Mercedes has confirmed that its CLS Shooting Brake concept is to be turned into a production model within the next two years.
The sleek estate show car was originally unveiled at the Beijing motor show earlier this year. It features a CLS-esque front end but a sloping roofline that's considerably lower than that of a traditional estate car. It's slightly longer but around 10cm lower than the E-class estate, in fact - so it's unlikely to rival that car's cavernous load bay.
Mercedes says the production version of the car will be ready to go to market by 2012. Production will be based at Sindelfingen, already the site of the C-class saloon, E-class saloon and estate, S-class, CLS and CL lines. Intriguingly, the firm appears to have changed the spelling of the car's name from 'Break', as shown in Beijing, to 'Brake'.
Mercedes-Benz chief Dieter Zetsche said, "In 2004 Mercedes-Benz established a new vehicle segment with the four-door Coupé CLS and created a design icon. 170,000 customers around the globe show how enthusiastic this car has been received by the market. The decision to build the CLS Shooting Brake underscores the leading role of Mercedes-Benz in regards of innovative passenger car concepts and design – and that is exactly what the customers expect from us."
Expect the CLS Shooting Brake to adopt many of the same engines as the recently unveiled second-generation CLS, with 3.5-litre V6 and turbocharged 4.6-litre V8 petrols, and a 3.0-litre V6 common-rail diesel. That policy is likely to extend to an AMG version, probably powered by the same twin-turbocharged V8 powerplant as the CL63 AMG and S63 AMG.
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Re: Merc confirms CLS wagon
Mercedes have the 306 HP 4.0 V8 diesel in the ML- and GL-Classes but it's not as efficient as Audi's unit (or even the new Range Rover 4.4 TDV8). The Merc engine isn't even EU5 compliant, whereas the Audi and Range Rover engines are, so it may be discontinued soon.
Re: Merc confirms CLS wagon
Re: Merc confirms CLS wagon
It may be not be as practical as a regular estate but so what? If cars were bought solely on practical reasons we would all be driving Volvo V70's or somesuch. Pointless cars are to be celebrated! This looks better than the regular new CLS.