Mercedes-Benz CLS-Class News

Imagine yourself in a life-or-death confrontation with an oncoming car, but as you turn the wheel away from danger the car wants to go back into the shooting line. It happened to me in Italy a while back, driving a then-new Mercedes-Benz CLS. And it was scary. But it will never happen again, to me or anyone else, thanks to revisions to Benz's electronic lane-keeping assistant. In case you need a reminder, this safety technology is still on its way down to your car, the 'active' lane-keep assist is intended to intervene if it detects you wandering off the road. It's one of the latest electronic countermeasures to fight fatigue and distracted drivers. At first, the lane-keeper system wobbled the steering wheel as if you were running over a string of cats eyes, then it moved on to a system which brakes the inside-front wheel to straighten the car for you. A bit like electronic stability control, with a twist. That's fine - unless you have deliberately eased away from danger and the car thinks you've dozed off. The Carsguide crew reported the glitch to Benz after the CLS drama and, to the company's immense credit, it reacted quickly and positively. I was soon on a flight to Germany to re-create the situation on a frozen airfield and other journalists were quizzed about their experiences with the CLS, including one who had nearly bowled a motorcycle who was riding in the car's blind spot at the rear three-quarter. Then, at the global preview of the flagship S-Class I am reminded of Benz's safety-first approach to motoring when a new-and-improved Active Lane Keeping Assist system is introduced, complete with revisions from the Carsguide experience. Instead of just checking to see if the driver is signalling a lane change, or that they are applying more than 10 degrees of lock on the wheel, it now uses front and rear scanners before activating the lane-keeper. One system looks far ahead for a potential collision target and another looks behind to ensure there is nothing in the blind spots. It's great, because it's a good idea that just needed some tuning. Even better, Benz admits there was room for improvement - and that Carsguide triggered the changes. “Yes, you can claim the credit,” says Benz's latest safety guru, Jochen Haab, as I climb from the S-Class. He explains the changes and the process, as well as the trickle-down effect that will take the system from the S-Class down into the E-Class and beyond - and even into other brands, as Mercedes-Benz has always been happy to share anything on the safety front. “It's a lot more intelligent now. It has the same name but it monitors a lot more inputs,” Haab says. “If we find these things, we incorporate them.” This reporter is on Twitter: @paulwardgover  

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

After giving Australian journalists a look at the Shooting Brake overseas, Mercedes has revealed details of the high-powered AMG version.Under the bonnet it packs one heck of a punch with a 5.5-litre V8 biturbo engine with a power output range of 386-410kW and an AMG SpeedShift MCT 7-speed sports transmission and AMG Ride Control sports suspension.That generous boot allows up to 1550 litres of storage space, while the stylish interior will have many second guessing the practical nature of the Shooting Brake – and just to confuse you further, look out for the wooden luggage compartment flooring.The proportions still aim to make it carry a coupe style. Glance at it again and you’ll notice there are five practical doors. But with an AMG workover, this is a sports car with five seats and plenty of bootspace – sting, style and a sensible package.Mercedes-AMG GmbH Chairman Ola Kallenius claims the Shooting Brake will follow the company trend of creating a new market segment. "After the successes of the CLS 55 AMG and CLS 63 AMG, with the new CLS 63 AMG Shooting Brake we are consistently pursuing the philosophy of offering our customers unrivalled, exciting high-performance cars.”While Mercedes are eager to attract new buyers, Kallenius says existing customers will be equally delighted. “The CLS 63 AMG Shooting Brake is establishing a completely new, small and select niche sector, and is expected to delight new customers just as much as it will existing AMG enthusiasts. The combination of performance, style and usability is unique."Sitting between the coupe and wagon markets, the Shooting Brake currently has no direct competition. However, a sporty, spacious and curiously good-looking car such as this will be highly appealing – young families are an obvious target, yet you’d expect interest from a range of other groups as well. 

...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. 

It was previewed as a motor show tease in 2010 and is now almost ready for showrooms, as this Carparazzi picture shows. The design is more about style than carrying space - a bit like the Holden Commodore Sportwagon - and it's a good looker that increases Mercedes-Benz's model lineup at the top as it also grows its A-Class family at the bottom. Look for it in Australia from late in 2012.

More importantly, the new A7 Sportback comprises the essentials of the new generation A6 sedan and wagon, which will in turn be revealed at the Geneva Motor Show next March. Visually the striking the four seat A7 is at 4.9m by 1.9m (but only 1.4m high) a longer and wider version of the A5 Sportback, built on a lengthier version of the MDS platform that debuted in the A5 Coupe and underpins in various configurations the A4, A8 and Q5 ranges. While Audi Australia is negotiating price and specification, two engines are certain for Australia; the 3.0 TDI V6 turbo diesel and the 3.0 TSFI which uses the supercharged V6 petrol unit from the S4/S5. An entry 2.8 naturally aspirated V6 petrol, as is found in the outgoing A6, is being considered and would lower the guestimated starting priced. All Australia bound models will have quattro all-wheel-drive with torque vectoring and a seven-speed S tronic dual clutch transmission. Audi spokeswoman Nadine Giusti says the front wheel drive multitronic version on offer in Europe is not on the local shopping list in the immediate term. All engines feature thermal management, start-stop system and energy recovery. A Bose sound system is standard, as is Valcona leather and either wood grain or aluminium finish. So too is MMI navigation with touchpad and 8-inch display, convenience key, a three spoke steering wheel with shifting paddles and four zone air conditioning. Options include Quattro sport differential at about $3000, sports air suspension, which is an extra $2200 in the new A8 sedan, side assist, adaptive cruise control, Bang and Olufsen sound system, and an S line sport package with lowered suspension, 19-inch alloys, sports seats and bespoke trim. The brands first self-reverse parking function is also on the options list. Audis first heads up display is a possible standard option, but its online services, including a sat-nav function that integrates a Google Maps display, is unlikely for our part of the world. Significantly, in terms of the A7s relevance to the sedan and wagon, the A6s project manager Burkhard Wiegand was present at the launch in Sardinia. Both ranges are integral to Audis plan to have on sale 40 distinct variants by 2015.  If you have children and want to drive a coupe that is more elegant than hatchback, the A7 is perfect, he says. And despite attempts to name rivals as diverse as the CLS and BMWs 5 Series GT, Wiegand says: I think it is a unique concept (in this price range). Perhaps it seems similar, but they are very different.  Asked if the lack of a V8 in the current range pointed to an S7, Wiegand says only: In the future we will see. He is, however, more forthcoming on continued criticism of Audi steering. Despite employing a revised system that is linear and accurate, the A7s continues the trend of most Audis in lacking feel something of a drawback in a brand that so readily proclaims its sportiness. The weighting depends on the speed, he says. You can choose the mode with Drive Select. Our sense is the customer wants this. At least the A7 promises a dynamic fillup for the forthcoming A6 which cannot come fast enough for Audi. As a rival for BMW and Mercedes-Benz, the oldest current Audi is a non-starter selling only 354 units in the year to August, while 120 5 Series and 172 E-Classes sold in that month alone.

The curvy CLS coupe is headed for a full model change and there is a big difference in its new look.  The CLS is still a swoopy four-door sedan with a coupe roofline, but it's been working out – big-time. The result is pumped-out guards, a muscular nose and a more-brutal AMG-style profile."The new CLS points the way forward for the future perceptible design idiom of Mercedes-Benz", explains Professor Gorden Wagener, head of design at Mercedes-Benz. Wagener hinted at his direction for the CLS in January at the Detroit Motor Show, using a giant silver sculpture, and the reality will be delivered at the Paris Motor Show in October. Australian sales will begin in the first half of 2011.  "It's next year. We don't have a date yet," says David McCarthy, spokesman for Benz in Australia. "It certainly won't be here in the first quarter. Probably some time after that. We're trying to get a preview car for the Australian International Motor Show, in Sydney in October." Benz was first into the four-door coupe business in 2003 and, although some people compared the car with AU Falcon from Ford Australia, it was a hit which sold 170,000 copies worldwide. The new car has the same proportions with a low coupe-style roof over its four doors, but changes include a free-standing radiator grille, full LED headlamps - claimed as a world first - as well as heavy haunches. Inside, the new CLS has a wraparound cockpit with an integrated central display, softer leather trims, and a 'sewn' effect on the dashtop. Mercedes is also planning a high degree of customisation for the CLS, with a range of exotic fabrics, leathers and trims to allow owners to tailor their car.  "The CLS has been a very popular car in Australia. It's a vehicle that hasn't stolen sales from anywhere else in the range and we've got a bank of customers there that love the car," McCarthy says "It pioneered a segment and there are lots of imitators that really don't seem to have the essence of the car. The new CLS is going to give them something else to follow."

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.