wife and I were conversing this afternoon as to the relative differences/similarities as to our 1990 MB 300TE and the 1988 BMW 325iC. As there are an incredible amount of Mercedes, BMW, Audis, Porches, Volvos as well as Lexus, Infinities and so forth running around our town we engaged in this discussion of nomaclature. For instance there are a number of BMW 325iX wagons running around here, as well as 525/540i wagons as well. Many, and I mean many, MB E320 wagons and sedans as well. Plus, Audi seems to be making a major come back, as they well should. Anyway, she was asking why the designations...I replied that, while it seems odd, the Mercedes C class is the equivalent of the BMW 3 serier, the MB E class is the BMW 5 series rival. I remarked that the C is the number 3 letter in the alphabet and that E is the number 5 letter. It seems coinidental but I wonder. She then asked then why the S series? I said I didn't know and I would ask, if BMW and Mercedes were playing this game why wouldn't the S class be the G class? So, my question without looking too deeply into it would be: why the C, E and then S class...what does S stand for?