The S-Class is the tip of Mercedes-Benz’s luxury spear, and its 2027 refresh is the biggest mid-cycle change in the model’s history. We traveled to the carmaker’s mothership in Germany to see, touch and feel how the Sonderklasse has progressed in this latest update, which sees more than half of its parts changed or upgraded. Let’s start with styling, the first line of defense against competing flagships like the monolithic BMW 7 Series, the slick Lexus LS, the blocky Audi A8, and the buttoned-down Genesis G90. Mercedes has emboldened its front end with a 20 percent larger grille that departs from the flowing, flush surface treatment that covers most of the sedan’s vast expanses. The grille’s shield shape is more authoritative, though the German brand goes a tad overboard with branding here, sprinkling its three-pointed star logo across the front end like birdseed. We counted no fewer than 112 hot-stamped stars..
