Classes
 

i was wondering what all the classes stand for? i know they are german but i wonder what they mean. there are the S, C, Cl, CLK, E, A, V, G, M, SL and am i missing anything? who knows what each of these letters mean?

Well, lets see:

S --> Sonderklasse
SL --> sport, leicht
SLK --> sport, leicht, kompressor (in the good old days and with the original new SLK
E --> Economyk-Klasse
C --> Compact-Klasse
V --> Van-Klasse
CLK --> compact, leicht, kompressor (which doesn't match the vehicle, but nowbody cared in Möhringen


They actually tried to establish a system where the higher the letter, the bigger or more prestigous the car.

A little different is the ML. They wanted to name it M-Klasse, but BMW was against it. So they named in ML. This can't mean "light", I guess, it stands for "messed up large"-Klasse.:D

Anyway. I prefer the cars of the times they had class and nobody had to write it on the back of the car.:D

Kind regards
Eberhard

wow, okay now what does Sonder mean?

I thought E was executive. The E55 is hardly economical.

Sixto
95 S420
91 300SE
87 300SDL
83 300SD

E used to be Einspritzung, or fuel injected. K was Kurz, or short, as in the SSK which had a shortened wheelbase. the SLK is a short wheelbase version of the SL, the CLK a short wheelbase version of the CL. C was originally meant to be coupe as in SEC, so SEC meant sport, fuel injected, coupe.

Sonder is equivalent to Special

I read somewhere that the S stood for Super.

It works either way.

Suppose it could stand for Superlative too. ;)

I don't know what the A stands for.... Anfaenger maybe? :D

Sorry. E as prefix stands also for Executive. E as suffix for "Einspritzung"

SLK <--> SL and CLK <--> CL

Thats where the mess up begins.

The CL started its live as SEC

C as prefix originially had the meaning of "Compact"

What CL is supposed to mean, nobody knows.

Kind regards
Eberhard

Howdy All,
Then you have the G class and the U class. G for Gelandewagen. And U is for Unimog. Now does anyone know what Gelandewagen and Unimog stand for?¿:)

So what does M or ML stand for?

Sixto
95 S420
91 300SE
87 300SDL
83 300SD

G-Class startet its live as "Geländewagen"

Originaly the "G" was used as suffix, like 230 G, 230 GE, 240 GD, 300 GD (and for the military the 250 GD)

With all this classism the named this great car G-Class, which is a little bit nonsense, the car had class all the time.

There ist no U-Class or Unimog-Class. The Unimog (which stands for Universales Motorgerät <universal motorised equipment>) was introduced it the 1940s. At is a utility vehicle and they never had "classes". There is no Actros-Class, Sprinter-Class, Vaneo-Class.

To put it straight: A Mercedes either has class, or they had to put it in the name, or it is a utility vehicle. There is no "Ponton-Class", "Pagoda-Class", "Fintail-Class". At that time they spent they time with engineering, good construction and thourough quality control instead of coming up with funny marketing ideas.

Kind regards
Eberhard
(with three classless Mercedes in the driveway)

don't forget SE, or CE. TE as well :)

How about the "V" and "W" suffix attached to recent cars (at least in dealer inventory lists), e.g. S320V, S320W. I assume that this is a way to distinguish between long wheelbase, short wheelbase, and wagon. Anybody know which is which?

Frank X.,

Gelaende means Terrain. As in Terrain (off-road) vehicle.


Manya,

The T stands for Transporter (station wagon)

The SE would be a Sonderklasse with Einspritzung (If it would have a carburetor it would just be an S) You would find those letters after the number.
Same with the CE (after the numbers) a Coupe with injection (Einspritzung)

hope this helps....

-Larry

M = Mini-Van

L = Look-a-like

Then there's the V-class that is a minivan.

Sixto
95 S420
91 300SE
87 300SDL
83 300SD