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Future Vehicles Mercedes-Benz: Future Models
441 messages, Last post on Sep 15, 2007 at 9:01 PM
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so it's about time brought the "light" back, huh? even the "sport light compact" SLK is a bit heavier than it might be.
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Replying to: ikramerica (May 25, 2005 9:18 pm) SL = Sport Light SLK = Sport Light Short CLK = Coupe Light Short CL = Coupe Light SLR = Sport Light Racing M |
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both K words, but I always thought it was compact. BTW - What did the S in the original "S" class stand for. i know what the E and the L and the D meant, but not the S. |
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| Also, don't think CL means anything, since it came around after the naming change, and there is no way that car is "light." Old big coupe didn't have an L in it, nor did the E class coupe for that matter. Just like the ML doesn't mean anything, I would imagine. | |
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I think S always stood for "Super" Like in the old SSK models. It stood for Super Sport. Actually none of these cars are "light" so CL is just as relevant as CLK to me. I'm betting ML means something light, but not sure what. Light for a "truck" that is. What did E stand for? Executive? C stood for "Compact" right? M |
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For the first time in years I'm seeing advertising for a single E-Class model as opposed to just commercials about the "E-Class" in general. They're really pushing the E350. The E-Class is such a gorgeous car. M |
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It means Einspritzen (excuse my german spelling). Translation? Fuel injected. The E arrived with the fuel injection techology in the late sixties, IIRC. Before that, sedan models were just 190, or 190D for deisel. Big cars were just called S models, like the 1960 220S. S means a lot of things. S for Sport, S for Super. There must be a meaning for the large cars though. T stands for station wagon, a designation that is now gone (300TD, 300TE) And L did mean light in the sports cars. (licht?) The original 300SL was absolutely light. But in the SE sedans, it was for the long wheelbase (not sure the german for that, lang?). The naming problems came with the compact 190 class, since the engines started getting larger and the public got confused by overlapping and such. They called the middle range the E class, when it was really just the middle sized sedan (how can the 300TD wagon be an E class?) So MB moved the letters to the front, kept the E for E class, S for large sedan, and used C for compact (not K), which screwed up all the coupes, which might explain the L in CL. Then the short coupe had to be CLK. Then the C-Coupe got confusing, since the CLK was already the small coupe, and the C stood for C-Class, not Coupe. Oh well, back to FUTURE models. |
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Sales were down 1.8 percent for May 2005 compared to May 2004. It seems that every Mercedes that isn't new is dropping and the brand new ones continue to post big gains. Details Here The CLS it seems continues to eat into the E-Class' sales. The SLK and M-Class were up 119.4% and 66.2% respectively compared to May 2004. The CLS sold 1550 units while the E-Class sold 3569 units (down 29.1% vs May 2004). If you add the CLS 1550 to the E-Class' 3569 you get 5119 which would have been a slight increase over last year. Very interesting. I'd say the E-Class is going to have a very, very tough road until that facelift and new V8 arrives for 2007. Inexplicably the G-Class also increased 32.3% compared to May 2004. M-Class buyer rub-off maybe? Though still we're only talking about 127 units. The CLK is about even with last year and I look for it to get a boost from the new "350" model and facelift. I look for the C-Class to pick up somewhat once the new V6s are out. The dealer closest to me still has a lot of 2005 C's left though so that might be another month. Of course the S-Class is on the down stroke, though I think it will spike before the year is out. The lesson here is that the SLK, CLS and M can't pull the brand alone. MB needs some gains in one of their sedan lines, unlikely to happen until the next S or facelifted E, both of which aren't due for a quite a while. The C-Class' new engines might do something, but minus the hatchback models the C-Class too will be challenged to attain the sales heights of last year. Now the R-Class is the wildcard. Other boards are saying that it will be out in Sept. We'll see. Since 2006 is the last year of the current S-Class I'm surprised that there hasn't been some type of "special edition" model yet. M |
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I was also reviewing the sales results. I see year to date sales are down by 6.2%. Better build quality seems to be in place now and that may help sales. Sedans are indeed the key to volume. I am unsure about the next S-class: the 'spyshots' I am seeing show a lot of Maybach styling cues. I don't see how this will boost S-class sales. It will also reinforce the perception that Maybach is a 'big Benz' and not the exclusive marque it should be. I think the E-class could do well in 2007. The E-class needs clear differentiation from the C-class in the next generation. Things can change - my US team is doing well this month. Cadillac's May car sales are up 50.9% over May 04 and 17.8% year to date. XLR sales were >50% of SL sales for the first time in April and repeated this in May (420 XLRs and 821 SLs). I don't know if XLR sales will continue growing but there will big smiles at Cadillac HQ today.
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Replying to: scott1256 (Jun 02, 2005 8:01 am) I agree about Maybach. I think they need to come up with a look and design that is totally different, yet distinctively German. M |
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