Mr. Kapitalist Pig: Das Auto ist fertig

[homeforsummer]

A photo of the interior?

It screams illustration to me...a drawing. Anyone else with me?

I am, that's what it looks like to me too.

 

[wrcsti]

OMG. Tha interior render looks almost on par with my E34 bmw. And thats not a good thing.

 

[YSSMAN]

Jaguar still has the corner on wood interiors... This one is new in the 2008 XJ:

Excellent.

Hey Mercedes, YOU'RE DOING IT WRONG!

 

[exigeracer]

Am I the only one who thinks the overall design is a bit of a relief? I am very glad that Mercedes didn't try to over design the thing and went with a basic seeming shape. The details up front are a little killer though. The headlights and fog lights are a little bothersome IMO. But we'll see in the final version. And that little strake above the wheel is a little weird, but I'm guessing that's what's keeping the car from looking like it's running 18" wheels up front and 16s in back, like many other new cars. Out back, the headlights are a little big, but I still think it looks great. Good work Mercedes by going the simpler route instead of putting 50 billion conflicting curves on a frame.

I feel the complete opposite. The graphics are what makes this car atrocious. There isn't anything basic about any of it at all. The current E-class (well, was) simple and basic, which is what makes it elegant. I guess I was really attached to the guitar/pair of oval headlight era to accept anything as radically different as this. Proportionally and graphically, this thing is just plain old hideous. Like I've been saying, Mercedes has become the king of just tacking on construction paper cutouts and using them as surface details. I enjoyed many previous models as you could tell where they were coming from as well as where they were going with the styling. This is just stabbing in the dark. The business crowd won't have a problem buying them all up, at least. Hopefully the current market will also retain any dominance of this car on the streets.

As far as the wheels go, it looks like it's running 15s all around:

Personally, I'd still take the current model though. That car looks fantastic, and Mercedes kinda had their backs pinned to the wall when it came to designing something to surpass that.

I don't think anyone can argue that, although there were some questionable things going on with the latest edition's front bumper details.

 

[Robin]

Well I must be one of the few people who thinks it looks great, all the recient merc's with the square 80's styling have looked great and its good to see the rest of the range following suit. The new C-Class is still my favourite looking merc of the current generation and all of their cars should look like that (apart from the CL).

Robin

 

[TheCracker]

A couple of the directors at my place of work have C-classes, they have the Sport versions and they do indeed look nice. The Elegance versions have very different detailing and look awful, to be frank. I suspect the model posted above is the elegance version with the more traditional grill and lashings of chrome tat. I would guess that the new E-class Sport will look a little less fussy and have a better all round stance.

 

[Pupik]

The trouble with wood interiors is that no two pieces of real wood trim look alike. Sometimes, you get the burl bird's-eye stuff, other times, it looks like wavy grain, and other times, you get something that looks like varnished plywood. Mostly, you get something in between. We had stories of Lexus customers spending hours comparing one car's interior from another, because the wood grain had an odd knot or two in the pattern. One guy told me a knot "looked at him funny", which made me wonder if he was in a right frame of mind to drive a car.

Wood grain grows on you, I like it in my car; except for the places by the shifter where it's cracked and peeling. I bet Darth Vader's TIE Fighter had wood grain accents inside that cold, black interior.

Mercedes really made an ugly car out of the E-class, and that's something that's difficult for them to do. The 1995 E-class was classically nice, and the next iteration improved on it. This one is fugly; tell me this is a dressed-up prototype, right? I'm still waiting for all these 300,000 C-class prototypes to get of the road...

 

[Bram Turismo]

Particularly if you think GS.

We have a winner!

It seems like Mercedes was aiming at a similar design to try and make the Lexus look rediculous. Looked like Mercedes got awarded the opposit effect...

 

[homeforsummer]

The current C-class does indeed look good but this new E just doesn't work. A few here have described it as "80s" which is doing the Mercs of the 80s a massive disservice - shapes like the 190 (W201) and the W123 that turned into the original E-class are very handsome looking cars, with great proportions and timeless shapes. If you see a 190 you know it's a Mercedes - there's simply no chance of thinking "hmm, Lexus maybe? Hyundai?" like the generic and ill-proportioned car in the original post.

I don't expect everyone to agree with me but this (W123):

Looks far, far better than this:

The old car is distinctive, has great lines, is classy without being "bling"... Mercedes just seems to be a company blurring it's brand values until it becomes assimilated into the market and has no real distinction any more.

And I know cars don't stay the same but Merc must be able to come up with something better than this.

 

[High-Test]

BTW, I’m amazed at how Mercedes has managed to make its new interiors look straight from the late ’80s/early ’90s.

+1.

The carpet and the shape of the dash scream early 1980s. I thought I was peering into my own car for a minute.

The current C-class does indeed look good but this new E just doesn't work. A few here have described it as "80s" which is doing the Mercs of the 80s a massive disservice - shapes like the 190 (W201) and the W123 that turned into the original E-class are very handsome looking cars, with great proportions and timeless shapes. If you see a 190 you know it's a Mercedes - there's simply no chance of thinking "hmm, Lexus maybe? Hyundai?" like the generic and ill-proportioned car in the original post.

Bang.

I thought there could be NOTHING as un-mercedeslike as the W210. I've been proven wrong. What is this W212? Is it the love child of an S class and a lexus with the proportions of a molten chevy Cruze? Blegh. It's disgusting.

The E Class is dead. They made up for the 210 with the 211, now they've just gone and undone everything. God knows what an estate version may look like. Vehicles like this make me wonder why I'd even give M-B free advertising with my M-B hat. Oh.. it fits and isn't itchy. Right.

It's not like they suspended a C300 from the A-Pillar or anything..

 

[Duke]

Am I the only one who thinks the overall design is a bit of a relief? I am very glad that Mercedes didn't try to over design the thing and went with a basic seeming shape.

This car looks very overdesigned to me. In fact, it looks like they just spared the Chinese the trouble of badly bootlegging it and went straight to the Asian knockoff design for the first round.

 

[YSSMAN]

I just realized what the car reminds me of after hearing someone talk about Buicks...

 

[homeforsummer]

Except that Buick whatever (I know it as the Vauxhall Insignia) is actually a pretty good looking car. The Merc just isn't.

 

[TheCracker]

Except that Buick whatever (I know it as the Vauxhall Insignia) is actually a pretty good looking car. The Merc just isn't.

I saw my first Insignia in the wild yesterday. Considering it was white and mucky - as you would probably expect to be this time of year in the UK - it looked great. Like the latest Mondeo it's a big car, but it's really well proportioned too.

 

[Moglet]

They had loads of Insignias at the Motor Show, they looked gorgeous in any colour!

Whereas this Merc looks like it's melted slightly.

 

[Keef]

Since when did Mercedes start copying Cadillac? That was the first thought that popped into my head. And why do they insist on making all their automatic shifter sticks look like manual sticks? Bunch of posers!