Presents :  the Mercedes S500  available now for delivery ! 

If you answered yes to any of these questions, then you might need a more secure form of personal transportation .  You need something big . This should be a vehicle that you could trust to protect yourself and your family (or other blue-suited government types with sunglasses permanently attached to their heads).  You need a vehicle that can stop attacks ranging from sledgehammer blows to .44 Magnum rounds. You need, in fact, a Mercedes-Benz S500 .  In the picture: An S500 Guard undergoing ballistic testing. Notice the pinpoint shots at the door and window seams.

The S500 Guard is Mercedes' first official factory-offered armored car to be available to the U.S. public. The Factory has fully integrate the armored components into the car.  Specialized technicians are responsible for installing all of the upgraded and armored components. As such, Mercedes says the effectively hand-built S500 Guard takes five times longer to build than a regular S500. Aftermarket security companies often have to start with a regular production car, meaning they have to disassemble the vehicle completely, install the armored components and then put the car back together.

Mercedes outfits the S500 Guard with a variety of components to make sure it meets B4 certification (equivalent to the U.S NIJ level  IIIA)  Extensive steel armor plating is used for the entire occupant shell, including the doors, the A-, B- and C-pillars, the roof, the firewall and the rear bulkhead. Armoring prevents bullets from passing through door locks and the gaps where the doors are shut. On the doors where metal adjoins window glass, a meticulously tested labyrinth system prevents bullets from entering the cabin.

The windows themselves are composed of thick multi-layer polycarbonate security glass that does not splinter when hit or shot at. The glass is amazingly distortion free, and looks completely like normal glass until you power down the front windows and see that they are about 1 inch thick. Additional security upgrades include run-flat tires with a tire pressure warning system and an optional self-sealing fuel tank that resists fuel leaks when punctured by small-arms fire. To compensate for the additional weight that the armoring adds, the S500 Guard has reinforced suspension components and upgraded brakes.

Because of the aforementioned purpose of being an escape vehicle and not a tank, Mercedes does not provide armor protection for the engine or the trunk. The S500 Guard weighs 802 pounds more than a regular S500, a weight equal to carrying four or five adult occupants. Mercedes says more weight would degrade handling and acceleration too much. Additionally, it is highly unlikely a bullet fired into the engine compartment would disable the engine immediately.

The rest of the S500 Guard is surprisingly stock. In fact, from the outside, it is exceptionally hard to tell the difference between a regular S500 and the Guard edition. External dimensions and body panel styling between the two are nearly identical. About the only cues are the Guard's special wheels for the run-flat tires and its lack of a sunroof. No sunroof is offered on the Guard because it is considered too much of a security risk. Tele Aid, Mercedes' emergency calling system, is standard equipment.

To see if all of these additions changed the S500's character, we were given a chance to briefly compare an S500 to an S500 Guard. If you open the doors, the additional heft of the steel armor is quickly apparent. But once safe and snug inside the cabin, the Guard seems exactly the same as any other S-Class. All of the trim and controls are the same. In terms of handling, the Guard simply feels stiffer and heavier. It does not roll excessively, and ride quality is still quite acceptable. Mercedes says that the S500 Guard's additional weight adds about one second to its zero-to-60 mph acceleration time and about 5 feet to its 60-to-zero mph braking time. The car's top speed is still 130 mph.

Price :  $143,000   Delivered

Contact :  in the U.S  1-800-770-4423  or international :  1-310-704-1528