You know, the W140 S Class you mentioned was truly a marvel of engineering for Mercedes. It actually blew away its initial budget and MB lost money on the car as a whole. Unfortunately those cars were so overly complex that things broke a lot, and when they broke they were astronomically expensive to fix. The A/C evaporator fixes on those were somewhere between 2 and 4000.00 to fix because the entire dash-board had to come out. Every last piece. Really, the W140 was just about as close to a mainstream Bentley or Rolls as any mainstream manufacturer ever got in terms of over-building the car.

The W220 that came after it was therefore significantly cheapened (and has one of the WORST factory sound systems I've ever auditioned) in order to quickly recoup the cost of engineering the car. They were also full of their own problems for the first few years and only got somewhat better later on. The W220 WAS however, a gorgeous automobile to look at.

My partner now has a 2009 W221 S Class and while it is more Nissan Altima than Mercedes S Class looks-wise, the interior is just absolutely out of this world in detail and execution. Leather everywhere, gorgeous instrument cluster with TWO huge LCD panels, amazing sound system, and a return to the fit and finish you would expect from a Merc product. In 22000 miles I think he has only had 1 unscheduled service visit for something minor. The 2010 and 2011 now come with a Parallax Barrier center stack LCD screen that can show the passenger a movie while the driver sees an entirely different map, audio or climate display.

 

Wow! I never knew that about the W140! I really really wanted to own one sometime in my life too...lol maybe when they're like 3k or less. I got to experience a W220 around a parking lot before I got my license, man was that a nice drive! Getting a ride in these things early on really let me appreciate just how nice these executive cars are. The screen in the W221 sounds similar to that of the new Range Rover (as seen on Top Gear). I was blown away by how cool that tech is! I will have to wait like 10 more years before the W221s become reasonably priced...sigh...at least I will be able to enjoy the 430 in that time frame

 

I'm at 165K on my 2006 LS. Maintenance is key to these cars. Change oil every 3K, change trans fluid at 140K, change rear gear oil at 90K, change brake fluid at 60K or every 4 years. Other than pads/rotors, mirror switch (easy to change), headlight level gizmo under drivers side rear (easy to change), timing belt at 100K, all four wheel bearings replaced at 140K there haven't been any problems. Pretty hard to beat that record. Plus you get this great forum to ask any question you could ever come up with and get a pretty detailed response.

 

Life is short so buy the car that makes you happy. I wouldn't trade my 04 LS for any of the cars mentioned in this thread but that's just me. Definitely purchase a good extended warranty when buying a used German car. Then you can enjoy the style and status without the bad taste of expensive repairs that ruin the experience.
I actually have an extended 100k warranty on my LS; hope I never have to use it but it's there. Ironically the most reliable cars I've owned had an extended warranty. It was a couple of Mercedes out of warranty that I got tired of repairing. They're beautiful cars with an amazing ride but I've definitely been converted to the world of Lexus.

Just my two cents.

 

The next time you see a German car running or even driving with 200K or 300K miles on them, let us know! The LS models in particular have a good track record for running into high miles with only minor/basic up-keep!

 

300K+ miles totally doable on MBZ S Class so long as your credit card doesnt get maxed out!