Mercedes slashes S Class price by Rs 21 lakh

S 500's new price: Rs 1.36 crore; to be assembled in Pune

India's second biggest luxury car maker Mercedes-Benz has brought down the price of its S 500 by over Rs 21 lakh with the start of local assembly on the model at its Pune plant.

The S 500 will thus carry a new price of Rs 1.36 crore as against its earlier price of Rs 1.57 crore when the model was directly imported. The local assembly of the model at Chakan, Pune has commenced within two months of its launch.

The car which boasts of several luxurious features such as animated menus and 3D effects, a HDD to store music and videos, WLAN hotspot, SMS display, phone contact reader, radio and navigation, will be open for bookings from June.

The new S-Class features an AIRMATIC suspension, a 360 degree surround view camera along with night view assist. Active park assist automatically steers the vehicle into parking spaces, while ESP with 8 airbags and PRE Safe assure driver and passenger safety, while the brake assist offers better control during emergency braking.

The company is also a first of its kind a chauffeur training program course for the S 500. The 21 modules will focus on enhancing chauffeurs soft skills, etiquette, personal development, courtesy and safety. The modules are a combination of product features and tablet based visual learning aids.