The Car That Invented the S-Class | Mercedes-Benz W116 Documentary

The Mercedes-Benz W116 — the original S-Class — is one of the most important luxury cars ever built. In this full documentary, we trace the complete story of the W116 from its very first design sketches in 1966, through the shock of the 1973 OPEC oil crisis, all the way to the final car rolling off the Sindelfingen assembly line in 1980. We cover everything: ⚙️ The design process under Friedrich Geiger and Bruno Sacco 🏎️ All 9 models explained — 280S, 280SE, 280SEL, 350SE, 350SEL, 450SE, 450SEL, 450SEL 6.9, and the 300SD 🌍 How the 1973 oil crisis nearly derailed the entire program 🔒 The world's first ABS system — developed with Bosch in 1978 💎 The legendary 450SEL 6.9 — the fastest production saloon on earth in 1975 📊 Total sales: 473,035 units built across 8 years of production ⚠️ Every production challenge — from rust to valvetrain issues to US bumper regulations Whether you're a Mercedes-Benz enthusiast, an automotive history fan, or just someone who appreciates engineering done right — this is the story of the car that defined what Sonderklasse truly means. 🔔 Subscribe for more deep-dive automotive documentaries every week. 👇 Owned or driven a W116? Tell us about it in the comments. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🕐 CHAPTERS 0:00 — Introduction 1:00 — Why the world needed the W116 3:30 — Designing the W116 (Friedrich Geiger & Bruno Sacco) 6:30 — Engineering & safety innovations 9:30 — The oil crisis & its impact 11:30 — The full model range (all 9 variants) 15:30 — Production challenges 17:30 — Sales, legacy & end of production ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Mercedes-Benz W116, W116 S-Class, Mercedes 450SEL 6.9, original S-Class, Mercedes documentary, classic Mercedes, Mercedes history, W116 review, 1970s luxury cars, Mercedes-Benz history, ABS history, Friedrich Geiger, Bruno Sacco, 300SD turbodiesel, Sindelfingen, OPEC oil crisis cars