BMW Gran Coupe and Mercedes Shooting Brake Concepts

The forthcoming Beijing Motorshow looks like it will be witnessing the battle of the Saloon Coupes, or four door coupes or even Coupoons or whatever you want to call them.

Both Mercedes and BMW will be previewing concept versions on the new CLS and 6 Series respectively.

The Gran Coupe as the BMW concept is now seems to be a styling development of the previous CS concept of a few years ago. Despite the concept tag this is clearly a production ready car and is likely to join the existing 2 door coupe and Cabrio in the next 6 Series range.

I don't much car for the current 6, the styling is wonky, the seats are too hard and the ride is terrible. I also dislike the pointless tech on the car (variable indicators why?) but at least this concept seems to improve on the styling looking especially neat in profile view.



The Mercedes Shooting Brake concept is probably not quite the production car that the BMW is, I doubt that this neat estate body will make production (at least not yet) but the styling clues to the forthcoming CLS are all there. This will be an important model for Mecedes as the original CLS created this new niche which Jaguar have sort of followed with the XF and along with the BM, Audi are likely to join the fray with the A7.

On the basis of the styling the Merc should remain the class benchmark, the Shooting Break Concept looks fantastic especially the imposing front. While this is the concept I hope Merc eventually puts this Shooting brake into production as well. It looks a far more suitable car than the weird and largely forgotten R class and looks the ideal GT car for the family.

Jay Leno on the Mercedes SLS AMG

Mercedes SLS AMG "Gullwing"

Following the Promo video of the Ferrari 458 here is the one for new Mercedes SLS AMG, also launched at the Frankfurt show. I do like the styling which seems to nod to the past without being obviously retro, oddly the proportions do remind me of the Honda S2000 fitted with a hardtop. It is certainly a far more successful design than the previous SLR Mclaren and with it's cheaper price (£150,000) Mercedes will hope it sells in far greater numbers.

At that price the DB9 (or DBS) and Ferrari California (which offers similar performance figures and a folding hardtop) will probably be the most direct rivals but buyers are likely to also be looking at the Ferrari 458 and intriguingly the Mclaren MP4-12C.
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