For premium luxury sedan buyers, Mercedes-Benz dropped a bombshell at the Paris Motor Show with the unveiling of a four-cylinder turbo-diesel powered S-Class model.
The Mercedes-Benz S 250 CDI Blue EFFICIENCY is the first four-cylinder S- Class in the model’s 60-year history. Perhaps more significantly given the state of the planet, it is the first vehicle in the large premium/prestige segment to return fuel consumption in the 5l/100kms bracket (5.7l/100kms to be precise – better than the 9.3l/100kms of the hybrid Lexus 600hL).
And with exhaust emissions rated at 149g/km, the Mercedes’ S 250 CDI is also the first large prestige sedan to crack the 150g/km barrier.
Sure, in performance terms the S 250 CDI is no match for its range-topping S600L brothers’ 380kW/830Nm, but for most urban dwellers the newcomers’ 150kW/500Nm – combined with those impressive consumption/emissions figures – is more than enough.
And as Mercedes-Benz global chief Dr Dieter Zetsche said in unveiling the S 250 CDI in Paris: “We want to be efficiency world champions, and we will make it happen. In order to achieve this target, we are also doing things that were previously considered unthinkable – for example putting a four-cylinder engine into an S-Class. Some might see it as sacrilege, we call it progress.”
