The Classy Mercedes Cruiser That Will Never Go Out Of Style

Convertibles and grand-tourer cars are some of the best candidates around for a car to just enjoy the open road with. A convertible gives you the feeling of the wind through your hair and fresh air without the noise of a motorcycle, while a grand-tourer gives you a comfortable ride and enough room behind the gas pedal to have some fun on the bendy parts of whatever road you're on. 

However, there are few better cars to enjoy a long cruise with than a vintage luxury sedan. You have more comfort and space than you could ever want with a cruise ship of a sedan. American luxo-barges from the 1960s and 1970s powered by huge V8 engines like a Chrysler Newport or Cadillac DeVille are nice and fit the bill for the most part, but if you want something classy and comfortable that just oozes style, look no further than Mercedes-Benz, specifically, the Mercedes-Benz W108. The W108 is about as timeless of a style as possible and like a fine wine, or a particularly pungent variety of cheese, it gets better as the years go on.  

The W108 first arrived in the United States in 1965 and it was produced until 1972, right in the sweet spot for some of the best cars ever made. Unlike some other large luxury sedans from the era, the Mercedes does not look like a rolling coffin or something that would look more at home on a lake than on the street. Instead, the subtle bodywork and small stylistic touches indicate that a lot of care went into the entire vehicle from the design stage all the way to delivery in the customer's driveway. 

The W108 was designed by Mercedes stylist Paul Bracq who designed dozens of iconic cars for BMW, Citroen, and Peugeot. It was equipped with either an inline-six-cylinder model or a V8. But the Benz was absolutely not made to melt the tires off. It was meant to glide around. To simply "accelerate" is too jarring for a vehicle as posh as the W108. It wafts forward.

This body style from Mercedes is timeless in the same way that jazz is. A jazz piece recorded by Louis Armstrong in the 1920s still sounds good today, whereas other songs from the era may not translate. In the same way, a Mercedes W108 from almost 60 years ago still commands attention while an average Chevy from the same year may look dated.