“Engineered like no other car in the world,” boasted one header in the 1986 Mercedes-Benz S-Class brochure. The claim continued.
“A machine meant to efficiently convey people from one place to another: this refreshingly simple definition of the primary function of the automobile allows Mercedes-Benz engineers a refreshing degree of freedom. They can shrug off such ephemeralities as annual styling changes. They need waste no time contriving artificial novelty. What will perform best in the status arena never eclipses what will perform best on the road … It is no surpris
e that the engineers allow themselves an average of seven years to design and verify a new Mercedes-Benz model.”
Indeed, in the 1980s the manufacturer’s U.S. public relations firm would have had us believe that at no point did automotive fashion ever factor into a new Benz. In describing the grand, yet subtly nuanced S-Class, the same catalog asserted, “Of the 420 SEL’s 208.1 inches of overall length, not one inch is wasted on styling effects.”
To be sure, the reality of the day was different. From the 1970s through the late 1990s, a team of Mercedes-Benz designers under the leadership of Italian director Bruno Sacco were responsible for cleaving clay models into contemporary classics that were intended to remain fresh for the seven to 10 years that it would take to design the models’ replacements.
There are two factors that stem from Stuttgart’s former modus operandi. First, the styling that has emanated from Germany’s premier marques have often been credited for setting the trend for the luxury segment and for much of the rest of the automotive market. A quick glance at the lines of any 1980s and 1990s Lexus or Pontiac will quickly affirm this as fact.
The second, since marques like BMW and Mercedes-Benz took up to a decade to design their cars, their models’ styling cues would dictate the rest of the industry’s look for a decade and often featuring in Japanese models two to three years after the German competition was brought to market. A case in point: the smooth, oval headlamped Mercedes-Benz E-Class that premiered in 1996 was followed in 1998 by a closely styled response from the Lexus GS400.
In the contemporary environment (i.e. post 2000) Mercedes-Benz it would appear, has taken a much different track from its original manner of staying a conservative course that
maintained a genetic line with past models while providing innovative new looks. Not only can the marque not claim originality to its newest highly stylized designs, the company’s creative teams (undoubtedly now emanating from studios in California) are drawing inspiration from some unlikely sources, knowingly or not.
The new CLS-Class, the much acclaimed four door coupé which is meant to represent a bold new paradigm of emotional and evocative Mercedes-Benz design, actually
owes much to both Lexus and Mercury. Specifically, the car’s grille and headlamps closely resemble those of the current Lexus ES330. The body from the A to C pillars, and in particular the trunk, is reminiscent of the Mercury Sable from the late 1990s.
Over in Munich, Chris Bangle, BMW’s now infamous design chief from New Mexico, has produced controversy among the “party faithful” with the bold look he gave the brand’s current 5 and 7-Series models. Though at first blush, neither the 5 nor the 7 look like anything else on the road, a closer look will reveal that Pontiac and Porsche can take credit for some of the (as many in the automotive press refer to it) “Bangled” 5’s and 7’s most defining lines. Briefly, the BMW 5 and 7 share the familiar frowning front air dam as the current Pontiac Grand Prix, and a side profile of both BMWs will show that the way in which the C pillar descends into the line of the trunk lid allows us to visualize a “rump” that resembles the tail of Porsche’s 911.
To BMW’s and Mercedes-Benz’s credit, both firms still lead the way in automotive technology. No other car company can claim the number of pioneered and successfully executed innovations that these manufacturers continue to invent.
However, both BMW and Mercedes-Benz have allowed their own design standards to slip in favor of vying to appeal to a broader market. Mercedes-Benz has enjoyed strong and consistent growth in the U.S. market for the past two decades and it would be easy to give credit to sleeker designs. Critics would argue that with the onset of record spending in the late 1990s and an ever increasing consumer reliance on credit based borrowing to purchase or lease vehicles, the marques of choice would always be at the top of any car buyer’s shopping list. One could argue that it is BMW and Mercedes-Benz who are the major borrowers today, when they borrow upon the credit of years of automotive excellence to peddle designs that are unoriginal and not on a par with their former standards.
It is lamentable for the Germans that the Japanese automakers have succeeded in setting the terms for what works in the marketplace. Considering that more and more Benz models seem to copy the styling of their Lexus counterpart’s (ML-Class // RX330, CLS-Class // ES330, SLK // SC430) one should wonder whether it will be long before Germany’s top marques will drop the mantle of technical innovation as well.
“A machine meant to efficiently convey people from one place to another: this refreshingly simple definition of the primary function of the automobile allows Mercedes-Benz engineers a refreshing degree of freedom. They can shrug off such ephemeralities as annual styling changes. They need waste no time contriving artificial novelty. What will perform best in the status arena never eclipses what will perform best on the road … It is no surpris
e that the engineers allow themselves an average of seven years to design and verify a new Mercedes-Benz model.”Indeed, in the 1980s the manufacturer’s U.S. public relations firm would have had us believe that at no point did automotive fashion ever factor into a new Benz. In describing the grand, yet subtly nuanced S-Class, the same catalog asserted, “Of the 420 SEL’s 208.1 inches of overall length, not one inch is wasted on styling effects.”
To be sure, the reality of the day was different. From the 1970s through the late 1990s, a team of Mercedes-Benz designers under the leadership of Italian director Bruno Sacco were responsible for cleaving clay models into contemporary classics that were intended to remain fresh for the seven to 10 years that it would take to design the models’ replacements.
There are two factors that stem from Stuttgart’s former modus operandi. First, the styling that has emanated from Germany’s premier marques have often been credited for setting the trend for the luxury segment and for much of the rest of the automotive market. A quick glance at the lines of any 1980s and 1990s Lexus or Pontiac will quickly affirm this as fact.
The second, since marques like BMW and Mercedes-Benz took up to a decade to design their cars, their models’ styling cues would dictate the rest of the industry’s look for a decade and often featuring in Japanese models two to three years after the German competition was brought to market. A case in point: the smooth, oval headlamped Mercedes-Benz E-Class that premiered in 1996 was followed in 1998 by a closely styled response from the Lexus GS400.
In the contemporary environment (i.e. post 2000) Mercedes-Benz it would appear, has taken a much different track from its original manner of staying a conservative course that
maintained a genetic line with past models while providing innovative new looks. Not only can the marque not claim originality to its newest highly stylized designs, the company’s creative teams (undoubtedly now emanating from studios in California) are drawing inspiration from some unlikely sources, knowingly or not.The new CLS-Class, the much acclaimed four door coupé which is meant to represent a bold new paradigm of emotional and evocative Mercedes-Benz design, actually
owes much to both Lexus and Mercury. Specifically, the car’s grille and headlamps closely resemble those of the current Lexus ES330. The body from the A to C pillars, and in particular the trunk, is reminiscent of the Mercury Sable from the late 1990s.Over in Munich, Chris Bangle, BMW’s now infamous design chief from New Mexico, has produced controversy among the “party faithful” with the bold look he gave the brand’s current 5 and 7-Series models. Though at first blush, neither the 5 nor the 7 look like anything else on the road, a closer look will reveal that Pontiac and Porsche can take credit for some of the (as many in the automotive press refer to it) “Bangled” 5’s and 7’s most defining lines. Briefly, the BMW 5 and 7 share the familiar frowning front air dam as the current Pontiac Grand Prix, and a side profile of both BMWs will show that the way in which the C pillar descends into the line of the trunk lid allows us to visualize a “rump” that resembles the tail of Porsche’s 911.
To BMW’s and Mercedes-Benz’s credit, both firms still lead the way in automotive technology. No other car company can claim the number of pioneered and successfully executed innovations that these manufacturers continue to invent.
However, both BMW and Mercedes-Benz have allowed their own design standards to slip in favor of vying to appeal to a broader market. Mercedes-Benz has enjoyed strong and consistent growth in the U.S. market for the past two decades and it would be easy to give credit to sleeker designs. Critics would argue that with the onset of record spending in the late 1990s and an ever increasing consumer reliance on credit based borrowing to purchase or lease vehicles, the marques of choice would always be at the top of any car buyer’s shopping list. One could argue that it is BMW and Mercedes-Benz who are the major borrowers today, when they borrow upon the credit of years of automotive excellence to peddle designs that are unoriginal and not on a par with their former standards.
It is lamentable for the Germans that the Japanese automakers have succeeded in setting the terms for what works in the marketplace. Considering that more and more Benz models seem to copy the styling of their Lexus counterpart’s (ML-Class // RX330, CLS-Class // ES330, SLK // SC430) one should wonder whether it will be long before Germany’s top marques will drop the mantle of technical innovation as well.
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