there is always extra cost involved in moving to a higher class, of course the benefits are more. on an ideal assumption, but so are the costs as i said
a first class ticket costs a lot more than economy class, both will take you from london to new york, one will give you a more comfortable "sofa" and champagne, the other will cram you in a "chair" and give you coke in a plastic glass
having a V12 involves beside the higher fuel consumption which is a given also a plethora of added maintenance costs
before thinking of anything "unusual" just consider the added cost of extra spark plugs, extra oil, extra bearings, extra injection, extra extra extra....
fact is you DO have more serviceable parts in a V12 without thinking about anything going wrong, i.e. you are still on the regular maintenance field
now let us assume something goes wrong, by simple probability having more of anything, means that there is a higher probability of any singe part going wrong, i.e having having say 48 valves ups the probabilty of one breaking for some reason over havinf 32, 24 or any other number, notwithstanding the extra torsional forces and vibrations that spill out such a massive engine and the loads they incur on the crankshaft, and on the chassis itself

and we are still talking about the engine itself, when you factor in the tighter engine bay space, which results in a higher heating of the whole contraotion inside, when you factor in the added work time to replace any simple component, the picture doesn't look so good (if you remember the continetal GT W12 is so tightly packed you need to remove the engine to change the oil)

on paper the bigger the engine the more of a pain in the ass it becomes, but the real issue here is not about the pros and the cons of an engine, its about the buyer, given enough money, and given proper interest in having a car with such a massive engine all the above fade to nought, of course assuming the car is bought new
what this practically means is that on the long run and as a second hand proposition a V12 is not such a good idea unless you collection cars or something
better buy anything first hand than go and buy the most complex car ever second hand because of the prestige associated with it, i might gather a couple of looks more driving a secondhand S600 or 760 ir whatever, but it WILL take a huge toll on my pocket

my 0.02 cents

Vibrations in a V12 are LESS than in a V8 or less. They are more balanced and therefore don't vibrate as bad, less strain on the individual parts, so in effect , you would think a V12 would give less trouble.

Are you sure about that? I had always read that in fact, a V8 was quite a perfect configuration for a motor, and everything above was only useful to make your neighbours jealous...V8 in fact are the less vibrating configuration, from what I knew.

But I am not a engineer, so i could be wrong.

Anyway, neither 550 or 600 are the kind of motor that vibrates... the 320cdi and 420cdi are much more vibrating than both.

I would take the 550, if cost is an issue. Because there are a lot of 550 sold every year, on the CLK, E, S, ML, G, GL, R, S, SL, CL... The 600 is pretty rare, only on S, CL and SL...

So the spare pieces of a 550 will be less expensive than the exclusive 600, and the dealers will have more experience on any problem you can have. Also the biggest torque means more stress on the gearbox and mechanical elements, but they can handle the 65 AMG so no problem here.

On the other hand, 600 is magical, it is the top, and even the interior is slightly better... It does not have the 7G-Tronic though. It may be less reliable, I absolutely don't know if it is the case. I don't see why it would be less reliable, even if it is a bit more complex, here you have to ask to engineers or MB dealers.

Thing is, there are really few noticeable differences between a 550 and a 600 in the S-Class, where the power of the 550 is really more than enough. So both are fabulous, the best cars in the world.

If cost is still an issue, take the S550.
If it is not that important, well, a V12 is a V12...A V8 is much more common.

Hmmm...I kinda think the 600 cars may be more "reliable" in the survey sense because the engine is older and more proven as is the gearbox. The S550 debuted a new engine and fairly new gearbox, the 7G only coming out 3 years before and still buggy according to ML/R owners. Don't understand why that is, but they seem to be the only models in which the 7G is giving trouble.

I'd always been told that a V12 and an I6 are the only perfectly balanced engines. Which when you put 2 I6's together you get the best balance.

M

You're right. V12's are smooth.

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Thanks ojis, very interesting article!
So V12 indeed offers advantages over V8...

I've learned something today, cool!

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This link gives a full explanation of each type of engine. From what I can tell, the V12 should be the most balanced of the engines. The 6 and 8 cylinders are also very good.

These links are indeed very educative.
As for the argument about the number of valves and sparkplugs, the 600 only has 4 more valves than the 550 (3 x 12 - 4 x 8 = 36 - 32 = 4). With a seven speed and new engine design and 388hp on tap, the 550 is indeed a very tempting proposition in light of the V12. Ultimately, options that come standard with the S600 become the deciding factor to the discerning conspicuous buyer.