My local council had one chauffeur-driven for the Mayor and associates until the need for a more 'austere' public image saw it being replaced by a Skoda Octavia ( Jetta / Golf platform ).
I think the Mayor of Belfast still rides in the back of a 7.
The "I don't drive myself"-version of e.g. the Audi A8 is the A8L. Same for the BMW 7. (At least they used to have e.g. the 740L).
But both the S-class and the 7-series are very VERY rare luxury cars. I see thousands of 5-series and E-classes for every 7-series or S-class. The difference in price must be huge in europe compared to the US, because there I saw tons of 7-series and S-class was almost as common as E-class.
What’s the reason (apart from tradition making people think it’s normal) the proce difference between these models is so big in the EU and not in the US?
Taxes. I drive a 15 year old car, I would not want to waste money on a new one. My car cost about 14% of what it was new with 55K km on the clock and is in a much cheaper tax bracket than a new one. It's a ridiculous system.