Sliding into the spacious cabin and leather seats of the 2007 Mercedes-Benz S550, you immediately appreciate its utter sumptuousness, from the wood and metal interior trim to the simple clean design of the dash and console. Using the door-mounted controls, the 14-way adjustable seats can be manipulated to fit most any body type and offer three memory positions. Choose the upgrade seat option and get six-way ventilation, active bolstering which moves inward to hold you in the seat while cornering, and your own personal built-in masseuse with four settings to fit your mood. All gauges are easy to read and the S550’s COMAND system is fairly intuitive. Yes, you read that correctly.

Unlike BMW’s similar iDrive setup, Mercedes has simplified the COMAND system by limiting choices and by refraining from burying basic functions deep within the system. A simple push or pull on the aluminum knob located on the center console quickly delivers you to the navigation, audio, and climate settings. And if you need to access a previous menu, there’s a handy return button.

Place your foot on the brake, hit the start button, and the 2007 Mercedes-Benz S550 springs to life with little drama. The gear selector is a stalk on the steering column rather than a shifter on the console, operated using simple motions to select Park, Reverse, or Drive.

Once underway, the initial impression is one of a big car that doesn’t feel heavy due to the speed-sensitive power steering and the availability of 75 percent of the engine’s torque at a low 1,000 rpm. Accelerate through the gears, and you hardly notice the shifts from the seven-speed automatic transmission. The 383-horsepower 5.5-liter V8 supplies enough power to make the Mercedes-Benz S550 get up and go, but isn’t quite stout enough to bury you in the well-appointed leather seats – as we noted when on a freeway on-ramp and a Chrysler 300C Hemi pulled away from us, much to our displeasure. However, the Mercedes-Benz S550 does move swiftly across the asphalt with little wind or road noise and leaves you with the feeling that it’s gliding on a cushion of air.

With such a supple ride quality, we expected the 2007 Mercedes-Benz S550’s handling to suffer. But when we climbed from the floor of the Arizona desert to higher elevations on twisting mountain roads, the steering proved precise with quick turn-in and very little body roll. Though the S550 is no sports car, it doesn’t disappoint when navigating winding roads and high-speed turns in a spirited manner.

Should you encounter the need for braking, the 2007 Mercedes-Benz S550 wears the proper equipment to pull this 4,270-pound behemoth to a stop in mere seconds. During freeway, city, and two-lane driving, the S550’s brakes deliver the necessary information to the driver without feeling mushy or overboosted. And since this is a hydraulic rather than electronic system, the new S550’s pedal is much easier to modulate than that in the E- or SL-Class models.

Overall, the 2007 Mercedes-Benz S550 delivers a feeling of safety and security combined with the driving dynamics you expect in a car of this stature. With all of the technology, comfort, luxury and performance Mercedes has incorporated into the 2007 S550, there is no doubt that this car represents the new super-luxury benchmark.