How often are you going off-road? Given the lack of ground clearance, I'd suggest just the once and still get stuck on road tyres even with 4wd.

Of course if you regularly winter in the Alps, 4wd could be essential.

I like the sure footedness of full time 4WD in the wet and the more slippery it gets the better the advantage, dry it really makes no difference at all.

Historically 4matic on mercs car range has been unloved used and regarded as troublesome, don't know if thats the case on newr models and i'd be concentrating my research on MB's with the system to see how reliable they are (if you're going for long term) and if you can sell it reasonably when the time comes.

If your driving style and places you go wouldn't take advantage of that extra slippery road grip then it might be a costly extra for little gain and a hindrance to selling the car when the time comes.

Quattro is the Audi badge to have or an S number, Merc badges of honour come with AMG/63/V8/Kompressor, labels almost never knowing deleted.

Edited by gordonbennet on 22/05/2016 at 07:49

Just realised you asked about airmatic.

Whilst nice to have that needs careful research for running and repair/replacement costs.

Owners of S SL and CL class cars so equipped have had some shocking bills to face, on some models the bottom ball joint is an integral part of the suspesnion strut so no replacement possible**, struts for these run well over £1000 a side parts only...Merc have form for fitting some models with ball joints part of the wishbone on steel sprung models too, still costly compared to the same model but lower spec having replaceable joints @ £15 a side from MB, ask me how i know..:-)

**there is a company, Liverpool way as i recall, that can refill the ball joint cup with resin to give the otherwise good strut a new lease of life, i have no idea how long this fix could last, (maybe affected owners get it done and bale out fast) hopefully the airmatic model you are considering doesn't have this fixed joint problem.