Mercedes-Benz CLS-Class 2012 News

Photographer Mario Testino, make-up guru Charlotte Tilbury, a leggy model and...another stunning model: the Mercedes-Benz CLS 63AMG Shooting Brake.

...by introducing the sleek CLS four-door coupe.People said a coupe shouldn't have four doors and that the CLS wouldn't work.Tens of thousands of sales later Mercedes has not only proven the doubters were wrong, but must be quietly chuckling at how many other car marques have since introduced their own four-door coupes.Cheekily, Mercedes has taken the matter another stage with what it calls a coupe-estate, an ultra stylish five-door CLS station wagon. Not only has the once staid German maker stunned the world with its estate-coupe it has also pulled a name out of history - shooting brake.Shooting brake is a body type once associated with upmarket British station wagons – Rolls-Royce built one over a hundred years ago – and is named for the horse-drawn wagons used to carry shooting parties to country areas to enjoy the sport of hunting.We first admired the Mercedes CLS wagon at the 2010 New York Motor Show and now we have attended its world debut at a major function at the famed Brooklands racing oval in England. A perfect spot for a vehicle that’s breaking new ground with its sleek-but-sensible format.While the styling is all about the rear end of the CLS Shooting Brake we first of all examined the sporting front end and loved the mildly aggressive grille and headlight shapes.At the rear the roof slopes down in a manner resembling the CLS four-door coupe and the rearward extension has been beautifully shaped to show this is not your mundane everyday load hauler. We particularly like the way the side windows slope down to a point at the rear and love the shiny finish that surrounds them.Inside, the sporting coupe look works exceptionally well, with quality materials, easy to read dials and a feeling of ambiance that’s worked well for Mercedes for generations. At this stage no journalists have been able to drive the new Mercedes-Benz Shooting Brake, the global launch hosted by the company chairman Dr. Dieter Zetsche was purely a visual reveal.While the Shooting Brake’s shape is unashamedly sleek, we were surprised to find it doesn’t do too badly in the ‘sensible’ stakes as well. The rear seat has good headroom and legroom and we would have no problem sitting back there for a long interstate trip.As is often the way these days, the rear area is set up for two individuals; there’s also a somewhat cramped centre seat so five can be carried for short and not particularly comfortable trips. Luggage space is surprisingly good as well, the extravagantly long tail of the Shooting Brake means substantially long objects can be transported. However, large boxy items are restricted by the slope of the roof.In a lovely touch harking back to the days of the horse drawn shooting brakes and the old motor wagons, the Mercedes-Benz CLS Shooting Brake has a timber lined floor compete with shiny cross bracing. It looks stunning, but it would be best not to sit anything on top of the timber that could potentially damage it.The Mercedes CLS in four-door coupe format has already impressed Australian buyers. This fascinating new wagon variant seems likely to draw even more buyers into the Benz fold when it arrives in Australia in September.Prices and models are yet to be confirmed. The only definite information we have at this stage is that the high-performance CLS 63 AMG Shooting Brake is coming. Australian buyers just love the AMG variants in all Mercedes models and are amongst the top buyers, sometimes the top buyers, of these stunning machines.We speculate that the CLS 500 will also be on the list together with several affordable models with petrol and diesel power. Anticipate the Shooting Brakes to be priced about $3000 to $5000 above the equivalent four-door coupes.Stay tuned and we will bring full details and local drives of the stunning new CLS Shooting Brake from Mercedes as soon as they hit the docks downunder. 

...A second-generation CLS is a no-brainer for Mercedes-Benz.But there is a twist, called the Shooting Break, which stretches the coupe into an upscale station wagon.It's just a pity it looks like a Hyundai i40.

Kids aren’t usually a factor in Car of the Year judging.  But child friendliness rates highly with women buying cars – and with women judging cars.The countdown has been kicked off to decide the Women’s World Car of the Year, and the kid factor is one the judges pay a lot of attention to.“Statistics show that women drive children in cars significantly more often than men – and that means women need to take that into account, both when buying and as judges of cars,” WCOTY president Sandy Myhre said from New Zealand.“Any woman who has grappled constantly with child seats and belts and children considers those things when looking at buying a car.  Men might too but the fact is, women drive children in cars more than men.“Women would not consider that aspect in a Porsche 911 more than a bloke. The point is, it can be considered in these awards - and that is one of the points of difference in these awards.”Myhre points out that significant research into buying habits show that in addition to buying for themselves, women have a major influence in household purchase decisions for big ticket items.Ford Australia, for example, says their research shows that women are behind the majority of purchases of the Territory SUV – either as single women buying one, or in influencing the joint decision with their partner. “A report from Mattingly & Associates in Australia concluded, in part, that businesses that didn't understand this influence would be hard-pressed to stay in business.  That report was aptly called 'When I've Made Up Our Minds',” Myhre says.However, the kid factor is just one of the criteria by which the 2012 Women’s World Car of the Year will be judged.There are four categories in the Women's World Car of the Year – Family Car, Luxury Car, Sports Car and Economy Car. Points are allocated to each of ten criteria: driveability, engineering, comfort, child friendliness, style, interior, storage, dashboard efficiency, carbon footprint and colour range.The 20 judges from eleven countries have submitted their own personal short list and more than 300 cars were suggested. These individual choices were then whittled down to form a master list of 32 in terms of popularity. Judges will now allocate points for these cars from a criteria list.The announcement of the winning cars in each category and the supreme winner will be made before the end of March. The supreme award trophy and category certificates will be presented to the car companies concerned at the Mondial de l’Automobile 2012 – the Paris Motor Show – in September. The supreme trophy will this year be made in The Netherlands. Category-winner certificates will be designed at Peartree Studios in Colerne, UK.The first winner of the Women's World Car of the Year was the Jaguar XF in 2010 and the trophy made in South Africa was presented at the Jaguar boutique showroom in Knightsbridge, London. In 2011 there was a dead-heat between the Citroen DS3 and the BMW 5 Series. The two trophies made in India were presented at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September 2011. 

And the Carparazzi picture car this week is being hussled at high speed around the Nurburgring in Germany.  And the curvy roofline and low-to-the-road suspension settings do suggest something similar to the BMW 5 Series Gran Turismo. But this is actually an Audi, and the newest segment-buster from the German brand.  The test car is the A7, which arrives in 2011 as a sporty alternative to the A8 luxury limousine at the top of the family tree. The design is a lot like the A5 Sportback — and the car is expected to be called A7 Sportback — but it picks up its inspiration from the Mercedes-Benz CLS and is likely to be shopped against BMW's new 5 Series GT. Carparazzi shooters report the A7 is as big as the A8, but with a much more rounded roofline and a hatchback rear end. With some of the camouflage stripped away it is much more dramatic, too, than the A8 with a chiselled look and sports-set suspension. The A7 is likely to be revealed at either the upcoming Moscow Auto Salon or the Paris Motor Show in October, with Australian sales in the second half of next year.

The Mercedes-Benz Shooting Break concept has aired ahead of its debut at Auto China in Beijing. Although Mercedes executives aren't revealing too much, the Shooting Break shows off the future direction if the German carmaker chooses to make a station wagon version of the CLS. With Audi’s A7 hatchback arriving soon and BMW’s recently introduced 5-Series GT, a CLS wagon could be on the cards. Even though the Shooting Break is a concept the long, low and sleek design looks production ready with a roof that tapers towards the rear of the car, providing an almost coupe-like shape. At the front the grille and headlight treatment borrows some cues from the SLS AMG. The grille is flanked by LED headlights on each side - the first time Mercedes has used LED technology to such a dynamic effect. The side profile and shoulder line is sharp and leads down to a Pontoon-style curve above the rear wheel arches at the rear doors. The coupe-like profile is emphasized by the shallow window design. Inside the concept gets plenty of wood and leather and an eye-catching full-length centre console, which dictates that this is a four-seater only. The wooden floor of the luggage area gets contrasting silky oak highlights and aluminium highlights and protective strips. Powering the Merc is one of the next-generation V-engines.

It says everything about the ubiquity of such things that the authorities in Baghdad are holding one. What better way to present the image that all's well in this most dangerous of cities than to stick a bunch of cars on stands and charge admission?The realisation that these things are becoming a bit of a yawn has not been lost on the organisers of the British International Motor Show, which has kicked off in London's Docklands.It started with the most memorable pre-launch stunt in recent history, Opel's new Insignia being lowered by a massive crane from atop Tower Bridge. Cute as these things go, but counting for nothing if the show lacked stars and substance.Unlike some other international motor shows, the Brit edition has plenty of both. There are 600 cars running the alphabetical gamut from Alfa Romeo to ZEV (that'd be Zero Emission Vehicles) worth some $100 million.While Britain's biggest consumer exhibition comes close to being all things to all people, it's the 23 models making their debut that is the chief draw for the anticipated 550,000 punters.The show-stealer is undoubtedly the Lotus Evora. The Norfolk marque's first all-new model in 12 years is a mid-engined 2+2 V6, intended to give Porsche something to think about, especially if _ as anticipated _ it combines the brand's trademark lightweight build (just 1350kg) with razor handling.While the Evora represents a significant step forward for Lotus, Jaguar has looked to the past for the XK60, a captivating special edition of the current production coupe to commemorate the unveiling of legendary XK120 sporters in 1948.Powered by the atmo version of the 4.2 V8, the Jag cops enhancements such as 20-inch Senta alloy wheels, alloy gear knob and selector-gate surround, new front spoiler, chrome-finished side vents and special tailpipe finishers. Which is nice.Performance with an eco-conscience? Why not? Mercedes-Benz is showcasing its BlueTEC version of the stylish CLS. Reassuringly for the rev-hungry, there's a Brabus-built Bullit Black Arrow, their V12-engined C-Class.The show's green tinge is evident in the Lightning Car Company's Lightning, a 100 per cent electric GT sports car, and Allied Vehicles' E7 electric taxi, whose lithium-ion batteries imbue the seven-seater with a range of 160km and top speed of 100km/h. Other green gambits include the Ford Fiesta ECOnetic with carbon dioxide emissions of less than 100g/km.While the British blowout is not spoken of in the same breath as the biennial Frankfurt or Paris salons, the lesson for organisers of Australian events are salient.Not least of these is making `events' singular _ just as we have too much government for 21 million people, there are too many annual shows. Oh, and staging it in a venue that's spacious and accessible isn't a bad idea, either.