Mercedes-Benz S-Class gets perfume dispenser

It's no longer enough to look half a million dollars, the next Mercedes-Benz limousine will also reek of the sweet smell of success.

The S-Class sedan, due in Australia by year's end, has a liquid perfume dispenser among its array of high-tech devices and fittings. This item fills the ultra-luxury cabin with a specified odour from an electronic fitting in the glovebox.

The choice of scents for your dollars is limited only by  "whatever you want," according to a Mercedes spokeswoman in Stuttgart where the benchmark cabin is revealed this week.

With the car long favoured by heads of state, sheiks, captains of industry and pop stars, it seems Beyonce will be able to go her gig in a car suffused with Chanel if she so chooses.

"Or if she's going to see Jay Z, she can have the S-Class smelling of Havana cigars," Mercedes-Benz Australia spokesman Jerry Stamoulis told News Limited.

When the stress of stardom or leading a country becomes a bit too much, the passengers can activate a hot stone massager in the back seats. Built in consultation with aromatherapists and psychologists, it uses the seat's 14 separately-activated air bladders with the seat heating function.

Even the armrests in an interior designed to suggest a luxury jet cabin or six star hotel suite are heated so the skin is not insulted by cold leather.

Less sensual items includes a cloud- system, which integrates Facebook, Google Street View, and Google searches for local points of interest through a mouse. These can be surveyed from rear seats that recline to a lower angle than any sedan currently on dale.The driver, or chauffeur, views his instruments and infotainment system  via  two laptop size information displays.

A new S-Class, which comes every 10 years, is regarded as a landmark event in the car world, always introducing new technologies. Mercedes spokesman Michael Allner said these luxuries would filter down to affordable cars over the next decade.

For now, though, Stamoulis said that in Australia, the new car would be priced similarly to the outgoing model, from some $220,000 for the entry variant up to almost $500,000.