 W221), it still provides updates for the W222 NTG 5/5.5 system. The 360 degree camera system is tremendous and well thought out. The rear view is wide, much easier to see traffic approaching from the rear sides as you back out. The front camera makes avoidance of curb stops and raised curbs that take out your front bumper a simple matter; and the generated top view shows that you are properly lined up between parking stripes.

I love the interior styling - it is sportier than the W221. However, I really do not like the lack of armrest storage in the doors, front and back. The W221 was better in that department. I have ordered some inserts for the W222 doors that increase the storage, so that my reading glasses aren't buried under the short umbrella I keep there.

The W221 had plenty of ashtrays. No big deal to me, I don't smoke or allow it in my car; but the dearth of such on the W222 could bother some. I use my W222 front ash tray for coin and small key storage; but the front ash tray doesn't lend itself to easy coin retrieval (and the coin storage in the glove box handles only 6 coins). MB makes a cup-shaped ash tray for the cup holders, front and back, and provides an odd insert in at least one back door storage area to hold one of the cupholder ashtrays. The cupholder ashtray is meant to fit into the fold-out cupholders in the rear center armrest; they must be folded in to raise the armrest, so the cupholder ashtray must be stored elsewhere. That's what the lower door insert is for.

Front seat storage compartments are back in the W222; had them in my W220, missed them in the W221. I have the basic Burmester 13 speaker sound system (MARVELOUS! - an improvement on the H-K system in the W221), which leaves a space in the trunk under the rear deck that the W221 lacked. Nice to have, there is more flat space available in the trunk because of it; but the subfloor space is small because there is no spare tire (the run-flats issue). If you are buying used, check that the TireFit pump and sealant for a flat tire are there - mine were missing, around $250 to replace.

Speaking of the audio system, while I could get music via Bluetooth in the W221 using a Tune2Air device connected to the MMI inputs, including the ability to show and search playlists (as well as titles, albums and artists), I was not able to get the USB counterpart to the MMI Tune2Air (the ViseeO 1000) to work via the USB inputs in the W222. Getting music to play from my phone via Bluetooth was simple, but connecting that way lacked the search feature. I can connect an iPod or iPod Touch via the USB ports and get the search feature - plus I think the sound is slightly better with the wired vs the Bluetooth connection. I don't know why the ViseeO 1000 would not work as the tune2Air used to.

I love the exterior styling of both the W221 and W222. I put a 9-level hardness ceramic coat on the W221, and it was going strong after 2 years of exposure to outside weather (I do not have covered parking where I live now). I will be doing that on the W222 as well.

Overall, a good experience.