Mercedes Benz S600

Mukesh Ambani shells out Rs 10 crore for armoured Mercedes Benz S600

Mumbai: Mukesh Ambani has become the third Indian to acquie an armoured Mercedes Benz S600. The first was ordered for then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh by the Union government and the second was bought by actor Aamir Khan.

The Reliance Industries Limited chairman's 2015-model S600 VR 9 - said to be the most advanced armoured vehicle in the world - is the first in India. The other two cars are the 2014 version.

"Mr Ambani's Merc is fitted with more luxury items. It was especially fitted for him in Germany," said a Mercedes Benz official.

The car was registered at Mumbai's regional transport office this afternoon, an RTO source said.

"MDA (Mukesh Ambani) is a Z-category protectee since the past two years and an armoured car like this complies with advice of the security establishment for protectees of this level," a RIL source said.

The showroom version of the car - S600 Guard - was launched in Delhi last year.

The basic price of the car is about Rs 1.5 crore. Sources at RIL said the company had paid over Rs 10 crore for the specially fitted vehicle for which Ambani waited eight months.

"Mercedes also offers armoured vehicles in E-class and ML-class but their protection level is substantially lower than the S600 Guard, which has armour to protect the vehicle from assault rifles, grenades, IEDs and even a single hit from a sniper rifle," the Mercedes Benz official said.

"Super-thick doors and mirrors, fire and security alarm systems, special tyres on which the vehicle can be driven for upto 80km even after they are deflated come with a twin turbo 530PS V12 petrol engine."

After the government of India first acquired a Mercedes S600 for Singh, Aamir bought one fitted with about 1.7 tonne worth of armour in March 2014. That was after the actor began receiving threats following the first season of his TV show, Satyamev Jayate.

MERCEDES'2017 E-CLASS WILL MOVE A STEP CLOSER TO FULLY-AUTONOMOUS CARS

Mercedes-Benz traditionally uses its flagship S-Class to introduce new tech and set precedents for future cars, but the next generation E-Class midsize luxury sedan may actually overshadow its more prestigious sibling.

The 2017 Mercedes-Benz E-Class will feature a host of new tech, including some features that move Mercedes a step closer to the autonomous cars it has said it wants to put on sale by 2020. That includes systems that allow the E-Class to drive semi-autonomously in certain situations and maneuver in and out of parking spaces. This will also likely be the first factory deployment of a “Car-to-X communication” early warning system.

Mercedes says the new E-Class will be able to follow other cars at speeds up to 200 kph (124 mph), taking over all acceleration and braking duties as well as providing “steering assistance” to the driver. At speeds up to 130 kph (80 mph), the system does not necessarily need clear lane markings to operate.

A Speed Limit Pilot also features the ability to automatically adjust speed if it detects changes in the speed limit, either by reading road signs or noting speed zones programmed into the navigation system.

Other semi-automated features include Active Brake Assist, which can detect situations where emergency braking may be required, warn the driver, and provide everything from a brake-pressure boost up to full automatic braking. There’s also Evasive Steering Assist, which adjusts power-steering boost to help the driver execute evasive maneuvers.

When it’s time to park, Mercedes says the new Remote Parking Pilot will allow the driver to get out of the car and steer it into a parking space using a smartphone app. This lets occupants avoid having to get in and out in a tight space, and should make moving the car easier. This feature won’t be available in the U.S. at launch, though.

Mercedes has offered Car-to-X systems as a retrofit option in Europe since 2013, and will now place the technology in new cars beginning with the 2017 E-Class.

A variant of the vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) systems that have received praise from U.S. safety regulators, Car-to-X allows vehicles equipped with the necessary hardware to transmit signals to each other, providing greater awareness of potentially dangerous road conditions.

This could potentially allow a driver to “see” obstacles that may be out of his or her field of view, or to get an advance warning of an impending accident, or of a traffic jam or bad weather farther ahead. Mercedes claims the system could also receive data from emergency vehicles if agencies choose to provide it, meaning drivers could be alerted to the presence of a fast-moving police car or ambulance before hearing sirens.

Of course, only cars equipped with the system can communicate with each other, so the benefit will likely be limited until a critical mass of “talking” cars is reached.

In addition to the safety-related tech, E-Class drivers will be able to ditch their key fobs and use smartphones as “digital keys,” using Near Field Communication with a sensor located near the driver’s door handle.

The 2017 Mercedes-Benz E-Class is expected to debut this coming auto show season, and will go on sale next year.

Tesla Model S vs BMW M5 vs Porsche Panamera triple test review (2015)

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Here’s a scary stat: when consultancy Accenture surveyed 14,000 drivers, 39% declared in-car technology most likely to swing a car purchase. Only 14% ranked performance top. Into this shifting automotive landscape drives the all-electric Tesla, an automotive iPhone that you plug in at night and hope won’t die during the day.

Tesla is based near San Francisco. In that Californian bubble, from which technological innovation and pollution regulations trickle through to us all, Tesla is on a roll. With one model, it’s the state’s third largest premium brand, outselling Porsche, closing in on BMW and Mercedes; it’s portentous enough to send premium brands scurrying to their R&D bunkers.

But here’s the catch: a Model S probably won’t run out of juice in California. Tesla’s ‘supercharger’ network – the iTunes of gas stations, where only a Tesla can charge – is advanced, and half a charge takes 20 minutes.

Tesla in the UK: a practical proposition?

For UK buyers, things are more restrictive: there are 22 charging points, mostly down south. You can use other charging outlets, but you’ll kick your heels for hours. So the point of this test is to take the Tesla out of its comfort zone. We’ll drive it to some great Welsh roads that those urban early adopters might never experience, and see if we can stray far from a Supercharger without gnawing fingernails. How many miles can we cover? Is the Model S actually any good to drive?

What’s more, how does the Model S stack up against more conventional premium saloons? Should you really drop £70k on a Tesla with a limited range and nascent charging infrastructure, when there are plenty other fast, luxurious saloons you can refuel almost anywhere in minutes? 

This test car is the rear-drive, 375bhp Model S. You’ll get a Model S with a 60kWh (kilowatt hour) battery and 240-mile range but no supercharger compatibility for £56k. Ours upgrades to an 85Kwh battery with 310-mile range and supercharger compatibility for £69k, including £5k low-emissions grant.

From Porsche we’ve got the second-generation Panamera S E-Hybrid, its advanced tech signalled by luminous socks for brake calipers. Gone is the nickel-metal hydride battery, replaced by lithium-ion for up to five times more power. The hybrid bit doesn’t just mean you harvest wasted power from the combustion engine; you can also plug the Panamera in for up to 22 miles of emissions-free motoring at up to 84mph. It takes between 2.5 and four hours to juice, depending on charge point.

This allows Porsche to claim 91.1mpg and 71g/km CO2. The government thinks the Panamera so clean it’ll give you that £5k rebate (£89k all in), plus free road tax and entry into London’s Congestion Charge Zone. So you get many of the fiscal benefits of the Tesla, with a 410bhp V6 you can fuel countrywide.

Ancient and modern: petrol vs electric

Those of you in the 14% bracket who like having fun between A and B might prefer the 592bhp BMW M5. Compared with the Tesla, it’s like the Exxon Valdez on 20-inch rims. At least it’s trying: a downsized, twin-turbocharged V8 boosts oomph compared with the old V10, and also returns a much improved 28.5mpg and 231g/km of CO2.

The M5 is odds-on the best driver’s car here, but can a hybrid saloon from the sports-car kings trouble it on a great road, and can Tesla even come close to those kicks? Tesla wins the eco bragging rights, but just how more frugal is the Porsche than the M5 outside the EU lab?

We hit a sizeable setback on discovering there are no Tesla superchargers in Wales. So our CJ drives to Bristol, where Sainsbury’s has a pair of chargers. It takes 90 minutes to fully charge the Tesla, which arrived one-third charged.

We’re told the Panamera should’ve been fully charged before leaving Porsche. It won’t engage E-mode when I try pressing it en route, but I have driven this car around Silverstone, where the green rev needle stuck eerily to zero for long periods at surprisingly high speed. This time either someone didn’t charge it, or they used the fizz on the journey; our schedule didn’t give us time to plug it in.

The Panamera essentially uses an Audi powertrain, a 3.0-litre supercharged V6 with some orange high-voltage wires under the bonnet and an eight-speed torque converter auto – no dual-clutch PDK here, note. 

It’s a pleasant few hours in the Porsche’s luxuriously appointed interior, my initial 30-minute cross-country blat giving way to steady-state motorway cruising. Shame the Panamera feels lethargic in its default mode, like a pillow’s jammed under the throttle. When you back off, a coasting function kills the revs, and there’s a small lull when you demand more thrust. It’s a ponderous feeling at odds with Porsche’s sporting DNA.

In Sport mode, the Panamera quits coasting and feels altogether more lively. It’s the best of both worlds; the response of a supercharged engine with the perky push-in-the-back of electric thrust. Feels strangely perverse not to maximise the Panamera’s efficiency, though, so I kill Sport and my sandals barely touch the accelerator for two hours.

When I arrive in Bristol, there are a couple of charging bays at nearby Asda, snatched from the disabled parking area outside the front door. For the first time in my custody, the Porsche is at a standstill and engages E-mode. It’s surprisingly over-sensitive to throttle tickles as I reverse. Then I realise the charging station requires a card that I have to sign up for. My oversight, but would an owner in unfamiliar territory research the nearest charging point, then ensure they’d signed up to the relevant charging scheme? No, they’d fill up on liquid fossil. Really, the E part of the Panamera is better suited to the daily commute, with one charger at home, one at work.

The next day, I drive a Tesla for the first time. The first we heard of PayPal billionaire Elon Musk’s automotive venture, it’d taken a Lotus Elise and replaced the polluting bits with batteries. Not easy, but the complex stuff – making doors fit, ensuring glass keeps out the elements, giving people a chance of survival in a head-on smash – had at least been been taken care of by Lotus.

The Model S is all Tesla’s work; the only thing you’ll notice is the Mercedes switchgear. From a distance it looks like a futuristic Maserati, and it is impressively mature for a car with no heritage. But up close you notice both passenger-side doors have dropped a few millimetres, and that the bonnet shutlines don’t properly marry up. It looks like a Cat D.

The Model S senses the lozenge-shaped key as you approach, popping open flush-fitting door handles in welcome. Then you press the brake and pull the column-shift selector to D and you’re away; no start button, no twinkly welcome music, no handbrake release. You just waft off like someone turned on the dodgems.

Inside the Tesla cockpit: meet the future

Inside, the lack of a traditional powertrain or existing vehicle architecture has given Tesla’s engineers almost unprecedented freedom. So there’s a giant iPad thing in the centre console, no transmission tunnel, and a snowboard-shaped tray between the front seats to hold oddments.

It’s futuristic and impressive, but also reeks of movie-set facade, like they know the cameras won’t zoom in. The finish – mostly leather, and a modern wood-grain-like fillet running through the dash on our highly optioned car – is sophisticated, the feel airy, but there’s a hollow resonance when you tap the dash, the door cards are agoraphobically naked and the leather seats perch you up high on flat bases. At least they’re comfortable, with good lumbar support. 

Tesla recommends you don’t fully top up the battery on every run, to preserve it’s overall longevity. There’s a sliding scale of charge to choose from, and we’ve opted for maximum ‘Trip’. There’s a ‘Typical’ 245-mile range based on the charge available, while the infotainment provides a ‘Predicted’ range that’ll update us on how long it’ll last based on real-time driving.

The rest of the infotainment is intuitive, with a ‘Controls’ area enabling access to the lights, sunroof, even whether or not the car does an auto-style creep. Sat-nav is by Google Maps, and the massive screen is easy to use – though later, it does have a meltdown, and even it knows it must shut itself off and turn back on again.

Mercedes-Benz’s 2017 E-Class is Jam-Packed with Amazing New Tech

Image Source: AOL

If you’re looking for a car with the most cutting-edge tech, you should definitely wait for the 2017 Mercedes-Benz E-Class to come out. The vehicle is packed with advanced technology meant to make your ride safer and more enjoyable. The car might not be ready for mass consumption just yet, but the German carmaker has already shared a bunch of impressive details about it.

As Autoblog puts it, the theme for the upcoming E-Class seems to be “technology stuff,” and with good reason: The new model has various new and improved tech features that many buyers will appreciate.

There’s support for NFC-based door unlocking and for starting your car with a smartphone. The official smartphone app also offers remote control parking.

The 2017 Mercedes-Benz E-Class has evasive maneuver assistance that identifies pedestrians and helps you steer away of danger, adaptive cruise control that sets the speed based on road signs along the way, and active emergency braking for cross-traffic.

The new safety features include rear-seat seatbelt airbags, an airbag that pushes the front-seat passengers towards the center of the car before a side impact and an audio system that triggers your eardrum reflexes to prevent any hearing damage in a car crash.

All that sounds very exciting, so check out the video below for more details on some of the new E-Class’s features – the vehicle should be unveiled at the 2016 North American International Auto Show in Detroit.

Mercedes Benz Metris: First Drive 2016

What is it: 2016 Mercedes-Benz Metris Cargo or 8-passenger van.

Price range: $29,945 to $40,000, roughly

Alternatives: Old Chevy Astro vans, pickups with good bed shells, getting out of the retail delivery business.

Pros: Rides well, sweet engine and transmission, looks impressive.

Cons: Built to last, not impress. In Europe power sliding doors are an option. Not here. And yeah, we should get a diesel version too.

Would I buy it with my own money? If I were FedEx I’d buy a couple thousand. If I had to shuttle conventioneers around, sure this makes sense. But families will still prefer a great front-drive minivan like the Honda Odyssey.

America is the last frontier for Mercedes-Benz trucks. We’re the holdouts; the last place on earth that hasn’t acclimated to the three-pointed star meaning commercial efficiency in transportation. The bigSprinter has been a hit. And now here’s the smaller 2016 Metris van. It’s the first Mercedes optimized for people who usually answer the phone by saying “Hello, Best Western.”

Mercedes has been building vans in this general size class for decades. Odd, awkward looking troll boxes like the N1300 and MB100 that I’m practically daring you to look up on the Internet and revel in their weirdness. The company’s current entry has been known as the Vito in most of the world and as the V-Class in a few places. But the name Vito is inseparable here from The Godfather. And Mercedes doesn’t want to be associated with mafia chieftains unless they’re buying S600 Maybachs.

Inside Mercedes this latest version mid-size van is known as the W447 and it was introduced last year powered by a range of various diesel engines. To become the Metris, the diesel engines have been kept out of the United States, replaced by the 208 horsepower, turbocharged 2-liter gasoline-burning four from the C300 sedan. The gasoline engine will be, says Mercedes, exclusive to the United States – at least for now. And the United States won’t be getting a diesel – at least for now.

At 202.4 inches long over a 126-inch wheelbase, the Metris is just a half-inch shorter than a Honda Odyssey. That Honda is 3.7 inches wider than the Mercedes, though the Metris, at 75.2 inches tall, stands a significant 6.8 inches higher. The Metris has very European dimensions. And those dimensions result in a lot of interior room.

DMC Debuts the Mercedes-Benz G-Class G88

DMC Debuts the Mercedes-Benz G-Class G88 Edition

DMC is about to celebrate its five years of presence in Hong Kong. Despite being more popular for customizing Ferrari and Lamborghini models, the firm chose to commemorate the important event by introducing its new work with the Mercedes-Benz G-Class instead.

According to WorldCarFans, the DMC G-Class has been rechristened as the G88. The model will come as a limited edition. The report said the production of the customized Mercedes-Benz G-Class will only be limited to five units. It also noted that the models will each have a unique paint for exclusivity’s sake.

The G88 features new hood, spare tire cover, and a spoiler at the back portion of the roof. All these come in carbon fiber materials. A new vent is placed on the hood of the SUV as well for better air circulation of its engine and other components beneath its bonnet. Other add-ons that customers can enjoy with the new DMC G-Class are wider fenders and a set of 23 to 25-inch forged alloy wheels.

Going inside, buyers can choose to retain the stock interior of the G-Class. Alternately, they can replace it with carbon fiber trim, or other types of finishes with Ostrich or Stingray leather surfaces.

There was no mention about any engine upgrades to the G88. However, the source claimed that the company admitted fitting it with new pistons, bearings, connecting rods, crankshaft and exhaust system. Taking a hint from the upgrades, the report estimated the output of the modified G-Class to reach up to 700 PS or 515 KW.

2015 Mercedes-Benz SL400

It seems an inescapable eventuality: Reach a certain age (it starts with a four) and the little irritations of sports cars—the noise, the vibrations, and their spartan nature—begin to grow into full-blown annoyances. Angling the nose to keep it from scraping on driveways, getting in and out, and listening to the exhaust’s blat on the highway are exhausting. What were once considered charming signs of exuberance begin to seem as juvenile and unnecessary as beer funnels and water bongs.

Age doesn’t mean you forget the joy—you still appreciate unwinding a canyon road on a sunny day with a warm breeze rustling over the windshield. But too often, life is a traffic-choked drive to the office, convertible top raised, air-conditioning on recirc.

The Mercedes-Benz SL isn’t exactly a sports car—it hasn’t been since the ’50s. After the Gullwing, the SL morphed into a sort-of sports car for adults. It’s adult in its nature and adult in its pricing.

That big sticker, however, has kept many folks from parking one in their garage. To bring the SL’s price out of the six-figure clouds, Mercedes-Benzintroduced the SL400 for 2015. Powered by a 329-hp 3.0-liter twin-turbo V-6 paired, as ever, with a seven-speed automatic, the SL400 begins at $84,925, or $22,900 less than the 429-hp SL550. Our well-equipped test car came loaded with the Sand Nappa leather Designo interior option ($4500), which makes the cabin look as if a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup exploded inside. Other options included Mocha Black paint ($2300), black interior trim ($1500), 19-inch wheels ($500), a dimmable glass roof called Magic Sky Control ($2500), and the Premium package ($4900), which includes a rearview camera, self parking, cooled seats, neck warmers, massaging seats, an auto-closing trunk, and a proximity key. Of the bunch, we’d be temped by the Designo interior and the Premium package, but the rest we could probably skip.

On paper or at the country club, the smaller number on the trunklid might not impress. But acceleration to 60 mph takes 4.6 seconds and the quarter-mile goes by in 13.1 seconds at 109 mph. A standard Porsche 911 Carrera is four-tenths quicker to both marks; the SL550 hits 60 in 4.1 seconds. The V-6 delivers smooth, stress-free power. Launching is as easy as holding the brake, bringing the revs up to 2000 rpm, and releasing. There’s no wince-inducing launch control, just a scramble of wheelspin and the SL400 disappears.Even without all the options, this newest SL would still ooze refinement in the fit of the leather interior, the tight cut-lines, and its unflappable demeanor. Steering and handling are sports-car sharp, but extracting joy from the SL doesn’t cause any soreness. Next to most sports cars or supercars, sitting in or cruising along in the SL is like the difference between sleeping at home and sleeping on a futon. S-class refinement and top-up noise levels (65 dB at 70 mph) leave you free from fatigue, the AMG-like dynamics keep you involved, and the interior cossets like aMaybach.

On the skidpad, the SL held on with 0.92 g of grip while threatening to send its wide 285/30R-19 rear tires drifting. There’s a brave neutrality baked into the chassis, partially born of the tuning but also of the 50/50 weight distribution. Compared with the SL550, the lighter V-6 car puts less mass over the front tires. The SL400’s 3843-pound curb weight isn’t exactly light, but it’s a startling 295 pounds lighter than the SL550’s. The SL400 therefore is the spry one, with a playful nature and live-wire steering (2.1 turns lock-to-lock). The refinement and luxury do not diminish the SL400’s joy or dynamic chops in the least.

It may be hard to ignore the looks at this price, but if you can get past the sheetmetal, the new SL400 is the best-driving SL we can remember. The SL historically has been the quintessential mature sports car, but the latest generation manages to be both more sporty and more luxurious. Grown-up types who appreciate its dual personality will love using their adult-size salary to acquire one.A car that performs this well without sacrificing comfort is easy to fall for. It would be even easier, however, if the SL400 were better-looking. This entire generation of SLs is not particularly elegant, taking a big step backward from its predecessor and breaking a long line of graceful designs. The long, square nose with huge headlights is awkward, and the rounded tail is at odds with the rest of the blocky aesthetic. Mercedes-Benz design needs to get their hands back into the clay and create a really stunning SL.

Mercedes-Benz E-class’s Gadgetry 2017

So. Much. Tech: Detailing the 2017 Mercedes-Benz E-class’s Gadgetry

When the current Mercedes-Benz S-class was introduced for 2014, it threw down a gadget gauntlet that has thus far been unequaled—although the upcoming new BMW 7-series appears armed to give it a good fight. Next from the three-pointed star is the redesigned 2017 E-class, and if you thought Mercedes would hold back on the tech features to protect the top-dog status of the S-class, think again. The E-class comes loaded with enough straight-from-tomorrow features to make it the star of CES (which, come to think of it, was probably the goal). Read on for a preview.

Autonomous Driving. Autonomous driving is the siren call of leading-edge automotive technology, so it was clear that the E-class would follow the S down the hands-free highway. In fact, Mercedes has enhanced the system it debuted on the S-class. (First though, a word about the need to steer. Yes, the 2017 E-class, like the S-class, can steer itself along for brief periods. No, that doesn’t mean you’re supposed to leave the steering to Benz. The company describes it as “a semi-automated assistance system in which the driver still needs to keep their hands on the steering wheel.”) The system, which is again a function of Distronic Plus adaptive cruise control, can steer autonomously—sorry, “provide significantly enhanced steering assistance”—not only on highways but also on secondary roads even with no lane markings, the latter at speeds up to 60 mph. It does so by following the car ahead and by scanning for structures such as guardrails and even buildings at the side of the road. As for the cruise-control function, it works at speeds from zero to 120 mph, can creep along in stop-and-go traffic, and can adjust a set speed in response to speed-limit signs or speed-limit info taken from the nav system.

Automated Parking. A car that can steer itself into a parking space is no longer news, but the E-class ups the wow factor by parking itself while the “driver” stands outside of the vehicle. The driver tells the car where to park via the Remote Parking Pilot app on a previously paired, Bluetooth-connected smartphone, so in that sense he is still “driving” the vehicle. The car can maneuver into a perpendicular space, parallel park, or pull forward into a tight garage. The driver initiates the maneuver by tracing a circle on the smartphone and must continue that action for the car to keep moving. The phone also needs to be within 10 feet or so of the car. (We should note that the 2016 BMW 7-series also can perform this party trick, but BMW won’t offer that functionality in the United States. Land Rover has demonstrated similar tech, too.)

Cell Phone as Car Key. Whereas BMW’s new 7 offers a key fob with a touch screen, the new E-class takes the opposite tack, turning the touch screen in your pocket into a key fob. You can then hold a paired smartphone up to the driver’s door handle to unlock the car; the connection works via Near Field Communication protocol (used also by Apple Pay). Once inside the car, placing the phone on the wireless charging pad enables the ignition. Phones need to be NFC compatible and equipped with a secure SIM card.

Automatic Braking. Automatic braking to avoid or mitigate a crash has been bundled with forward-collision warning for a while, but the new E-class can initiate braking earlier (when the system detects that an evasive maneuver is not possible), and it works under more scenarios, including cross traffic entering the lane (also when backing up) or a pedestrian stepping out into your path. In the latter scenario, the driver is further aided by Evasive Steering Assist, which adds torque to the steering to help the driver swerve correctly to avoid the person. It does not, however, initiate the steering action. You still have to do that.

Car-to-X Communication. The E-class takes the first baby steps toward a future of car-to-car communication. Using the vehicle’s built-in data connection, the driver can push a button on the screen to indicate a road hazard such as an accident, a disabled vehicle, or icy pavement. The alert goes to a dedicated computer network that can analyze it and then send out alerts to other, similarly equipped Mercedes vehicles in the area (keyed to those that are most likely to encounter the hazard, based on their current route). The warning consists of an icon on a map and then, when the car is closer, an audible warning. The system also is set up to automatically receive alerts triggered via airbag deployment or even cars with their hazard lights on. Later, the system could receive alerts from emergency vehicles or from other manufacturers’ vehicles, as the German automakers are working on a common car-communication standard. The more vehicles that are reporting in, the better the information going out will be.

Adaptive LED Matrix Lighting. Introduced on the CLS for 2014, Mercedes’ Multibeam LED headlamps are enhanced for the 2017 E-class. The individual LED count increases from 24 to 84, each individually controllable—switching between high- and low-beams, and the curve-following adaptive-lighting functions are now achieved entirely via electronics. The light pattern is also altered in city driving or via information from the navigation system (such as when approaching intersections). Additionally, the light unit glows blue, which just looks cool.

Other Safety Stuff. A few lesser items are new, or new to Mercedes. As part of the Pre-Safe collision-readiness technology, the active-contour seats will quickly puff up the outboard bolster in the event some phone-gazing nitwit sails through a red light and T-bones your Benz, giving you a bit more cushion between your ribcage and his grille. When a collision is imminent, the system also puts an interference signal out over the audio system (it sounds like a test of the Emergency Broadcast System), to which occupants’ ears react so they won’t be as startled by the noise of the crash. Inflatable rear seatbelts (seen first on the 2011 Ford Explorer, and currently available in the S-class) also can now be had.

Many of these features build on systems that are already in other Mercedes models, and they will spread to other car lines with new model-year updates. Even so, the new E-class is likely to be ahead of even the S-class in the fields of autonomous driving and connectivity for at least some period after its debut in the middle of 2016. Because in the fast-moving world of automotive high tech, there’s no place for sandbagging.

Mercedes GLA45 AMG vs Audi RS Q3

Mercedes GLA45 AMG vs Audi RS Q3 twin-test review

Some things in life I find hard to see the point of: ties, Brussel sprouts and The Daily Mail being three such unfathomable entities. To that list, I was thinking of adding the Mercedes-Benz GLA 45 AMG and Audi RS Q3. 

The reason for my cogitations was that within the confines of a simple classification, a slightly jacked-up hatchback with seating for four, or five at a push, and a 2.0-litre turbocharged four-cylinder engine, and a small SUV with a 2.5-litre five-cylinder motor are perfectly acceptable creations, even if a diesel engine might be more sensible.

However, if you’re the type of person for whom a car offers something other than mere self-powered passenger transport (and you are), then do these family cars with an evil streak perfectly deliver everything we might want in a car: performance and practicality? They could, but I’m not so sure these do. Both cost about £45,000 and deliver more than 300bhp, which for a sports car from either brand would be lovely, thanks very much. But £45,000 and 300bhp-plus for small SUVs and jacked-up hatchbacks? The mind boggles.

Mercedes GLA45 AMG vs Audi RS Q3 twin test

The mind remains boggled when the eyes sending it signals are first clapped on the GLA 45. It has been festooned with two AMG packs, the £1150 Night Package consisting of black 20-inch alloys and high-gloss black body strips, and the £1530 Aerodynamic Package, which despoils the bodywork with front canards and splitter and some gloss-black shelving plonked where a rear spoiler might usually go. I think my Roxette and Tiffany CDs were housed in something similar in 1988. Perhaps if the car had been dark grey or black, all these additions might not have looked quite so brash, but I, and everybody who came into contact with it, had never seen a Mercedes-Benz looking quite as naff.

The RS Q3 by comparison is the model of restraint with its pearly Sepang Blue paint job and lovely brushed aluminium trinkets – I particularly like the way the bevelled strip of metal travels in one continuous piece around the entire door frame and the triangles picked out on the edges of the spoiler, which reminded me of no Thatcher-era music storage system. They are the sort of expensive-feeling details that Audi excels at, suggesting no car, not even one as niche as this, was a lashed-up afterthought.

Looking the part (or not) is one thing though: acting it is another because any car carrying these two performance-division badges should not do a disservice to the brand. And the highly turbocharged four-pot in the GLA is not your usual AMG fare. Lots of power is though, and 353bhp at 6000rpm, fed through all four wheels with a 0-62mph time under five seconds, points to some pretty rapid ground coverage.

On the road with the Merc GLA45 AMG

Indeed, there are times when the GLA is stupendously fast and I don’t think the RS Q3 would have a hope keeping up with it, being 70kg heavier, taller by nearly ten centimetres and almost 50bhp shy.

But I say at ‘times’: the GLA is rather hard to pin down because the combination of a smallish engine forced into producing immense power has resulted in significant turbo lag as it rolls its sleeves up to deliver the punch. Combine this with seven oddly spaced gears and a throttle that acts like an on/off switch and you can get it into some odd moments. Spasms of industrial power delivery are followed by sulky lulls, while the revs, which climb very quickly and top out even more smartly, can leave you changing down yet bouncing off the limiter.

The noise it makes is also pretty harsh, throwing out all sorts of buzzsaw screeches at various points in the range, unlike the operatic soundtrack of most AMG cars, although once the exhaust is hot the crackle and bang of gearshifts is very on-brand. Then, on other occasions when you’ve got used to the rhythm of the staccato power delivery and gear spacing, the GLA comes alive, flowing through bends on its supple suspension with nicely weighted, if a little slow-acting, steering. It’s a car that requires a lot of patience, because it is a spikey bugger, but get it right and the Audi will be a very well-packaged, nicely detailed speck in the rear-view mirror. 

How does the Audi RS Q3 compare to the GLA45 AMG?

Somewhere behind in the Audi though, the driver will be having a very satisfying time of it, if they are happy coming second, of course. That’s because the RS Q3 feels less manic, with its five-cylinder turbocharged engine creating a much deeper, more voluptuous sound with more considered power delivery through a more sensibly spaced seven-speed S Tronic ’box. You could hardly call it slow but it doesn’t have the attack-dog mentality of the GLA, and I’m not sure it has the level of accelerative insanity an RS model should. It’s not exactly pipe-and-slippers though, because there is a surprising amount of tyre roar, the damping is firmer, the steering noticeably sharper than the Merc’s while also receiving more messages from the front tyres about what’s going on. Which makes a pleasant change for an Audi.

But its less suitable proportions make the RS Q3 less agile, and through corners it tends to grip until the point at which, like somebody ripping a plaster off suddenly, it tears itself from the tarmac. This, however, is easily rectified by lifting the throttle.

In the cabins, the story follows the theme of the exteriors. The RS Q3 is finished beautifully, with the £250 carbon inlays in the doors and dash just the cool techy trim this car needs, while there are great looking RS seats in soft Nappa leather and all the simple, easy-to-use instruments of quality Audis. It feels like a car you could travel a long way in, at a low-rev woofle, with no stress.

The same journey in the GLA would leave you frazzled, gabbling and with a sore arse. The seats are hard, especially the side bolsters which are best avoided on entry and exit. Some of the cabin materials are a bit iffy in comparison to the RS Q3, and the Alcantara steering wheel was already showing signs of getting too shiny and buffed after only 2000 miles. I’ve never understood using Alcantara – unless you have hairy palms it is less grippy than leather. And I don’t have hairy palms, I promise.

Verdict

So what to make of them? Well, the Audi is the nicer thing. It’s more cohesive and well presented with a characterful engine that provides this small SUV with more power than a Porsche Boxster. In fact, I ended up liking it a lot, although in the back of my mind lurked the caveat of its eye-watering price. The Mercedes-Benz, on the other hand, manages to be naff, brilliant, awful, hilarious and mad all in one go. I couldn’t possibly recommend it to anyone, unless they were naff, brilliant, awful, hilarious and mad. 

Ultimately, I’d have the RS Q3 as I think it would be the easiest car to live with, but after a few days in each I still hadn’t really worked out why 45-grand cars like this exist.

2016 Chevrolet Camaro

2016 Chevrolet Camaro Dissected: Chassis, Powertrain, Design, and More

Very few nameplates have been around as long as this magazine. The Camaro wasn’t there at the very beginning, but, having made its debut in 1967, it’s still one of the oldest model names on sale today. And when it celebrates its own milestone of 50 years in 2017, the Camaro will have a useful emblem with which to mark the occasion: this all-new sixth-generation car.

It is common in our business to be presented with a new model that looks vastly different from its predecessor but is mechanically similar. The 2016 Camaro takes the opposite approach: It bears a close resemblance to the fifth-generation car but is, in fact, based on a different platform.

Chevrolet’s thinking might be unusual, but it’s also sound. The outgoing Camaro’s look reached all the way back to the 1967 original and was highly successful. It was the first Camaro that ever outsold the Ford Mustang. But it was based on the old, heavy Zeta platform, and the ever-escalating performance war in this category calls for new blood.

Platform

The new Camaro is built on GM’s Alpha component set, first seen in the Cadillac ATS and CTS. Alpha is light, stiff, and modern. Even so, GM changed some 70 percent of the parts for the Camaro. Key among them are the suspension pieces, which engineers made longer in order to increase the track by between 1.1 and 2.0 inches versus the CTS. To keep weight down, they specified aluminum front-suspension members and steel links with extensive lightening holes in the rear. On the V-6 models, the front-anti-roll-bar drop links are even molded from high-strength plastic. Overall, the suspension weighs about 26 pounds less than the fifth-gen car’s.

PowertrainEven though the new structure is said to be 28 percent stiffer than before, the body in white weighs some 133 pounds less, thanks to details such as an aluminum instrument-panel beam and lightweight fasteners that are no longer than absolutely necessary. And with additional measures such as an aluminum hood and a slightly smaller size—2.3 inches shorter and 0.8 inch narrower than the gen-five car—the new V-8 Camaro weighs about 200 pounds less than before, while the V-6 is more than 300 pounds lighter.

GM’s all-new 3.6-liter, 60-degree V-6 is substantially lighter than its predecessor despite its 76-cubic-centimeter-larger displacement, improved NVH, cylinder deactivation, and increased output. Horsepower and torque increase by 12 and 6, to 335 and 284, respectively. The Camaro SS joins theCorvette in offering the latest version of Chevy’s small-block V-8, the direct-injected LT1. Output is 455 horsepower and 455 pound-feet. And a four-cylinder base engine will return to the Camaro lineup. GM’s familiar 2.0-liter turbo will make 275 horsepower and 295 pound-feet here and is expected to score more than 30 mpg on the highway.

All the engines will mate to either a six-speed manual or GM’s latest eight-speed automatic.

Design

When it comes to the question of how to update a retro design, Chevrolet is taking the path blazed by the Ford Mustang: refine, rather than overhaul. This isn’t to say that the new car is unchanged. In fact, it seems simultaneously cleaner and a little more muscular than its predecessor. The angered front face of the Camaro remains, though the grille openings are sharper and better integrated with the headlights. The rear window is flatter and the central depression in the roof more pronounced.

Look closely and you’ll notice interesting details such as the small air intakes below the running lights in the lower-front corners. These channel air to the outside of the fender wells, reducing aerodynamic drag. At the edge of the roof, there’s no trim strip to cover what can sometimes be a messy weld because, here, the roof and door apertures are laser brazed, yielding a much neater joint. And the hood vents on the SS are fully functional; they relieve underhood pressure to reduce lift.

Interior

The cockpit is welcoming, with a handsome dashboard incorporating an eight-inch LCD screen and nicely integrated controls. Uplevel models also have an eight-inch configurable screen between the speedometer and tach in the main cluster. And much like the Corvette Stingray, there’s a mode selector that adjusts a variety of parameters to change the driving experience.

There are several neat, driver-centric touches such as bright rings surrounding the central air vents that adjust the temperature setting. The cup holders now sit aft and to the right of the shifter, so cups are less likely to meet the driver’s elbow. The seats have greater vertical travel, providing better headroom for tall drivers. And the A-pillars are about a half-inch narrower and an inch less thick, improving forward visibility.

Behind the Wheel

We got brief drives in a couple of V-6 RS prototypes. They were fairly rough and noisy, and gauging ride and handling was difficult. The new car switches to electrically assisted power steering made by Bosch. The gen-five Camaro’s steering was a nicely calibrated hydraulic unit, so it’s not obvious that EPS will be an improvement. Either way, the prototypes we drove were very responsive, reflecting their weight loss.

The new manual shifts cleanly, as does the automatic. Our cars were also equipped with the dual-mode exhaust—now operated by electric motors rather than vacuum actuators—and there’s yet another audio track coming from sound paths between the engine compartment and the cabin. As familiar as the 2016 Camaro might look to the people who designed the 1967 original, that’s the one thing that would have them scratching their heads.