2012 Mercedes-Benz SLK Roadster unwrapped in Stuttgart
We were in Suttgart, Germany, this past weekend as Mercedes-Benz took the wraps of its all-new 2012 SLK Roadster. While completely redesigned, there’s no mistaking the two-seater for anything but a Mercedes-Benz – and that’s exactly what the designers had in mind, says the automaker. Gone is the SLR McLaren-inspired front hood, replaced with an aluminum unit capped by a more traditional upright radiator grille. Reappearing after an absence are the side grilles on the front quarter panels, reminiscent of those on the Benz roadsters in the 1950s (and SLS AMG, more recently). Slightly longer and wider than its predecessor, it’s an attractive package. Plus, it cheats the wind with a slippery drag coefficient of just 0.30 (the outgoing model had a 0.32 Cd).
Categories: Mercedes-Benz Tags: Mercedes-Benz
Mercedes-Benz releases C63 AMG Affalterbach Edition for Canada
We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: The Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG is an absolutely stunning piece of machinery. We recently had a chance to steer a C63 fitted with the P31 Development Package around the greater Detroit area, and it now looks like our friends to the north are getting a special edition of Merc’s AMG atom bomb all for themselves.
Dubbed the Affalterbach Edition (it’s named after the German town in which AMG’s skunkworks reside), this C63 wears a unique Magno Allanite Grey paint that is accented with red brake calipers, 19-inch black alloy wheels, carbon fiber mirror shells and a subtle lip spoiler. No tweaks have been made to the C63′s powertrain, but the Affalterbach edition comes standard with the normally optional AMG Performance Package, meaning there’s 481 horsepower and 443 pound-feet of torque on tap. Sprints to 62 miles per hour will be accomplished in a tidy 4.4 seconds.
Categories: Mercedes-Benz Tags: Mercedes-Benz
First Drive: 2012 Mercedes-Benz CLS63 AMG
Sometimes, luxury isn’t about having more – it’s about having less, albeit artfully architected. Just ask BMW, which lops off a heaping helping of headroom and cargo space to turn its well-conceived X5 into the costlier, less utile X6. Admittedly, the X6 isn’t particularly artful, but its rival, the Land Rover Range Rover Sport is. Both vehicles are more indulgent – and more costly – despite offering reduced lebensraum and less exotic mechanicals.
Perhaps the originator and best practitioner of this less-is-more movement is Mercedes-Benz, whose designers adroitly took the last-generation E-Class, lopped off gobs of headroom and trunk space, added some CLS badges, and then proceeded to give the four-seater a much larger price tag. Given that luxury and practicality are nearly polar opposites, perhaps this trend shouldn’t be that surprising. The ability to fritter away utility in favor of fashion is arguably the ultimate statement of luxury (“We could be rational, but why be so sensible, dahling?”).
Categories: Auto Review, Car Review, Mercedes-Benz, Sedans/Saloons Tags: Mercedes-Benz
First Drive: 2011 Mercedes-Benz CL-Class
After receiving the invitation to drive the new 2011 Mercedes-Benz CL V-8 variants, we immediately began talking about the big coupes in terms of a comparison test. But we ran into a significant issue: There’s nothing to compare a CL against. In practice, the CL is little more than a two-door S-Class, making it the equivalent of a BMW 7 Series Coupe, or a two-door Audi A8. Trouble is, those last two cars don’t exist.
What about at the other end of the spectrum? You could argue that the Maserati GranTurismo is little more than a Duoporte, though the two-door Maser is much lighter than the big Merc and much more focused on sport than heartbeat-slowing luxury. There’s also the 612 Scaglietti, the four-seat Ferarri, though these days they’re rarer than unicorns, especially when it comes to press fleets. The most logical choice, then, is the upcoming second-generation Bentley Continental GT. Emphasis on upcoming.
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Categories: Auto Review, Car Review, Mercedes-Benz Tags: Mercedes-Benz
Drive Experience: 2010 Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG w/P31 Development Package
Roger Daltrey has gone on record as saying that in the Who’s early days, they were paid ?75 to ?150 a show, yet they would bust-up around ?250-300 worth of gear every time they took to the stage. That’s bad math. Similarly, Mercedes-Benz asks those willing to pay $57,350 for its least expensive AMG model – the Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG – to pony up a further $5,950 for the new-for-2010 P31 AMG Development Package that adds 30 horsepower, uprated brakes and a passel of miscellaneous hi-po gear.
From the perspective of a rational consumer, this too, fails to add up, as the standard-issue C63 is already a hooligan’s hooligan, a car from which no sane individual would walk away wishing for bigger stones. But as with Daltrey’s Who, the C63 is a fantastically overachieving beast of rather pedestrian roots, and when it comes down to it, adding the Dev Pack promises to be like dropping off Pete Townshend in the brand-new lobby of a mid-’60s Holiday Inn. With a set of Marshall stacks. Drunk and fresh off a painful breakup. In other words, it might not make a whole lot of sense or be a particularly wise financial decision, but it’s also a brave call with the glorious potential for unbridled mayhem.
Categories: Auto Review, Car Review, Mercedes-Benz, Sedan Tags: Mercedes-Benz
Paris 2010: 2011 Mercedes-Benz CL63 AMG mixes Wall Street and Miami Vice
Making the swap from a naturally aspirated 6.3- 6.2-liter V8 to a direct injection, twin-turbo 5.5-liter V8 hasn’t at all reduced the Mercedes CL63 AMG’s brawny beauty. The standard version gets 544 horsepower and 590 pound-feet of torque. Opt for the AMG Performance Package and you boost that to 571 hp and 664 lb-ft. All that power doesn’t come with a bigger fuel price, either: at 22 combined miles per gallon with the help of stop/start and the AMG Speedshift MCT seven-speed sport transmission, the new car posts a 25 percent increase in fuel economy over the 6.2-liter beast.
Categories: Mercedes-Benz, Paris Motor Show Tags: Mercedes-Benz
Review: 2010 Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG w/P31 Development Package
Roger Daltrey has gone on record as saying that in the Who’s early days, they were paid ₤75 to ₤150 a show, yet they would bust-up around ₤250-300 worth of gear every time they took to the stage. That’s bad math. Similarly, Mercedes-Benz asks those willing to pay $57,350 for its least expensive AMG model – the C63 AMG – to pony up a further $5,950 for the new-for-2010 P31 AMG Development Package that adds 30 horsepower, uprated brakes and a passel of miscellaneous hi-po gear.
Categories: Auto Review, Car Review, Mercedes-Benz Tags: Mercedes-Benz
Mercedes-Benz S 250 CDI BlueEFFICIENCY is most efficient luxury car
Mercedes has unveiled the S 250 CDI BlueEFFICIENCY at the Paris Motor Show.As the name suggests, the car is powered by a four-cylinder diesel engine which produces 150 kW (204 PS / 201 hp) and 500 Nm (369 lb-ft) of torque. While this sounds like a sign of the apocalypse, the S 250 accelerates from 0-100 km/h in 8.2 seconds and hits a top speed of 240 km/h (149 mph). More importantly, fuel consumption is 5.7 liters per 100 kilometers (41.2 mpg US) while CO2 emissions are 149 g/km.
Categories: Mercedes-Benz Tags: Mercedes-Benz
First Look: 2012 Mercedes-Benz CLS-Class
Mercedes-Benz struck styling gold with the first-generation CLS-Class, creating a new segment that sent rival automakers scrambling back to their design tables. Things are different the second time around, as the new 2012 CLS steps into a market suddenly littered with so-called ‘four-door coupes’, with more on the way from Stuttgart’s German rivals Audi and BMW.
With the 2012 Mercedes-Benz CLS-Class, the automaker has focused on improving the one area that defines its existence: design. The sides of the car feature much more pronounced sculpting that starts with the front wheel well and ends at the fresh set of LED taillights. Love it or hate it, this is one four-door that at the very least will draw your attention.
Not surprisingly, LED daytime running lights make an appearance, but the 2012 CLS has full LED headlights, as well. The 71 individual LEDs enhance visibility and frankly, they just look cool.
Categories: Auto Review, Car Review, Mercedes-Benz Tags: Mercedes-Benz
2012 Mercedes CLS brochure images leaked – plus latest Nurburgring shots
Whoops! The men and women in Stuttgart weren’t planning to unveil the new Mercedes-Benz CLS just yet, but the crew from eMercedesBenz snagged these leaked images showing the new four-door coupe in all its production-ready glory.
As expected, the new CLS takes a lot of its styling cues from Benz’s Shooting Break concept (they’re name, not ours) notably the upright grille and more aggressive front fascia. The sectioned-off headlamp design has also remained intact, and from these photo-realistic renderings, it looks like someone shot the CLS in the eyes with lemon juice. Still, we’re eager to see how this mix of LEDs looks out on the road at dusk. The CLS also uses the more shapely rear hips of the Shooting Break concept, rounding out the revised rear end. It’s certainly more stylish than the outgoing CLS, which says a lot.
Categories: Mercedes-Benz, Sedan Tags: Mercedes-Benz
