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Chauffeur-driven cars are few and far between nowadays. However, in South Africa at least, chauffeur driven cars are mostly the domain of parliamentarians and perhaps a handful of top magnates.

But with the many international events just hosted in South Africa and future gatherings in mind, chauffeur-driven limos will increase in numbers. The long-wheel base Mercedes-Benz S500L is ready to capitalise on this niche, and is also the least expensive in its class at present.

High quality

That said, the S500L still meets every demand in quality and comfort expected of a stretch limo. Performance, though impressive, is not a prerogative, so it's all about luxuriousness that in part includes fine wood and chrome trim touches, attractive contoured aluminium controls and carefully co-ordinated colours to produce a pristine and refined ambience.

And to further guarantee these high levels of comfort, the air-conditioning was tested in various climatic zones around the world and the seats were tested by orthopaedic specialists, sports physicians and physiotherapists.

A new 12-way seat now offers electrically adjustable fore-and-aft positioning, backrest and cushion angle, seat height, head restraint and seat cushion depth independently and variably as is two-way pneumatic lumbar-support control for the front seats.

On-board massage

Included are electrically adjustable multi-contour individual rear seats with massage functions with passengers able to select from two massage programmes. Friends who insisted on being taken to dinner in the stretched S500L couldn't stop toying with the electrically adjustable seat functions — especially the massage mode.

Heating the seats in the freezing conditions evening was another highpoint. However, the highlight was the four bottles of wine in the compressor-powered refrigerator in the backrest of the centre seat.

Road-holding for such a large car is impressive, it simply does not feel as big as it really is. You need not worry too much about your safety either. Brake assist with radar and the latest-generation 'pre-safe' system registers vehicles ahead and determines if the following distance is too small or the closing speed too high, even recognising potential accident situations.

Keeping it safe

Distronic plus is there should you get too close to the car ahead, automatically braking to a standstill and then accelerating to return to the programmed speed again, while parking is an easy task via the reversing camera.

For safety at night, innovative night-view infrared lights will illuminate the road for you on low beam while an infrared camera mounted on the inside of the windscreen records the reflected images on the instrument cluster.

"Follow that car, Jeeves," should be a safer option now.

Page two ... Specifications

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