Namibia's content-driven motoring portal
I finally met Eleanor – my automotive unicorn. No, she isn’t a grey Mustang but, much like in the modern Gone in Sixty Seconds movie, this car has given me a proper runaround. With three cancelled bookings and a premature departure from my house, I now know that my Eleanor is a Mercedes-Benz CLS400.
In honour of recent name changes in the Mercedes-Benz model codes, and to better describe the virtues of our latest test car, this text is brought to you by the letter B. Insert Sesame Street jingle here. The model tested was a snow white B220 CDI with black leather interior and optional AMG goodies.
You’re in luck. As a connoisseur of grand tourers and a previous owner of this car’s predecessor, you find me properly qualified to review the Mercedes-Benz E-Class Coupé. The one which arrived for testing was a Fire Opal Red E250 CDI with lots of AMG trinkets and other optional extras.
Purpose. It’s a subject I can’t shake every time I test a new car and the most fascinating topic when discussing people’s choice of vehicle. There’s no rule or law which dictates the proper use of a vehicle which is why you’ll find 4×4’s on the school run and small Asian rentals knee-deep in Sossusvlei sand.
Caution caution, I’m about to go into grumpy old man mode. What happened to common courtesy and good manners? Why do our lives move quicker and quicker? Who needs all these new cars we have on our market? Take the new Mercedes-Benz CLA, for example.
Very few vehicles generate so much excitement BEFORE they’re launched. Mercedes-Benz’s new A-Class seems to have been leaked out to all and sundry before many of us even received our invitation to the launch, but that doesn’t make it any less innovative and fresh once you get to see and drive it for yourself.
A gruff, off-beat sound usually accompanied by a whistling turbo charger can only mean one thing: five cylinders. With even numbers being the preferred stencil for engine manufacturing, the five-pot is just as quirky and potentially unbalanced as those little three-cylinders.
Mercedes-Benz is straddling two chairs at the moment. One it refuses to relinquish possession of which serves conservative and mostly existing clients. The other is of the most stylish and daring variety to attract new customers with younger wallets to their showroom.