Pranab Mukherjee's official ride is a Mercedes Benz S600L Pullman Guard

Have your grudges against the former Finance Minister, Pranab Mukherjee, for those ever increasing fuel and automobile prices? Well, now you have one more reason to hold a grudge against him – for he can now have the swanky Mercedes Benz S600L as his daily ride while you save every penny for either filling up petrol in your car or to buy a diesel four-wheeler that can make your journey to doomsday a tad easier! 

Jokes apart, Pranab Mukherjee, who has been announced as the 13th President of independent India, will not only move into a bigger office and a bigger pair of shoes, he’ll also move around in a bigger car. His good ol’ bulletproof Ambassador will now be replaced by a state-of-the-art Mercedes Benz S600L Pullman S-Guard – a stretched version of the Mercedes Benz S-class with a bulletproof armor all around. Mercedes Benz provided this special vehicle to the Rashtrapati Bhavan during the reign of Ms Pratibha Patil, the former President of India. The S600L Pullman Guard was also on display at the Mercedes Benz exhibit in the 2012 Auto Expo. 

Should you really know, the Pullman Guard costs almost as much, or more, than a Maybach 62 or a Rolls Royce Phantom. Since the armored vehicle is based on the S600, it gets a 5.5-litre bi-turbo V12 petrol engine, which puts out over 520 PS of power and 830 Nm of torque. The engine tuning, body structure, brakes and suspension are tweaked to compensate for the additional weight of the bulletproof armor. The cabin is laden with enough technology and gadgetry to give the President a mobile office to work in – with probably more luxury than his full-time office!