The "Fintail" quietly rewrote car safety: Mercedes built in front and rear crumple zones and patented retractable seatbelts, years before either was ever required by law.
Median 102 hp across 408 similar cars
Lead trim: 220 b (220 Saloon) · up to 118 hp
Mercedes-Benz S-ClassW111 · 1959–1968
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Nobody in Burbles has spotted a Mercedes-Benz S-Class yet. See one on the street, point the app at it, and the first card is yours — with your @handle permanently credited on this page.
FactThe "Fintail" quietly rewrote car safety: Mercedes built in front and rear crumple zones and patented retractable seatbelts, years before either was ever required by law.
The four-door W111 "Heckflosse" (fintail) saloon, named for its distinctive pointed tailfins and designed by Friedrich Geiger. Series production began in August 1959 and the car debuted at the Frankfurt Auto Show that autumn, replacing the W105 219, the W180 220 S and the W128 220 SE Ponton saloons. It was built on a unibody with the Ponton cabin widened and squared off, with front and rear crumple zones, and Mercedes-Benz patented retractable seatbelts. It launched as the 220 b, 220 Sb and 220 SEb, all with the 2.2-litre M127 straight-six: a single-carburetor 95 hp in the entry-level 220 b, twin carburetors in the 220 Sb and Bosch fuel injection in the top 220 SEb. In May 1965 the 220 Sb and 220 SEb gave way to the 230 S with a 2,306 cc twin-carburetor M180 six, built until January 1968 when the last fintail saloons left the line. In 1961 the saloon chassis was shared upward with the W112 300 SE and downward with the four-cylinder W110. A total of 337,803 W111 saloons were built between 1959 and 1968 at Stuttgart, with assembly also in Port Melbourne, Australia and East London, South Africa.
Collectors Spotted in the Mercedes-Benz S-Class Lineage
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Trims & Figures
4 published trims in the catalogue. A blank is a figure not recorded, not zero.
| Trim | Years | Engine | Power | Torque | 0–60 | Drive | Gearbox | MSRP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 220 SEb (220 SE Saloon) | 1959–1965 | 2.2 L Inline-6 | 118 hp | 140 lb-ft | — | RWD | — | — |
| 220 Sb (220 S Saloon) | 1959–1965 | 2.2 L Inline-6 | 108 hp | 127 lb-ft | — | RWD | — | — |
| 220 b (220 Saloon) | 1959–1965 | 2.2 L Inline-6 | 94 hp | 124 lb-ft | — | RWD | — | — |
| 230 S Saloon | 1965–1968 | 2.3 L Inline-6 | 118 hp | 132 lb-ft | — | RWD | — | — |
Owning one
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Owners’ builds
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Photographs
This S63 drops the S-Class's century-old hood ornament for a Panamericana grille with a giant badge up front — a first for the S-Class sedan.
This S-Class pioneered a new kind of rear airbag: instead of being gas-inflated, it deploys by inflating a supporting structure and letting ordinary ambient air fill the bag - a world first.
The Z223 Maybach S-Class is 18 cm longer than the car it replaced, and the first Mercedes with rear-passenger frontal airbags.
The V12 AMG S-Class went out on a high note: a 130-unit S 65 Final Edition unveiled at the 2019 Geneva show before the engine was retired for good.
The W222 S63 AMG's battery wasn't a bespoke part — Mercedes borrowed a lightweight 78 Ah lithium-ion unit straight from the SLS AMG Black Series supercar.
The W222 S-Class got a suspension with 'eyes': a stereo camera reads the road up to 15 meters ahead at speeds up to 130 km/h, softening each damper before the car even hits the bump.
Mercedes built this S65 with a 5-speed automatic while rivals had moved to seven gears, saving the V12's torque from a gearbox it would have broken.
The S63 AMG's tail lights hide a tiny detail: 52 individual LEDs arranged into a glowing "C" shape on each side.
The W221 was the first S-Class offered with Mercedes' Active Body Control-based Magic Body Control successor tech groundwork and the first to include a night-vision assist system as an option in the US.
AMG's own V12 for the S65 reportedly made 1,200 N·m of torque in testing — Mercedes had to electronically cap it because the transmission behind it couldn't survive the real number.
The sportier S 55 AMG and the flagship S 600 made identical horsepower — Mercedes simply aimed one at drivers and the other at passengers.
The W220 dropped nearly 200 kg compared to its W140 predecessor despite growing in interior space, a weight-reduction goal set directly in response to criticism of the older car's bulk.
The W140's development cost roughly one billion dollars, making it one of the most expensive car programs of its era.
The W126 S-Class pioneered seat belt pretensioners that automatically cinched tight the instant the car sensed a crash coming — years ahead of the rest of the industry.
China quietly cloned this S-Class in 1974: the Shanghai SH771, a reverse-engineered copy meant to replace a 1950s sedan, built only as prototypes.
Mercedes dropped its flagship 600 limousine's 6.3-litre V8 into an ordinary-looking sedan body. It's the car historians credit as the first true Mercedes sleeper.
The W108 sold well enough in Southeast Asia and North America to rack up 383,072 built by 1972.
The 300 SE sedan raced European Touring Car events despite costing nearly double the top W111 model it was based on.
Every W111 sedan wore the pointed "Heckflosse" fintail that gave the whole line its nickname — except these two-door coupes and cabriolets, which designer Paul Bracq deliberately gave a cleaner, more modern rear years ahead of its time.
The "Fintail" quietly rewrote car safety: Mercedes built in front and rear crumple zones and patented retractable seatbelts, years before either was ever required by law.
The 220 SE cabriolet cost ten percent more than a Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz, with no power steering on offer at any price.
The 219 is a 220's front end welded to a 180's rear doors, a factory mix-and-match of two different cars.
The 220 a exists because Mercedes stretched a four-cylinder W120 170mm to squeeze in a straight-six.
Rivals
Same body, same money, other badges — tap any card to flip.
It briefly served as senior sibling to Marquette, a GM companion brand cancelled after just one year.
Nissan hired former BMW engineers to help develop the 510's suspension, which is why period reviewers frequently compared its handling to the BMW 1600/2002.
A Trabant 601 won its class at the 1970 Monte Carlo Rally, with a second 601 right behind it in second.
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The G80 Sport brought a 370 PS twin-turbo 3.3 V6, a mesh grille and copper-tinted chrome with copper stitching to match.
The Vigor was sold only with a five-cylinder engine, an unusual configuration Honda used to fit a longer engine transversely under a short hood.
The GS/E coupe earned the nickname "German Charger" for its long hood, short deck stance borrowed from Detroit muscle cars.
This DeVille/Fleetwood was the first production car anywhere to mount its V8 sideways, Cadillac's front-drive gamble on the new C-body.