2012 Mercedes-Benz CLS550

[Bill Wood]

Filed under: Sedan, Mercedes-Benz, First Drive, Luxury

Modern Art Meets Twin Turbochargers

2012 Mercedes-Benz CLS550 - Click above for high-res image gallery

Any time a journalist starts waxing poetic about automotive styling, you can practically hear designers' eyes spinning in their sockets. I've met plenty of automotive scribes with a master's degree in mechanical engineering, but I've yet to shake hands with one packing a design sheepskin. Granted, the average car buyer is better served by someone with an intimate knowledge of liquid thermodynamics and the finer points of suspension geometry. But then along comes something like the 2012 Mercedes-Benz CLS550 and we simply don't have the vocabulary.

Stepping out for a smoke with the lead automotive artist from Mercedes' Advanced Design Studio, it's hard not to look at the second-generation CLS and start playing styling critic. The play between light and shadow; the sculpted rear haunches; the character line that rises then plummets from the headlamps, across the fenders and terminates in the rear doors. Who am I kidding? I'm of no station to make you endure endless, uneducated platitudes cribbed from the car-as-art schtick. I just know the new CLS looks damned good from any angle, particularly the the waning sunlight of California's Napa Valley.

But here's the kicker: The design is nearly seven years old.Continue reading 2012 Mercedes-Benz CLS550

2012 Mercedes-Benz CLS550 originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 15 Jun 2011 11:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.



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Autoblog
06-15-2011 12:57 PM