All Entries Tagged With: "clk"
Daimler: CLK Cabriolet? Never Heard of It.
by Gunnar Heinrich ::: img Daimler AG ::: Mercedes-Benz Cabriolets
WHAT’S wrong with this picture? On it’s face, nothing. Topless Mercedes-Benzes by a scenic seaside overlook. Above is a MB media shot from an aptly titled gallery, “Mercedes-Benz Cabriolets for Four Persons.” Those who follow Mercedes-Benz and its model history will notice the 2011 E-Class Cabriolet at far right, various C124 generation E-Class cabrios posing center stage, and W111/112 SE cabrios all the way to the left.
What’s missing? How about 13 years of recent history for starters.
Achtung! Mercedes Ready to Launch E-Class Cabrio
- Mercedes preps us for 2011 E-Class Cabriolet launch
- Softtop, not hardtop, more aggressively styled than milky CLK forebear
- E-Class cabrio’s power options on E350 and E550 (E500 in EU) potent but relatively mild
By Gunnar Heinrich | IMG Daimler, AG
BY every measure the 2011 Mercedes-Benz E-Class cabriolet stands as a more substantial 2+2 boulevardier than its predecessor, the silky soft CLK.
Mercedes traditionally positioned the E-Class (or CLK) convertibles for a more feminine buyer but this latest iteration seems to have struck a better balance. Unlike the original W124 E-Class but like its more immediate predecessors, the E-Class cabriolet will be based on C-Class underpinnings.
Ever since the time 60s, MB designers have taken the harder edges of an E-Class sedan and rounded them ever so slightly to appeal to our softer, inner hedonists. The point was to not worry about performance or the expectation thereof (the 90s E320 cabriolet was a casual performer at best) and to just sit back and enjoy the wind in your hair.
Or not. Mercedes like BMW and the rest have previously deployed rear seat wind-deflectors to help curb back draft; the sticking point being that you ceded use of the back seats.
In the 2011 E-Class cabrio, Mercedes looks to have mitigated this somewhat by taking notes from the Volkswagen EOS and implementing their own “AirCap system” – a 2.4 inch wind screen that pops up from the top of the windshield when the roof is lowered to reduce those ill winds that give ladies “convertible hair”.
In cooler months, Mercedes AirScarf system – first deployed on the SLK and then, messily, on the SL (think ET headrests) – which will pump warm air to the driver and front passengers necks.
Rear passengers get to freeze, sorry.
But back to what makes the 2011 cabrio a more distinctive ride than the 2010.
The amoeba headlamps and soft curves of the predecessor CLK model were pretty and pretty generic. That car’s best angle was from the rear 3/4 perspective, which also gave you the impression that what you’re looking at was most any Euro-designed droptop – Is it a Peugeot? Audi? Zil?
The latest model which will bow in Detroit next month keeps the angular facia and hood creases from the E-Class sedan and then carries all that pent-up surface tension rearward along the side panels. There’s even an S-Class-ish rear wheel-well arch that rises from the rockers flows up over the wheel and then shoots aft in a straightline to the rectangular tail lights.
The cabrio’s new essence is aggressive: for the softop appears to be in forward motion even when stationary. Speaking of aggressive, the engine options are actualy fairly mild in contrast to the super-tuned behemoth V8s and V12s that we’ve come to expect.
The E350 cab will feature a 3.5 liter V6 channeling a respectable 268 horsepower with 258 lb-ft of torque, while the E550 cab’s 5.5 liter V8 keeps the horses relatively reined in @ 382 hp and 391 lb-ft, respectively. If this were the year 2000, the V8′s figures would’ve represented serious, AMG grade power.
But in a twin-turbo, 600 horsepower world, we’ve become jaded. Which is how buyers of Benz’s latest cabrio are sure to feel.
Suspect Sportiness: 2010 E-Class Coupe
By Gunnar Heinrich
I’M of the mind that Mercedes-Benz is really fighting like hell to be all things to all people.
Which never works. Ever. There’s accommodating and then there’s pandering – and once you pander, you’ve lost your target audience because you’ve managed to lose the plot and their trust in the process.
Mercedes can certainly do athleticism – Stuttgart hath wrought some of the baddest machines on this old block. And, indeed, Mercedes has gotten away with lithe and svelte. Consider the early generations of “Sport Light” otherwise known as the SL-Class – the Pagoda comes to mind. Even the original SLK that debuted in the 90s had a certain sporty, cute charm about its little self.
But the new E-Class coupe, which tries to draw on so many aspects of the 60s, 80s, the CLs and CLKs, Audi, Lexus, and BMW that I’m not sure what to make of it. Is it a 3-Series fighter? Probably not, given its loftier price tag. Will it do the grand tour like a Jaguar XK? Lacks the visual presence. Will it go for broke like the Infiniti G Coupe? Not as stock, it won’t.
Will it put comfort, efficiency of design, stolid but proud character first as in the W124 generation coupes and cabrios? For all the marketing associations, I don’t see that sense of purpose here.
Given that every styling gimmick has been thrown in – googley eyed four headlamp unit housing with projector beams, LED accent lights in the lower air intakes, flared wheel well arches, charred sheetmetal a.k.a. “flame surface design”, multiple sill lines, and two panes of glass for both sets of rear windows – and that’s just the outside.
On the inside, we’ve got a C-Class interior, replete with three spoke sport wheel and low-rent instrumentation that’s meant to harken back to the original Baby Benz or 190E – a car that skimped on more than a few luxuries – and, perplexingly, fixed rear headrests à la Toyota and Honda circa 1985.
Really… what does this car want to be when it grows up?
