Mercedes-Benz : S-Class Leather

The Mercedes-Benz S-class which was unveiled in September of 1979 in Frankfurt did not appeal to many at first glance. The design team. led by Bruno Sacco was intending to produce a vehicle that was faster. lighter. and much more sleep that the previous W116 S-class.

 
To allow occupants to see the ground when exiting the vehicle in the dark. courtesy lights were placed on the underside of car doors. Dual stage heated front seats. 8 way powered. and with two setting memory functions for both front occupants to retain position of power adjustable steering column and seat position for driver. and seat position for front passenger were made available. A rear 'Chesterfield' bench seat that was 2-way powered. with dual stage heated (before 1990 SELs) was made standard on flagship 500 SEL and 560 SEL models and came with 4-way manually adjustable rear headrests.

Individual. power adjustable rear seats were made available as an option on the 500 SEL and 560 Sel. These were made available with a burl walnut grained center console that replaced the enter seat and allowed for 2+2 seating format.

Utilizing an interior temperature sensor to effectively adjust the interior temperature a fully automatic climate control system was installed. Mounted close to the sunroof. a sensor could detect when the roof was ajar by the cool wind chills and call upon the system to adjust heat flow accordingly. Placed below the speedometer. an exterior temperature sensor would display the exterior temperature and was set in the main instrument console.

A topographical sensor that would monitor the vehicle's position. whether on an incline or decline was placed in the four-speed automatic transmission. When coasting downhill. the result was an astounding capacity that would ‘hold back' acceleration without using the brake pedal after coming to a complete stop on a steep incline. With a cruise control function that allowed for a freedom of the sudden throttle inputs and undesired downhill excesses that plagued many other current cruise control systems. the W12 cruise control function utilized the transmission's topographical sensor to appropriately add and cut back the throttle effectively as needed.

Though most of these features are available on most modern luxury vehicles today. these were considered to be extremely significant features during the 1980's. These innovative features. along with the renowned durability of Mercedes-Benz added effectively to the appeal of the W126.

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