Plenty of luxury and tech, lots of extras too – but just one engine choice for now.

SO much tech and so much additional kit to box tick – but when it comes to powertrains, the decision is dead easy: Though more will turn up in time, there’s just the one at launch.

So it goes with the seventh-generation of the Mercedes-Benz S-Class, available from next week in S450 4MATIC and long-wheelbase S450 L 4MATIC formats, with a common six-cylinder petrol, pricing starting from $215,000.

This is the car touted as the world’s most advanced and, though not every technology developed for it packs into the ‘base’ (yes, wrong word, but …) format – and, indeed, some is not yet available for this part of the world – the car in kick-off form has pretty decent specification.

New Zealand piggy-backing on Australia’s choice has proven a good idea. Our neighbour has gone big on signing up for comforts and assists that have been extras in the European spec.

What we miss out on, though, is the full gambit of semi-autonomous gadgets. While the Australasian-spec cars have adaptive cruise control with stop-and-go, lane centering assist, lane change assist, evasive steering assist, and a traffic-sign assist system that reads speed signs and adjusts the adaptive cruise control system accordingly, the ability - soon to show in the German-market car – to drive itself with the driver's hands off the steering wheels on at up to 60kmh is not featuring. Our laws seem to allow it but Australian legislation does not. And since our neighbour has done the choosing …

Still, plenty of other gee-gaws to impress. Both cars achieve a 12.3-inch 3D digital instrument cluster (with eye tracking) and a 12.8-inch OLED infotainment touchscreen running Mercedes' latest MBUX operating system, the MBUX Interior Assistant and the "Hey Mercedes" voice assistant.

The car’s satellite navigation system is a new step-up; in addition to projecting live traffic it has a predictive functionality. The head-up display with support for an augmented-reality function which can virtually project navigation directions on the road up to 10 metres ahead.

Other standard features include air suspension, power-closing doors, dual-zone automatic climate control, ambient LED interior lighting, puddle light projection, keyless entry and push-button start, flush retractable door handles, a 360-degree camera and semi-autonomous Active Parking Assist.

There's also an electric glass panoramic sunroof (with sliding and tilting functionality), a power-operated rear sunblind, electrically-adjustable front seats with heating and cooling, memory functionality for the steering column, a fingerprint scanner, a hands-free power boot lid, heated power-folding exterior mirrors, rear privacy glass, and insulated acoustic glass for the front side windows.

 It runs a 15-speaker, 710-watt Burmester 3D surround sound system, with Apple CarPlay/Android Auto of course, wireless smartphone charging and support for the Mercedes Me Connect smartphone app.

You want more? Even though it has LED headlights, Benz locally perceives one popular cost-extra enhancement will be a special feature the brand made a big noise about during last year’s international launch: Adaptive Digital Light LED headlights. These are capable of projecting warnings onto the road with a range 150 metres greater than that of the standard LED units, thanks to 2.6 million 'pixels.' Also possibly set to be popular, for those who park in tight places, is the enhanced rear-wheel steering (with an angle of up to 10 degrees). The 'active' ambient interior lighting and the Energising package also tend to get ticked on other high-end products.

The long-wheelbase model (with 110mm extra length) achieves extras of power-adjustable rear seats with memory, automatic rear climate control and forward-facing airbags in the backs of the front seats but can also be ordered in with a pair of 11.6-inch entertainment touchscreens.

Both models derive power from a turbocharged 3.0-litre inline-six, sending 270kW and 500Nm to the road through a nine-speed automatic transmission and 4Matic all-wheel-drive, for a 5.1-second 0-100kmh sprint time.

The engine is assisted by a 48-volt mild-hybrid electrical system, which can supply an additional 16kW/250Nm boost for short periods under hard acceleration, and enables combined fuel economy ratings of 8.2L/100km and 8.4L/100km for the S450 and S450L respectively.

 A higher-grade S580L variant is expected to be offered later down the road, pairing a 4.0-litre twin-turbo petrol V8 with a 48-volt system for a total of 370kW and 700Nm, and it’s expected head office will hear a New Zealand pitch for the plug-in hybrid edition, with 100kms’ pure electric running.