Updates for 2027 include a larger and now illuminated grille and new headlights, now with tri-star elements and advanced micro-LED lighting performance.Mercedes-Benz Group AG/Courtesy of manufacturer
The onslaught of SUVs in the Canadian “car” market has not been confined to just the mainstream. If anything, it’s had an even greater impact in the high-luxury sedan segment that once represented the automotive aristocracy.
Case in point: in 2000, the Mercedes S-Class was one of seven full-size sedans in the segment (nine if you included Rolls-Royce and Bentley), and Mercedes sold almost 1,500 of them in an overall Canadian market of 1.55 million. Last year, only four of those $100,000-plus sedan nameplates remained, and the segment-leading S-Class found only 331 buyers, even in an overall market that had grown to 1.9 million.
Meanwhile, Mercedes moved a combined 2,353 copies of its $100,000-plus GLS and G-Wagen SUVs in 2025.
But while most rivals have abandoned the segment, the S-Class is more than just a potential profit centre for its maker. Arguably the archetype of the genre, the brand’s flagship sedan is an icon that, over the decades, has also pioneered numerous industry-first engineering innovations.
No surprise, then, that despite the onslaught of the SUVs, the S-Class sedan has been renewed for 2027. No surprise, either, that given the shrinking of its segment, Mercedes chose not to invest in an entirely new-from-the-ground-up redesign. The 2027 model, which was officially revealed Thursday at the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart, Germany is an evolution of the current V223 generation that made its North American debut in 2021.
Still, with more than 50 per cent of its components newly developed or re-engineered, the company claims this to be “the most comprehensive update for a single S-Class generation to date.”
As well, in a bid no doubt to offset the reduced volumes, Mercedes is nudging S-Class further upmarket toward Rolls-Royce exclusivity. To that end, the 2027 model adds multiple new paint, leather and trim options that will allow money-no-object buyers to spend big on personalizing their cars.
The 2026 S-er’s basic underpinnings and exterior sheet-metal carry over in the 2027, but with visual updates to the details such as the grille (larger, and now illuminated), headlights (now with tri-star elements and advanced micro-LED lighting performance), vents and fascias. An illuminated version of the standing star on the prow is a new option, while new taillights also incorporate the star motif.
For now, we’re told Canada will receive two models, both long-wheelbase and propelled by updated gasoline engines. That said, hotrod AMG and ultra-luxe Maybach versions will no doubt follow, and a plug-in hybrid offered elsewhere is a maybe, depending on future Canadian ZEV regulations and mandates. Customers for a full electric S-Class continued to be served by the EQS sedan, which is built on a completely different architecture.
Canada will receive two models, both are long-wheelbase versions.Mercedes-Benz Group AG/Courtesy of manufacturer
The Canadian-market S500 4MATIC and S580 4MATIC versions are still respectively propelled by a three-litre inline six-cylinder engine and a four-litre V8. Both are still turbocharged and feature 48-volt mild-hybrid technology, but power and torque have been boosted even while noise and vibration levels have been further reduced. Most notably, the V8 switches to a flat-plane crankshaft, which provides an even firing order of the cylinders, replacing the uneven firing order and the consequent off-beat whooffle (beloved by many) of conventional V8s.
On the electronics side, the new S-Class also embodies the company’s new operating system, MB.OS, first seen on the 2027 CLA sedan. This new electrical and electronic architecture regulates not only the infotainment and advanced driver-assistance systems but also driving performance and charging, all through one integrated “superbrain.”
The company’s new operating system, MB.OS, is interfaced via a dashboard-spanning superscreen and new-generation MBUX.Mercedes-Benz Group AG/Courtesy of manufacturer
MB.OS is interfaced via a dashboard-spanning superscreen and new-generation MBUX (user experience) incorporating generative AI, Google Maps navigation and MBUX Surround Navigation. The latter projects a 3D representation of the car’s surroundings on the driver display, complemented by an augmented-reality head-up display.
While the digital gauge cluster remains in a separate free-standing display, the 14.4-inch main screen at centre is now more integrated into the low-profile architecture of the dashboard, with an additional display for the front passenger. As on other recent new Benzes, the switches on the multi-function steering wheel are more user-friendly. Other cabin refinements include heated seat-belts and an electric cabin air filter.
Back to the mechanicals, air suspension remains standard and E-Active Body Control optional, both now with a trick form of intelligent damping that is especially adept at smoothing out long-wave undulations such as speed bumps. This patent-applied technology uses Car-to-X information from other Mercedes-Benz vehicles, via the Cloud, to know when such a “bump” is approaching, and adjust the damping accordingly.
Also now standard is the previously optional 4.5-degree rear-wheel steering (RWS), while a 10-degree version of RWS remains optional. At lower speeds, the rear wheels steer in opposition to the front to improve agility; at higher speeds they steer parallel with the fronts for enhanced stability.
The rear seats recline with a footrest as the passenger seat moves forward.Mercedes-Benz Group AG/Courtesy of manufacturer
The aforementioned effort to skew the S-Class upmarket is at its most overt in the form of the Mercedes-Maybach S-Class, of which the 2027 model will be revealed in March. In the 2026 lineup, the “entry-level” Maybach version starts at $262,900 in Canada, just shy of $100,000 more than the current S580.
Buyers of the “plain” S-Class can already close most of the price gap to the Maybach without actually buying one, if they let themselves loose on the already lavish array of expensive options and packages. That goes even further for the 2027 model, with a greatly expanded array of colours, leather and trims available under M-B’s expanded Manufaktur label. Beyond various curated paint/leather/trim combinations, a Made to Measure program lets customers mix-and-match their own combos from a selection of more than 150 paint and 400-plus leather colours.
“Everything can be customized, with no judgment,” said our guide on a tour of Manufaktur’s facility in Germany, which employs 200 craftspeople on two shifts. “Lime green is really in. The taste of the customer doesn’t matter to us.”
However you want to spec them, orders open Friday for the 2027 S500 and S580, with the first deliveries expected mid-summer. Pricing has yet to be released.
The writer was a guest of the automaker. Content was not subject to approval.
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