Something so long and heavy has little right to handle as tidily as the S-Class does. In the default Comfort chassis setting, there’s a languid assuredness that makes the car easy to place on the road and roll is meted out relatively freely but always with poise and control. Steering feel is utterly absent but the heavily assisted rack is geared with a pleasing blend of ease and response that often makes the S580e feel a few hundred kilos lighter than it really is.
Knock the car into its more sporting mode (where the steering weights up, the powertrain is kept on the boil and the suspension tightens its grasp on the body) and the S580e will cover ground in truly eye-widening manner, with a degree of class and composure you wouldn’t credit had you not experienced it first-hand. For an elegant PHEV with very few sporting pretensions, the S-Class proves adept at going quickly.
None of which is to say the S-Class handles with the sports saloon credibility of the Bentley Flying Spur and, to a lesser extent, the BMW 7 Series. It plainly doesn’t, rolling and heaving quite generously on more interesting roads and in general lacking the veneer of sharpness that makes some larger limousines genuinely satisfying to drive. The chassis balance is also noticeably more nose heavy than those rivals, which thrust themselves down roads from the hips while the Mercedes slips along with a neutrality that develops into solid understeer once the limits of the tyres are overcome. However, you’re unlikely to get to that point because grip and traction are excellent, even in wet weather.
