The 2014 Mercedes-Benz E-Class will start from $52,325 for the E250 BlueTec diesel model, the German automaker has announced.

The announced pricing for the 2014 E-Class include a $925 destination charge with the 4Matic all-wheel drive costing $2,500 more. The E250 BlueTec is powered by a 2.1-liter, turbodiesel engine with 195 hp. As for those that want a traditional gasoline engine under the hood of their E-Class, the E350 will start at $52,825 and is powered by a 3.5-liter V6 with 302 hp and 273 lb-ft of torque. 4Matic once again costs $2,500 more.

SEE ALSO: 2014 Mercedes E-Class Says Buh-Bye Four-Eyes

Heading up the model lineup is the E400 Hybrid which starts at $57,625 and has the same 3.5-liter V6 engine paired to an electric motor with 27 hp and 207 lb-ft of torque. The E400 Hybrid is rated at 24 mpg in the city and 30 mpg on the highway. Lastly, the E550 4Matic sedan starts at $62,325 and features a twin-turbo, 4.6-liter V8 engine with 402 hp and 443 lb-ft of torque.

The German automaker also announced pricing on its E350 4Matic wagon, which will start at $59,525.

No pricing on the coupe, cabriolet, or AMG models has been announced.

GALLERY: 2014 Mercedes-Benz E-Class

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The Mercedes-Benz CLS Shooting Brake is arguably one of the best looking wagon-esque models out there, but automotive design students in Turin may have done better with a different Mercedes model.

Dubbed “Coupetorino 2013,” this design study, based on the SL roadster, was overseen by Steffan Koehl, head of Mercedes Global Advanced Design, in conjunction with StudioTorino and the design students in Turin. Unfortunately, for those looking at the images and drooling in anticipation, the SL Shooting Brake won’t see the light of day. In fact, only a 1:4 scale model has been built and since the project was solely for educational purposes, neither the German automaker or StudioTorino have plans of taking it further.

StudioTorino in the past has created limited-edition variants of the Porsche Boxster and Cayman S, in addition to a wagon variant of the Maserati Quattroporte.

GALLERY: StudioTorino Mercedes-Benz SL Shooting Brake Concept

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Mercedes-Benz has announced pricing for the latest addition to its AMG sport-performance lineup, the CLA45 AMG, which comes with a starting MSRP of $48,375, including delivery.

The CLA45 AMG is the smallest vehicle in Mercedes’ AMG stable, and is powered by a turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine that makes 355 hp and 332 lb-ft of torque, making it the most powerful production four-cylinder engine in the world. All that force is routed through a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission and on to all four wheels thanks to Mercedes’ 4MATIC all-wheel drive setup. Sprinting from 0 to 60 mph takes just 4.5 seconds, while the car is limited to a 155 mph top speed.

Like the standard A-Class, the CLA45 AMG features a transversely mounted engine meaning that it is still front-wheel drive biased. To make sure that the CLA45 didn’t feature any typical front-wheel drive characteristics, engineers at Mercedes made it possible for the car to send up to 50 percent of its torque to the rear axle.

There are a few options that can be had on the CLA45, including carbon fiber interior trim for $950, a panoramic sunroof for $1,480, metallic paint for an extra $720, and upgraded infotainment system which costs $2,300.

Direct competition is scarce for Mercedes’ new small performance car. The Audi S3 sedan will stack up closest, but it is not available yet. Other, non-luxury competition includes the Volkswagen Golf R, Subaru WRX STI, and maybe even the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution, though all three are considerably less powerful and cheaper, compared with the CLA45 AMG.

Pricing for the standard CLA starts at $30,825 (also including delivery), meaning the AMG version carries a roughly $18,000 premium over the base version of the car.

GALLERY: 2014 Mercedes-Benz CLA 45 AMG

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Mercedes is getting set to bring Car-to-X communication, a system which allows vehicles to communicate with other vehicles and infrastructure, to the market before the end of the year.

Though the system only works with other vehicles or objects fitted with a similar system, outfitting Mercedes-Benz products with car-to-x communications means that the brand has an edge on the market. Once more vehicles are outfitted with these communications devices, the benefits will grow.

SEE ALSO: Mercedes Testing Car-to-Car Communications

Imagine an ambulance is approaching from behind. With car-to-x communication, an alert will be sent to your vehicle before you see or hear that ambulance. Even things like wrong-way drivers or dangerous weather conditions will be transmitted to drivers through their car communication systems. Car-to-X is also capable of communicating with infrastructure and road signs for even more safety related information.

A manual alert will be outfitted in each vehicle with car-to-x communications, which allows one driver to send an alert to all others in the area, warning them of things like stalled cars or animals on the road.

Cars communicating with each other is one of the ways that our vehicles could be made fully autonomous, and Mercedes says that retrofitting its past products with the system will also be possible by the end of the year.

As the number of car-to-x equipped vehicles grow, so do the benefits of having such a system, which is one of the reasons why Daimler is working on a standardized car-to-car communication system that could be put into place in all new vehicles.

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According to data from Polk, U.S. buyers registered 67,385 BMW vehicles through March this year, topping Mercedes-Benz which saw 62,366 registrations.

BMW however, is still lagging behind its German rival in terms of sales over the same period. BMW’s sales totaled 64,902 while Mercedes-Benz’s sales were recorded at 69,187. Vehicles can be reported as “sold” when they are delivered to dealerships to be used as test drive vehicles or loaner cars, in addition to being sold to customers. Vehicle registration data on the other hand, can lag behind sales data by about 40 days according to Polk.

BMW and Mercedes have been competing with one another to become the top luxury brand in the U.S. after ousting Lexus from the top spot the last two years. Last year, BMW captured its second consecutive top-selling luxury brand in the U.S. title.

[Source: Automotive News]

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At the London Collections: Men show, Mercedes-Benz and luxury menswear brand Spencer Hart have unveiled a custom CLS 63 AMG Shooting Brake.

Finished in a unique “Nick Hart Midnight Blue,” the CLS 63 AMG Shooting Brake features subtle, dark, understated finishes instead of the flashy chrome accents and wheels found on a standard model. On the inside, specially-sourced dark Chocolate Brown Italian leather seats are contrasted by Midnight Blue stitching while the Spencer Hart logo has been embroidered into each headrest. Nick Hart’s signature can also be found on the center console.

The custom options found on the CLS 63 AMG Shooting Brake by Spencer Hart will be available for customers to order.

“The CLS 63 AMG Shooting Brake by Spencer Hart shows what is possible with the AMG brand and with Nick Hart’s signature subtle detail flourishes, it looks stylish, understated and really cool,” said Rob Halloway, Communications and Events Director, Mercedes-Benz UK. “If you put this bespoke CLS Shooting Brake next to any other car, you would immediately know that you’re looking at something very special.”

GALLERY: Mercedes-Benz CLS 63 AMG Shooting Brake by Spencer Hart

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The 2014 Mercedes-Benz S-Class production line starting rolling earlier this week in Sindelfingen, Germany, and the brand released a video showcasing the plant that “accidentally” revealed the new S63 AMG.

 It does seem like the reveal was purposeful, as the last shot in the video blatantly pans over the S63 badge for about 4 seconds. Mercedes hasn’t officially dropped any specs on the car yet, but no doubt the cat will be out of the bag soon enough.

As expected, the S63 AMG adopts new side skirts, larger front air dams, a lower stance, AMG-spec wheels and what looks like V8 Biturbo badging. Under the hood, a 550-hp twin-turbo 5.5-liter V8 is expected to do duty in the base model, while a more powerful S model may be in the works. As with the E63 AMG, a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission and all-wheel drive are expected to be standard equipment on the new S63.

SEE ALSO: 2014 Mercedes S-Class Officially Revealed

As the top-trim model, the S63 AMG will no doubt feature all of the luxury amenities found in the standard S-Class, including massaging seats, an active air perfuming system, heated arm rests, heated steering wheel and more. Safety equipment is also plentiful on the car, which features collision prevention assist, attention assist, surround view camera, active park assist, active lane keep assist, Pre-safe airbags and seatbelts, night view assist and more.

The new S63 is expected to hit dealers in the fall, while a more powerful V12-powered S65 is expected sometime after the S63 launched.

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Production on the new 2014 Mercedes-Benz S-Class has kicked off at the German automaker’s Sindelfingen plant yesterday.

Employees at the plant have produced the first sixth-generation S-Class sedan as Mercedes looks forward to the new S-Class to open up new opportunities in the market. This year alone, Daimler has invested around $1.3 billion (€1 billion) in its Sindelfingen plant that will aid in adding versatility to the S-Class’ production. All the different variants of the S-Class will be produced in an efficient and flexible process on the same assembly line.

SEE ALSO: 2014 Mercedes S-Class Officially Revealed

The 2014 S-Class will feature many innovations that required extensive training by the plant’s employees, such as the body shop’s use of joining cast aluminum alloys. Energy consumption per vehicle has also been lowered by around 20 percent thanks to improvements to the building engineering.

So far the German automaker has unveiled the S550 for the American market, which will be powered by a twin-turbo V8 engine with 455 hp and 516 lb-ft of torque.

“All of us here at Sindelfingen are enormously proud that the S-Class is made exclusively at our plant. We are able to draw on many years of experience making vehicles in the high-end, luxury class, and we do our best every day for our customers from around the world. In order to meet demand for the new S-Class in the quickest time possible, we will be working without a break right through the summer months,” says Dr Willi Reiss, Head of the Mercedes-Benz plant Sindelfingen.

GALLERY: 2014 Mercedes S-Class

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Earlier this month, the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG Electric Drive set the production electric vehicle lap record on the Nurburgring, clocking in a sub-eight minute lap at 7:56.234.

While the overall electric car record still stands with the Toyota EV P002 race car at 7:22.329, running a sub-eight minute lap in a production EV is an impressive feat. With an impressive 751 hp and 738 lb-ft of torque output, the SLS AMG Electric Drive is one of the most impressive EVs available, too bad there’s none planned for the U.S. market.

SEE ALSO: Mercedes SLS AMG Electric Drive Sets EV Nurburgring Record

An in-car video of the record-setting run has surfaced, which you can watch below.

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GALLERY: Mercedes SLS AMG Electric Drive Laps Nurburgring

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Mercedes-Benz won’t offer a smaller-engined diesel version of the ML SUV in the U.S. for the 2014 model year.

A new report from Car and Driver suggests the maker has put the car’s American future on hold indefinitely. According to a blog post on the buff book’s site, Mercedes might still send its version of the ML powered by the same 2.1-liter diesel in its smaller GLK250 BlueTec, Stateside. According to the report, it’s possible that the oil burning SUV could come for 2015.

Technical specifications were never officially revealed for the ML250, but the diesel powerplant makes 190 hp and 369 lb-ft of torque for the GLK.

That’s quite a bit less than the ML350 BlueTec’s diesel V6, which offers 240 hp and 455 lb-ft. It could offer buyers a more efficient option than the V6 diesel, but that would threaten to steal sales from the more powerful variant.

[Source: Car and Driver]

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It’s no secret that Mercedes-Benz makes performance vehicles; some being serious performance vehicles. With many ‘Benzes eclipsing the 500 hp mark, Mercedes wants to ensure its customers can handle these monsters and keep them shiny side up. To achieve this, it offers a smorgasbord of driving courses, and, good news for those like me who can’t afford to purchase a $145,000 SL 63 AMG; you don’t have to be a Mercedes owner to partake.

SEVERAL COURSES TO CHOOSE FROM

Currently, there are four main courses offered: the Winter Driving Academy, the Driving Experience, the Mastering Performance Course and the AMG Driving Academy. The Winter Driving Academy is pretty self-explanatory and teaches drivers how to handle a vehicle on ice and snow during a variety of driving situations and scenarios.

The Driving Experience course can be done on any paved parking lot and is mirrored off of undercover police driver training. Undercover police training means learning tasks like being able to drive fast without being noticed, which helps when tailing perps. The next rung up the ladder is the Mastering Performance Course, the one I am attending, which is track focused and teaches students how to extract the most out of the vehicles.

There is also the AMG Driving Academy which is a special, all AMG-vehicle event. There are two versions; one aimed at customer education and test drives, while the other is more like the Advanced Driver Training taken to the next level.

But back to the course I’m at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park (CTMP) to attend; the Mastering Performance Course. The day begins with some classroom instruction. We are told that throughout the day the instructors will be working with everyone at their own level as the learning curve is steep, especially for first timers. But, no matter how far we each individually advance during the day, we will learn a lot and be a better driver by the afternoon.

Apart from experiencing the varied lineup of Mercedes-Ben vehicles, this course can be summed up in just a few words, namely; it teaches how to properly drive a corner like a professional racer.

LESSON ONE: SEATING POSITION

Our first lessons is all about properly setting up our driving position. That may sound silly, but there are good reasons. If you want to drive like a professional race car driver, first you have to sit like one.

Step one; put the seat in its lowest position. This isn’t done because it lowers the vehicle’s center of gravity or provides for helmet room, although both are beneficial side effects. It is actually done to force a driver to look further down the road as they need to raise the angle of their vision to see over the dashboard and out the windshield. Vision is the most important aspect of track driving. We need to constantly be scanning ahead for apexes, braking points, corner exits, etc. Every performance driving course emphasizes vision. It’s that important.

SEE ALSO: Mercedes-Benz G63 Review

Continuing the first lesson, we are instructed to set our seat close enough to allow our right foot to push the throttle all the way down while keeping our heel to the floor. The seatback should be kept at an upright angle; no gangsta’ lean-backs when driving on the track. This position will help reduce driver fatigue and will also avoid spinal injuries should a crash occur. Hands should be at the 9 o’clock and 3 o’clock positions on the wheel; not 10 and 2, not the praying mantis 11 and 1, not 12 and around the passenger headrest and definitely not 6 and on the window sill. Grip on the steering wheel should be nice and light allowing us to drive with our fingertips (a lesson I still struggle with once the speeds increase). Finally, we are told the seat should be close enough to the wheel to allow for our arms to be roughly at a 90 degree bend at the elbow. According to my instructors, most males sit too far away and most females sit too close.

LESSON TWO: CORNERING ABILITY AND TRAIL BRAKING

Lesson two is cornering. On the track, each corner is marked by three cones. The first one marks turn in, the second one marks the corner’s middle point, or apex, and the third one is the corner exit.

To help maximize our efficiency through the corners, we are introduced to trail-braking. This is not something usually taught at introductory driving schools, but it is here. When braking into a corner, the nose of your car will bob down due to g forces. Once you let off the brakes, the nose bobs back up and weight transfers off your front tires. This reduces the contact patch of the front tries on the road and reduces their traction ability, thus, giving the car reduced cornering ability.

To avoid the nose of the car bobbing back up at initial turn in, we are taught not to get off the brakes completely, but rather slowly release the brake pedal in direct relation to how much steering angle is being inputted. As we ease up to 50% steering effort, we need to ease back 50% on the brake pedal. Roughly, trail braking occurs from initial turn in until half way to the apex, where the brake pedal is let off 100% and we finish the corner. Sounds simple enough right? Well, at speed, it takes quite a bit of timing and technique; especially while trying to remain completely smooth.

That’s already a lot to remember, and we are only halfway through the corner!

LESSON THREE: EXITING THE CORNER JUST AS IMPORTANT

Once trail-braking is completed, the accelerator should be used to maintain speed through the corner, not accelerate, but to maintain the speed and chassis balance of our street cars. Then, once past the apex, throttle application should be applied percentage wise in relation to percentage of steering angle being dial-out; much like how we trail-braked into the corner. And when the steering wheel is perfectly straight, FULL POWER!

We first begin practicing this technique at lower speeds to train the leg muscles how to trail brake and get our coordination down between our pedal usage and steering inputs. Like I said earlier, to perform this smoothly and correctly it takes quite a bit of practice. Too much steering angle or not enough braking and the tires become overworked to scrub off the excess speed.

A TASTE OF WHAT’S TO COME

We spend the morning performing low speed trail-braking at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park’s double apex turn five, and higher speed trail-braking at the notorious turn two. Once the instructors are confident enough that none of us are going to impale a retaining wall with one of their brand new vehicles, we play follow the leader around the racetrack to familiarize ourselves with the course and learn all 10 of the corners.

SO MANY FLAVORS

As exciting as all this is, making it even more thrilling are the cars. And Mercedes-Benz has quite a lineup.

SEE ALSO: Mercedes-Benz SLK55 AMG Review

The cars we piloting run the full gamut of the Mercedes-Benz model lineup. There is the not-for-USA front-wheel drive B 250 hatchback, a C 63 AMG sedan, C 63 AMG coupe, SLK 350, SLK 55 AMG, SL 550, E 300 sedan, CLS 550 and a purely awesome SLS AMG. Even the trucks came out to play, giving us a chance to lay down rubber in the GLK 250 Bluetec, a ML 350 and the monstrous GL 63 AMG.

Being luxury cars with differing levels of performance and technology, some vehicles come full of adjustable settings, but they all have stability control, and for the purposes of this course we run with ESP on. It’s a good learning tool because it shows when we are exceeding our limits of traction without putting a $100 K Mercedes into a wall. Our lead instructor, Danny Kok, informed us he can do an entire lap at speed without having the ESP kicking in once, and we should be able to as well.

We are instructed to put all the vehicles that have adjustable suspensions into the sportiest setting, while transmission settings should be chosen to reflect our driving style. The vehicles downshifts should match our braking inputs. If we aren’t braking hard enough, put the transmission in a less sporty setting to keep the transmission from braking the car instead of the driver.

NOW TO PUT IT ALL TOGETHER

As the morning gave way to the afternoon, it was time to take these Germanic beasts out on the full course. Again, we play follow the leader, but now at much greater speeds. Using all the training and techniques learned that morning, I begin to get a feel for CTMP at speed.

Never before have the immortal words of Ice Cube spent more time circulating around in my head; ‘Chiggity-check yourself before you wreck yourself, because smashing a $200,000 SLS into a retaining wall is bad for your health’ (I may be paraphrasing here).

THE VERDICT

Those interested in spending the day not only driving some of Mercedes-Benz’s latest and greatest automobiles, but doing so on a track, should visit the Mercedes-Benz Driving Experience website, or the AMG Academy in the US. Trust me, education has never been so much fun!

GALLERY: Mercedes-Benz Driving School

Mercedes-AMG has entered into a long-term, strategic partnership with Rotwild Bikes and their first creation is the R.X45 AMG All Mountain Bike.

The two brands have plans to bring multiple limited-edition bikes to market and the R.X45 is the first of those sporting a color scheme heavily influenced by the A 45 AMG Edition 1. The frame is finished in AMG cirrus white, the rear swing arm is in matte black and graphite grey, while red detailing offers subtle accents just like it does on the A 45 AMG Edition 1. The full suspension, carbon fiber bike will be available exclusively from Rotwild dealers and is priced around $9,225 (6,990 Euros).

The mountain bike is handmade and developed in Germany and features the very latest in frame technology. The R.X45 is rugged, lightweight, and designed to withstand extreme conditions.

“Our aim with this partnership is to bring the AMG brand claim, ‘Driving Performance’, to two wheels,” said Ola Källenius, Chairman of the Board of Management at Mercedes-Benz. “We chose ROTWILD because the brand has applied a real passion and high level of technical expertise to take bike development to a new level.”

GALLERY: R.X45 AMG All Mountain Bike

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