Mercedes-Benz Archives

Aston Martin DB11 wins Golden Steering Wheel Award

Aston Martin’s DB11 has just been crowned ‘Most Beautiful car 2017’ by winning the prestigious Golden Steering Wheel award from Axel Springer. The car features cutting edge technology that has been wrapped into a silhouette that is worthy of praise. It’s smooth and elegantly designed contours make it look aggressive yet classy.

The jury of the Golden Steering award was made up of designers, engineers, racers, celebrities and journalists from across Europe. There were 20 entrants for the competition, all of which entered the car market this year. And the DB11 managed to standout enough to take home the prize.

Aston Martin President and CEO, Dr. Andy Palmer, received the award from Marion Horn (Editor in Chief BILD am Sonntag) and Tom Drechsler (Editor in Chief AUTO BILD) at the awards ceremony held at the Axel Springer SE headquarters in Berlin.

Speaking of the award, the delighted CEO of Aston Martin, said, “We aspire to make the most beautiful cars in the world and are incredibly proud of the Aston Martin DB11, a car that spearheads our Second Century plan. Exceptional design runs through the bloodline of the DB models and every part of the DB11 is crafted to create the most beautiful DB to date.”

Designed by Marek Richman, the DB11 is grand tourer that was built since last year and has effectively replaced the ever popular DB9. Available as either a 2-door Coupe or Convertible, the DB11 is offered with either a 5.2-litre twin-turbo V12 or a Mercedes-AMG 4.0-litre V8 engine.

Both powerplants are mated with an 8-speed ZF automatic gearbox, which allow them to achieve their respective speeds. The V12 powered car has 600bhp and 700Nm of torque, which allow it to sprint from 0-100km/h in just 3.9 seconds. The V8 powered (503bhp and 675Nm of torque) car accomplishes the same feat in 4.0 seconds.

Aston Martin recently forged a partnership with Mercedes-Benz, allowing it access to a plethora of engine options and cutting edge technology. Utilizing these new tools, the British automaker might be able to reduce R&D costs but produce the same beautiful cars.

Hamilton crowned 2017 F1 world champion

After an eventful race at the recent Mexico grand prix, Lewis Hamilton has won the 2017 Formula 1 world championship. The race was anything but ordinary for Mercedes-Benz after the British driver was involved with an accident with Sebastian Vettel early in the race.

This shunt forced both drivers to scramble to the pits for repairs and to change tyres, which effectively left them in second last and last place. They were well behind the charging pack once they rejoined the race. What matters worse was that Hamilton was eventually lapped, which placed him in an unfamiliar situation.

Though many wrote off Hamilton’s chances of sealing the championship title in Mexico, the Briton proved his tenacity and unwillingness to accept defeat by clawing back up the order. He eventually finished in 9th place while closest title rival, Vettel, managed a more successful 4th place.

Despite finishing well ahead of Hamilton, it wasn’t enough to stave off his pursuit of a fourth world title. The race was eventually won by Max Vestappen with Valtteri Bottas and Kimi Raikkonen completing the top 3.

Hamilton, who is now part of an elite club of five drivers who have won four or more world titles, was unhappy with how he won the title. Based on an article published by F1.com, he stated that felt it was a horrible way to win the title considering the drama that unfolded shortly after the race began.

There are only four other F1 drivers in history that have won four or more world titles, which are Juan Manuel Fanio, Alain Prost, Micheal Schumacher and Sebatian Vettel. It’s a proud moment for the Briton, but we are sure he will be gunning for a fifth title next year.

Source: F1.com

Mercedes-Benz release entertaining ad of upcoming X-Class

Mercedes-Benz has released a new TV ad to build more hype for its soon to be launched X-Class. The short video clip illustrates the versatility of Merc’s new pick-up truck as it tackles the toughest terrain while being docile enough to be used as an ‘elegant’ daily driver.

The vehicle is driven on some challenging terrain while being pursued by a heard of bison and rhinos, a team of hockey and rugby players, a weird looking monster, as well as a number of others. It’s a pretty entertaining 1 minute and 16 seconds, within which Mercedes-Benz tries to strongly drive home the notion that, though its a pick-up truck, it’s still a classy Merc.

https://youtu.be/Be6FLU1ny9E

Despite the fact that it is a pick-up truck, the German automaker believes that the vehicle will still appeal to a wide variety of drivers. Like the TV advert, the automaker says that the X-Class will be adored by adventure seekers, sports enthusiasts as well as those only needing utilitarian functionality.

Based on the Nissan Navara, the X-Class should reach global markets sometime next year. It shares quite a bit with its Japanese counterpart such as its wheelbase and dimensions. That said, the vehicle is more than just a Navara in a fancier suit.

https://youtu.be/MXIg3GFRNzg

https://youtu.be/7aGK4xW2jFM

The X-Class gets a Mercedes-Benz engine and transmission, typical All-Wheel-Drive capabilities and a slew of driver aids that include Active Brake Assist, Lane Keeping Assist and Traffic Sign Assist, Trailer Stability Assist, as well as broadcasting live traffic information.

For the full scoop on the Mercedes-Benz X Class, Click Here.

Mercedes-Benz’s finest to star alongside Justice League superheros

Mercedes-Benz’s cars will be well represented in the soon to be released Warner Bros. movie, Justice League. The highly anticipated release, which is based on DC comics’ comic book characters is slated to hit theaters around the world starting on the 17th of November.

It will feature many beloved characters from the DC universe that include Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Cyborg and The Flash as they race to save the planet from an alien assault of catastrophic proportions.

Three Merc vehicles will enjoy the limelight in the Justice League film and serve as the primary mode of transportation of the movie’s protagonists. The new E-Class Cabriolet will be driven by the character, Wonder Woman played by Gal Gadot. The car is featured in a scene where Diana Prince aka Wonder Woman, drives on a mission to speak with Victor Stone, aka Cyborg.

Apart from this, a G-Class 4×4^2 will also make an appearance alongside Diana’s E-Class, but the star of the show will undoubtedly be the Mercedes-Benz AMG Vision Gran Turismo. This futuristic masterpiece oozes class and sophistication like no other vehicle. This is why, fittingly, it will be the vehicle of choice for Bruce Wayne aka Batman.

During the movie, the car can be seen piloted by Bruce Wayne, played by Ben Affleck, when he drops in on Barry Allen, aka The Flash, to recruit him into the League. Revealed to the world in 2013, the AMG Vision Gran Turismo was Mercedes-Benz’s ultimate creation for the PlayStation virtual world.

The car was specially modified for this movie by Merc’s own design team by developing a fully fleshed-out interior with illuminated elements, racing seats and a virtual dashboard section. Compared to the original concept car, the one featured in Justice League was scaled to 110% in order to accommodate seating the film’s rather tall, 6ft. 3 ½ inch tall Ben Affleck.

“With Justice League, we found the perfect partner to highlight our current vehicles as well as communicate the fascination of our brand. The E-Class Cabriolet is a natural fit for Wonder Woman,” says Dr. Jens Thiemer, Vice President Marketing Mercedes-Benz Cars.

https://youtu.be/OVCjhR7ltJM

We are therefore very excited to partner with Warner Bros. Pictures on this much-anticipated movie as we reach out to as many people as possible with a creative and innovative campaign,” he added.

Mercedes-Benz will be setting up an impressive marketing campaign to build more interest for the film’s release by introducing a 30-second TV commercial, print, online and OOH advertising. It will also launch six exclusive digital comic stories for Mercedes-Benz’ Instagram channels, developed in cooperation with DC’s Custom Creative Studio.

Check out the image galley below and let us know what you think of these vehicles and whether they truly fit the personality of the characters in the movie.

Mercedes-Benz GLC earns IIHS Top Safety Pick+

Mercedes-Benz’s ever popular SUV, the GLC has scored big with the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) in the United States. It has earned the highest award by being named the 2017 IIHS Top Safety Pick+. Merc’s GLC outdid the competition by passing several crash tests with high ratings.

The GLC managed to secure first place due to its intelligent body construction and avoided collisions in IIHS track tests with its standard front crash prevention system. Based on the C-Class platform, the GLC replaced its predecessor, the GLK in December 2015.

Sporting a combination of aluminium and high strength steel, it is significantly lighter than its predecessor but provides a more rigid passenger safety compartment surrounded by deformation zones.

According to the crash test results, the GLC received good ratings for various tests that include the small overlap front, moderate overlap front, side, roof strength and head restraints. It was identified that, in the event of a collision, the GLC SUV helps keep occupants secured with its three-point safety belts with belt tensioning, belt-force limitation and airbags.

In addition to that, the vehicle recieved the Superior rating for the crash prevention category due to its Collision Prevention Assist Plus system’s ability to avoid IIHS collision testing at both 19 km/h and 40 km/h.

The latest accolade allows the GLC to join the E-Class and GLE SUV as the top picks of the IIHS, which found that the latest crop of Mercedes-Benz models offer the best level of safety currently available in the industry.

Mercedes-Benz pick up new award for C-Class and S-Class models

Mercedes-Benz’s C-Class has been hnoured at the first ever BusinessCar awards. It won the ‘Best Premium Car’ title while its bigger brother the S-Class, was named the winner of the ‘Best Luxury Car’ category.

According to the automaker, both of its models received their respective accolades due to exceptional comfort levels, technology and competitive monthly running costs. Adding to that, the S-Class also had a ‘luxurious and unrivaled interior’ something that isn’t said often due to the relatively stiff competition faced at this side of the segment.

Regarding this, Rob East, Head of Fleet, Mercedes-Benz Cars UK, said, “Both the C-Class and S-Class are perfect examples of what Mercedes-Benz does best, combining unbeatable comfort with competitive running costs, plus excellent interior quality. It’s great to see these strengths being recognised by key members of the Fleet industry.”

The editor of BusinessCar stated that the reason that the C-Class trounced the competition was due to the fact that it had set a high bar when it came to comfort, tech and efficiencies, as well as having strong residual value. This means that on paper at least, buying a C-Class over other rival models makes more sense from a consumer’s prespective.

In recent years, Mercedes-Benz has been producing some of the best cars the automotive world has to offer. The styling of the new models are pretty clean and attractive, which is complemented by equally sophisticated and forward-thinking tech. This combination has allowed the German based automaker to bag awards from different competitions.

This momentum doesn’t seem to be ending soon as the automaker has revealed plans and concept vehicles that might turn the automotive world upside down. One thing is for sure, This level of competition could only mean one thing, the cars that will be made available soon, will offer us more bang-per-buck than in previous years.

Mercedes-AMG to unveil supercar at Frankfurt

Formula 1 is considered the pinnacle of competitive Motorsports and is the platform that established manufacturers use to display their engineering prowess. This isn’t its only purpose though, because technology that’s developed for F1 cars, especially those that help improve stability and driver management, eventually make their way into mainstream vehicles.

Such is the case with Mercedes-AMG. The company’s F1 team, which has proven to be an unstoppable force these past few seasons, has enjoyed a string of victories because they’ve developed a car that is blindingly fast, agile around corners and pretty reliable too.

Now, the company has decided to bring the same technology and magic of this F1 car, into a road going car. Called the Mercedes-AMG Project ONE, it’s a two-seater supersports showcar that will showcase the brands capabilities.

Slated for reveal at the International Motor Show (IAA) in Frankfurt, the car is said to encapsulate the very latest and efficient, fully-fledged Formula 1 hybrid technology for the road. It’s a high performance supercar that will be powered by a hybrid powertrain that is able to output more than 1000bhp.

According to the automaker, the car is expected to have a top speed exceeding 350km/h and will offer the best of both worlds. Meaning, it will combine exceptional racetrack performance with sensible day-to-day practicality.

Little else is known at the moment, and the only proof we have of the car’s existence is a rather vague image of it’s front end. Based on what we have gathered, it draws quite a bit of design inspiration from the brand’s past race cars, which is a good thing. Stay tuned and will let you know more about the car as soon as we find out.

German automakers strike deal with home regulatory agencies

It looks as though German regulators are getting tough on manufacturers of diesel engines. Based on a news article published by Auto Express, Big name automakers such as Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen and BMW have reached an agreement with the German authorities to update 5.3 million cars with software tweaks enabling them to run a lot cleaner.

This news affects vehicles with Euro5 and 6 diesel engines and the new software will reduce the amount nitrogen oxide emissions emitted by 25 to 30 percent. Having said that, 3.8 million of those vehicles are Volkswagens, which makes up a majority of the total stated earlier.

As many of you already know, VW found itself in a bit of a pickle when regulatory agencies in the US and Europe discovered that the automaker had installed cheat devices in its vehicles. These devices allowed them to circumvent the rather stringent diesel emissions regulations that were put into force in recent years.

As result of the scandal, VW has had to pay hefty fines in these markets on top of initiating programmes to roll back the effectiveness of the devices. Apart from that and to help alleviate the anger of many disgruntled VW owners, the company has opted to buy back their vehicles at reasonable prices.

BMW and Daimler, the latter being the parent company of Mercedes-Benz, are also introducing incentives for customers who trade in their older and dirtier burning diesel vehicles for new models that are more friendly to the environment.

We aren’t sure whether such practices will be adopted in other markets but for now, it looks like only German car buyers will benefit from this. That should suit the rest of us just fine because the days of the diesel engine are numbered. The advent of practical electric cars will soon render eco oil burners obsolete and relegate them to the history books.

Source: Auto Express

Mercedes-Benz posts record sales for first half of 2017

Mercedes-Benz has had an awesome six months for 2017, the automaker has posted its best sales figures yet for the month of June as well as for half the year. It was reported that 209,309 vehicles were delivered to its customers in June which is an 11.1% jump compared to the same month last year.

Overall, from January to June of this year, the company shifted 1,144,274 cars, which is a 13.7% increase compared to the same period last year. This means that Mercedes-Benz has outdone itself by surpassing last year’s performance by a considerable margin.

This result was bolstered by year’s second quarter sales, which happens to be Mer’s best quarter ever. During this time, the company sold 583,649 vehicles which is said to be an 11.6% increase overall.

Demand for its cars were so great, that Mercedes-Benz was the most preferred premium brand in markets such as Germany, Italy, France, Belgium, Portugal, Austria, South Korea, Japan, Australia, Taiwan, the USA, Canada and Brazil.

“We have posted the strongest half-year in the history of Mercedes-Benz with sales of significantly more than a million cars,” stated Britta Seeger, Member of the Board of Management of Daimler AG responsible for Mercedes-Benz Cars Marketing & Sales. “Not only the popularity of our E-Class family contributed to this success; demand for our SUVs is also as high as ever in all regions.”

As a means to put this remarkable achievement into context, in Europe alone, the Stuttgart based automaker sold 484,120 vehicles which is a substantial 8.9% increase over last year’s figures. But the market that witnessed the most growth for Mercedes-Benz vehicles was Asia-Pacific.

Asian car buyers purchased 438,710 cars which is a 26.7% increase from last year with the bulk of the sales coming from China. The results were positive overall as China saw a 34.5% increase in sales, South Korea with 47.3%, Australia with 8.5%, Taiwan with 10.9% and India with 8.7%.

The car that contributed the most to Merc’s fantastic sales numbers was the C-Class. Combining sales of both the Sedan and Estate variants, the automaker sold 210,000 C-Class cars, making it the best selling model of its line-up yet again. That said, demand for other Mercedes-Benz vehicles were considerably high as well, especially with regards to the E-Class which saw an increase in sales of about 68.4%.

It looks like 2017 is shaping up to be a great year for Mercedes-Benz and if demand for its vehicles continue to rise, we expect these figures to be a whole lot higher by the time this year rolls to a close.

Aston Martin DB11 is the first to receive Mercedes-AMG engine

Aston Martin’s DB11 will be the first receipient in the company’s line up of a Mercedes-AMG engine, which is the fruition of the partnership between the German manufacturer and the Gaydon based supercar maker.

Buyers will now be able to order their Aston Martin with either the existing 5.2-litre turbocharged V12 or the 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 from Mercedes-Benz. The latter weighs about 115kg lighter than the former, which should offer the DB11 better agility especially when meandering through corners. It’s power output is rated at close to 510bhp and 675Nm of torque, which will allow the car to sprint from 0-100km/h in just 4.0 seconds and on to a top speed of 301km/h.

Speaking of the latest addition, Aston Martin Chief Technical Officer, Max Szwaj, said, “As an engineer I find the DB11 a fascinating car. One with great depth of character and ability. Of course the V12-engined variant is an icon – an ultimate, if you like, but the V8 is very much its own car. One with a distinct and carefully crafted character that’s truly seductive.”

Despite it being a Mercedes-AMG sourced engine, Aston Martin’s engineers have fettled with it and added their own personal touch to ensure that the end result, is a powerplant that fits the needs and demands of a true Aston Martin. The calibration carried out included creating new ECU software and reprogramming the engine and throttle mapping to ensure that it offers and feel and sound that the brand is known for.

Several changes were made to the DB11 in order for the new V8 to fit in perfectly. They include a bespoke air intake, exhaust and wet sump lubrication systems, as well as new engine mounts. Together, they allow the engine to sit as low as possible to optimize the centre of gravity.

Most of the weight is centered within the wheelbase and as a result, should increase the car’s ability to react to sudden changes in steering input. And to fully support this, detailed revisions were made to the suspension bushing, geometry, anti-roll bars, springs, dampers and ESP software.

Looking at the exterior, there subtle design changes that tell it apart from its V12 powered sibling, and they include a unique alloy wheel finish, dark headlamp bezels and a pair of bonnet vents as apposed to the quartet that is featured on the V12 model. The vents are painted in either black or titanium-finish mesh – unique to the V8 variant.

As for the interior, there are no distinctions between the two variants as both get the same stuff, which, depending on what’s chosen, include the Options Pack, Designer Specification packages and a suite of Q by Astion Martin.

These Mercedes-AMG powered DB11 cars should go on sale towards the fourth quarter of this year but, one of them will make an appearance at next month’s Goodwood Festival of Speed.