When we start seeing German cars testing here in Southern California, it generally means two things: 1) The cars are nearing the end of their development with months left to go before being revealed, and 2) they’re undergoing emissions and final suspension tuning for the U.S.
The 2014 Mercedes-Benz S-Class has landed in sunny Southern California, making the rounds while wrapped in thick layers of camouflage. A friend of Automotive.com sent us these pictures of the car he saw on the highway.
While not much is known about the 2014 Mercedes-Benz S-Class quite yet, we know it will have inflatable rear seatbelts and spawn short versions, long versions, an ultra-luxury limousine model called the Pullman, a coupe, and a convertible, among other variants. We may or may not get all of those cars at some point or another. Like the current car, power is expected to come from everything from diesel engines to V-6s, hybrids, and turbocharged V-8 and V-12 engines.
We don’t know exactly what’s under the hood of the car seen here, but with four exhaust pipes protruding from underneath the rear bumper without chrome exhaust tips, we’re going to say it’s likely one of the high-horsepower V-8s. The wheels suggest a yeoman’s version of the car, likely what you’d find on a German taxi instead of a $ 100,000 luxury land yacht. But, as we’ve said, Mercedes is likely still tuning its suspension with various wheel and tire packages.
At the 2012 Paris Motor Show, Mercedes-Benz showed a metal sculpture of the profile of the 2014 S-Class to stir some buzz. Our sister publication Motor Trend has also gotten a pretty good look at the car, albeit with less camouflage covering its details. With the amount of coverage we’re seeing of the S-Class these days, we expect to see it soon without the wrapp ings. September’s Frankfurt Motor Show would prove the ideal location to reveal Mercedes-Benz’s most sophisticated, technologically advanced model to date.
Photos courtesy of Jerrod D. Strauss
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