Hallo!
 

Das Adjektiv, compact, auf Deutsch ist
kompakt.
That is why the 'K' does not stand for
kompact!
So there!! :)

The class designation is always hard to get the grips on...

As far as I know, the name "E-class", "S-class" and so on was not used before 1994. From early eighties to this year, all the small-sized cars were named 190, the rest had names according to engine size. If it had an S, it was the large sedans (or coupe), if not i was the mid-sized 124. The letter "E" told that the engine was fuel-injected, "D" was for diesel, and "C" coupe. "T" first ment stationwagon, "T" last ment turbo (this was only available on the diesels). The number 300 means a 3-litre engine, 250 a 2,5-litre and so on. The exeption is the 190, which never came with a 1,9-litre, but on this model the engine size is written after the model designation, for example 190E 2,3 (190-model with a 2,3-litre fuel-injected engine)

It's not right to say that they 'moved' the letter E from behind the number to before. In 1994 Mercedes dropped the E (meaning fuel-injection) and introduced the three main 'classes', C, E and S. For example, a W124 with the 3,2 litre fuel-injected engine was named 320E in 1993 and E320 in 1994 (but the E means a different thing!). A 3-litre diesel went from 300D to E300 Diesel. To call a 1990 300E for E-class is wrong, but still a lot of people do.

What I have written here is based on the European models, but I'm quite sure the same applies to the US marked.

k designation
 

jgl1 wrote:

The "K" in SLK and CLK is NOT derived from nor stands for
"Kompact" or "Kompressor"; it comes from the German word "Kurz, meaning "short". Daimler-Benz employed this designation to differentiate short wheel base vehicles from their standard wheel base siblings (i.e., SL vs. SLK; CL vs. CLK).
The SLK, initially offered Stateside with only the "Kompressor" engine, has always been available in Europe with a choice of normally aspirated or "Kompressor" engines. Again, the "K" referred to the wheel base, not the engine.

jgl1 is so right

The K designation was the work of Dr. Porsche who, in 1926, reduced the wheelbase of an existing car (someone fill me in here on which one it was) to 140 inches. Perhaps the confusion lies in the fact that it had a turbocharged engine. This car was then further modified for the racetrack and the designation S was added making it the SK. This car was capable of 250hp!

Kuan

I did not read all this closely, but I want to clear up one thing. S actually stands for "Spensive".

Have a great day,

I have to disagree with Meb when he says that the class distinctions were not used before 93. That is true of the E-Class, and of course the C-Class was not around before then, but the S-Class nomenclature has been around for a while. I have seen Mercedes Benz ads from as far back as the 70s that say, "Introducing the new S-Class. In fact the first car to start off the S-Class was the 170S in 1949, followed by the 300S in 1954. Mercedes had begun to distinguish its top of the line models with an S, which meant more than just Sedan. (the 180 came out in 1953 with no letters attached. In 1959 the 220SB and 220SEB came out. Mercedes Heralded them as, "A Class of their own." The first time the term, "S-Class was officially used by Mercedes Benz was at the debut of the w116 in September 1972. In Septmeber 1979 at the Frankfurt International Motor Show the w126 was introduced as the "New S-Class." I have the original dealer brouchure for the 1986 S-Class, and it quite clearly says, "1986 S-Class," on the cover and inside makes numerous references to the advantages of the S-Class. In 1982 the 190 (carburated) and the 190E (fuel injected, hence the E). Mercedes Literature refered to them as 190 Series cars. 300Es are not really E-Class cars, they are 300 series cars and the E stands for Fuel injection. All of this information is from the huge two volume history of Mercedes Benz Book set I got for Christmas. The only thing I really don't understand is the CL designation. Anyone known what that stands for?

I believe the "T" on the back of the wagons, stands for Touring. As in touring the countryside. It can gett maddening trying to figure this all out. I know that in Europe there are several different names for wagons. My VW Passat wagon is sometimes called a "Variant" over there. I have also seen Avant and Estate. If you go to the German VW web site they list my wagon as an estate and the sedan as a "limosine". BMW's wagon has a "T" on the it also. I am going forget about trying to sort out all the monikers over MB's 100+ years of building cars.

i believe the "S" originally meant "saloon".

in "SL" form, it meant "Sportlich/Sportive" or in some cases, "Special"

In all cases, they are all "Spensive".

I believe the changes over time in nomenclature reflect the changes in influence between marketing and engineering within the company. Previously, it was engineering for engineering's sake, no matter what the market wanted, and the names obviously referred to technical designations that appealed to the technical-minded set. Nowadays, they are marketed in "classes", which evoke different lifestyles, or levels thereof. Hence the letters come before the numbers and some of them are given new meanings.

This could also be a response to the built-in class designations of the BMW nomenclature (3-series, 5-series, 7-series), each of which has distinct target markets.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20060713214643AAChRBf


Best Answer - Chosen by Asker

E- The E stood for Einspritzung, which is German for fuel injection, which was a very new feature at the time the "E" first appeared in the 1950s
SL;- SL-Class is a series of luxury automobiles. SL, meaning "Sport Light", or in German, Sport Leicht,
C-coupe
E-The E stood for Einspritzung, which is German for fuel injection, which was a very new feature at the time the "E" first appeared in the 1950s
M-Mid-size SUV
Now this is from a site
Another Aside: What do the Model Letters Mean?
Mercedes assigns the letter designation to a model to describe one or more of a car's major characteristics in a general way. Some model letters on older cars from the 1920's and 30's were:
"K" Kurz (German for Short)
"L" Lang (Long)
"V" Vor (Front, engine in front)
"H" Heck (Rear, engine in Rear)
Model letter designations on modern cars usually mean:
"K" Kompressor
"C" Coupe
"S" Sedan
"E" Einspritzer (fuel injection)
"G" Gelaendewagen (off-road vehicle) or Grand
"D" Diesel
"T" Turbo or Tourer
"S" Sport
"L" Leicht (Light weight)

Mercedes now markets cars according to Class designation. Some Classes are "S", "E", "C", and "M". These Class letters do not appear to have any particular meaning. Hope this helps!



Also


http://www.panix.com/~rmadison/mercedes.shtml

Dave

L (the L in SEL) stands for the german word Lang, or long. As this car has a longer wheelbase that add a few inches to the backseat's footroom (and the rear doors)

It adds 5.5 inches of rear leg room.

Dave

I can't recall where . . .
 

.
. . . but I seem to remember some magazine article giving the meaning of "S" in S-class as "sonderklasse." Does anybody know what "sonder" would mean in English?
.

Sonder=special, makes sense I guess.
I think the K in SLK was for Kompact, or as mentioned 2 posts up=kurz (short), meaning it is a small SL (sports light), which is why if you have a naturally aspirated engine it's still an SLK. If you have the compressor engine it says "Kompressor" on it, the Germans are pretty good at not duplicating their designation efforts. Same thing with the wagons, a 300 TD for example, will still say "turbodiesel" on it if that's what is under the hood, which is where I disagree with the list from dmorrison, the T is for touring (or however the Germans come up with the T equalling what we call a wagon), the D is for diesel in this case, or in the case of a gasser a 300 TE. I don't think they ever use a plain "T" for a turbocharger.
There was a confusing time when MB didn't seem to use a letter to designate a class. The 190 (201) was a classic example where the whole class was summarized by the 190 designation, for example the 190E 2.3, 190E 2.6, 190D 2.5, etc, made absolutely NO sense in todays MB designations, but the DO change their minds on this. I think this is the reverse of what happened to the E class. For a long time the "E" designation seemed to get associated with the middle of the road or "bread and butter" cars, especially here in the US where we want all the "DELuxe" stuff incl fuel injected engines. Although we saw it on other models like the 190 and the S class large cars, MB probably thought the "E" was so identified with the US Mercedes cars that they decided to apply this letter to the middle of the road/bread and butter cars. But in the 80's, you could also make the claim that there was a 300 class car (300E, 300D, oops, 260E which they later changed to 300E 2.6, then later the E300, E300 Diesel, E320, etc) see very confusing to see what they were trying to do. It seems like when even the Diesels were designated with an "E" (E300 Diesel) that MB really knew what they were going to do, and that is to have every chassis identified with a letter and not a number, and have the number change to fit the engine displacement, not like the 300E 2.6 or 2.8 (for example again). The 300E 2.8 was a 104 engine for those that have never heard of it. Hope this might help others understand, I worked on them through a very confusing time period, somewhat clearer now what is what, but I know it is interesting to know where the letters originate, what they mean. Again in the E class, I think it did originate from the original Einspritzer/Injected designation, but was actually carried over to the entire E Class because MB was associated with that letter designation for a long time. Later everyone seemed to forget that and thought up "Executive", but I digress. Does that make the C Class "CEO"?
Gilly

The E is German for Einspritzen meaning fuel injection

The S is Sonderklasse

T does not mean turbo, even though people incorrectly refer to diesels as such. T is the wagon. there are TE's gas wagons and TD's diesel wagons