Another E-Class, another ‘interesting’ styling direction for Mercedes
By Dan Trent: As is often the way, Mercedes had put an embargo on official images of the all-new E-Class preventing publication until late last night.
By Tom the gaffer 12/01/2009 01:00
Being obedient types we followed this to the letter but, typically, the pictures have been ‘out there’ for some time. Anyway, now we can officially show you pics of the new E-Class. So what’s the verdict: dog’s dinner or dog’s danglies?
Hm. The E-Class’s distinctive headlight design (apparently influenced by cubist art, according to the press release) was alluded to on the SL facelift last year and then again on the Concept Fascination at the Paris show. And while it works better on the E-Class than the SL I’ll wait til I’ve seen it in the flesh before I make a final judgement. Ditto the sculpted sides that attempt to be both hard edged AND curvy, those rear arches apparently inspired by the 50s era ‘Ponton’ saloons – see below.
For me the classic E-Class is the 90s ‘W124’ era car, with its square edged but surprisingly aerodynamic styling. What, that thing, aerodynamic? You’d better believe it, the W124’s drag coefficient of 0.28 comparing very well with the brand new E-Class’s 0.25.
Still, for all its oddities the new E is at least a much better effort than the goggle-eyed W210 version that succeeded the W124.
Uh-oh, looks like the barely suppressed Merc geekery instilled in my previous life on a Mercedes magazine is revealing itself again. Nurse!
Dan
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Hm. The E-Class’s distinctive headlight design (apparently influenced by cubist art, according to the press release) was alluded to on the SL facelift last year and then again on the Concept Fascination at the Paris show. And while it works better on the E-Class than the SL I’ll wait til I’ve seen it in the flesh before I make a final judgement. Ditto the sculpted sides that attempt to be both hard edged AND curvy, those rear arches apparently inspired by the 50s era ‘Ponton’ saloons – see below.
For me the classic E-Class is the 90s ‘W124’ era car, with its square edged but surprisingly aerodynamic styling. What, that thing, aerodynamic? You’d better believe it, the W124’s drag coefficient of 0.28 comparing very well with the brand new E-Class’s 0.25.
Still, for all its oddities the new E is at least a much better effort than the goggle-eyed W210 version that succeeded the W124.
Uh-oh, looks like the barely suppressed Merc geekery instilled in my previous life on a Mercedes magazine is revealing itself again. Nurse!
Dan
---
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