Living in luxury: life on the back seat. Which is the best car to be chauffeured in? Lexus, Jaguar, Mercedes...?

Being chauffeured aboard an XJ recently got us musing on the definitive luxury car

Jaguar XJ: Limousine of choice for many (Autocar)

The stuff us lot write about mainly concerns driving. But we’re nothing if not eclectic in our appreciation of cars – so when we found ourselves being carted up the motorway like Boss in the back seat of a Jag XJ the other day, we got talking to the chap behind the wheel.

Said chap was a man who does this for a living, as a good number of XJ drivers are. So we put on our Do Some Research heads.

Turns out this was his third XJ, which is a fairly sure sign that he likes them. Prior to that, he’d piloted 7 Series BMWs, and he said he liked those too, but the Jag seemed to be getting the nod for its refined running and stylish design.

If he had a criticism, it was that rear cabin room, even in this LWB model, wasn’t as effusive as in some other cars he’d driven.

The Lexus LS600 was on his radar, and so was the Range Rover – which, interestingly, more and more clients seem to be asking for. Though the cost of chauffeuring the boss around in an SUV does matter in this world of profit and loss.

Were cost no object, at any rate, our driver would be behind the wheel of a Rolls-Royce Phantom.

But of course, you know where we’re going. When the conversation is about luxury cars, all roads lead to the S-Class.

Mercedes’ big masterpiece is, to many people, the car that defines the brand. It’s like the Defender to Land Rover or the 911 to Porsche – it is, quite simply, what a Mercedes is.

Professional drivers and their clients seem to agree on that, too. Car nuts certainly do. And us lot who spend most of our time behind the wheel… well, nothing against our XJ, which did its job just beautifully. But the S-Class… it’s not just THE Mercedes, actually. It’s THE luxury car, too.

AUTOCAR