It's still hilarious.

I know

You know what? I unfortunately have to say that I agree with you here. I love some of the recent MB designs such as the C-Class, the CL-Class, but I must admit that they are still looking for their own look (I think they found it with the C-Class, but I'm no great fan of the GLK).

However the details you mention are undoubtedly showing that they somehow lost their way as design leader. I hope they will adress it quickly.

Peter Pfeiffer \Gorden Wagener and me

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You work for MB yzbenz?

I tried to very briefly explain my personal appreciation for Audi design HERE

I think that the glk is very good looking suv ...is very enginerred and designed very well and look very massive ans solid...u have to get used to and u all will relize it ...it's a really beauty merc...reminds the roots of the merc 80's...and i'm serious ....o the road its gergouse and it's will be the e-class point of design very beutifull lines I OVE love it real original mercedes . my opinion mercedes is going back for the leadership in design in a 2 years...while bmw is goinf backward with thier last design 3 series and 7er from thier spy pics

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^ Yawn.

"Canyonero"





Actually, the black one looks very sleek.

I don't see MB as a present design leader ...


Why?

Going neo-retro (with rectangular & boxy elements from the Sacco era) is hardly a leading & pioneering matter.

While the latest design study - the ODC - is full of "flame surfacing" which is also more a matter of following than leading.

The only interesting study is the F700, whose disadvantage is that it is not a design study per se, but a F-concept - displaying only some possible future design details, yet not the whole design.

Of course the MB is still very much a tech / innovation leader - although BMW & Audi are not lagging behind at all. Every brand is introducing innovations specific to brand values. Eg. I hardly believe BMW would first introduce a PRE-SCAN system which helps to enhance the ride comfort - since this is more MB's domain.


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Just like BMW Audi are also talking about "Zen-inspired design" recently although their designs are more & more expressive lately (wait to see A5 Sportback). Yet due to trying to increase better brand image & recognition they are still on the stage of unified design - something eg. BMW & MB had done in the past, and now they are already beyond that. Audi will evolve to the new stage soon, I guess.

It's interesting while BMW & Audi are talking about future trends are leaning towards "less design" aka "Zen-like design", MB are presenting vehicles with numerous strong design details - kind decorating the cars with as much strong (eg. boxy & rectangular, or "swollen" ) details lately. Kind a completely different pole from "Zen design". Kind a strange.

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BMW are still the design leaders: not that they invented something revolutionary (eg. clam shell boot lids, eyebrows, convex/concave shifts with sharp creases etc are not completely new design elements) but the Board of Management had guts to take the design risk - and to bring into production some design elements traditionally strange to BMW brand, and finally make BMW models more individual & different.

They started a trend - which make them design leaders. That's the definition of leader: starting a trend, and leading others to follow you.

Not necessary the leading designs are the best, or utterly beautiful - that's not the point when talking about leading - design leader is someone who starts a new trend, someone who stirs the conventions, someone who is "the talk of the town", someone who is followed. And this is what BMW currently BMW exactly is.


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Of course things can change pretty quickly - it depends how innovative the design & marketing teams are, and even more important: how brave & daring the Board of Management is (and the investors - who support the plans via Supervisory Board). Of course a company also has to have enormous resources available to be able to be leader.

Decision to be a leader involves a great risks - sometimes you succeed, sometimes you fail badly. Therefore the risks are not taken very often.

I hope BMW stay design leaders as long as possible - I guess in the recent past they earned an image of design leading brand + design culture within the company is ranking very high lately, so they have great foundation to remain design leaders in the future as well.

Although - from marketing & financial reasons - it's naive to expect design shifts & revolution to happen with every new generation (in 7 years). Amortization of eg. tooling etc takes some time to be accomplished. And after that ... if there is a will to take another risk - a new revolution & another design leadership can begin.

Umm... err... my 2p: At d mo i'd hardly call MB a design leader, much as i generally am a fan. For 1 i dont even think they exactly have a coherent design language. Their designs (and design cues) seem to be 'all over the place' sometimes. They seem to increasingly go with what the trend is, rather than set it. The problem with this is that when that trend changes, you get left behind. Barring the CLS (some 5 years ago), I've not seen anything distinctly futuristic/forward looking from MB.
The interiors i have to say too leave A LOT to be desired. Quality, materials n finish wise very solid, but in terms of 'design' i have been quite disappointed with a lot of recent Mercs. And when u think dat this is 08, well...
Let me jus express a small [very personal] opinion as well: I think MB does some of the worst rear ends in the bizness. I mean u only have to look at d GL, whats dat about??? Some other models too jus look worse off from the back.
I think MB designs are getting too 'complex' too, and seem to be like many different design themes forced to exist together in 1 vehicle, rather than a single coherent design flow front to back, top to bottom. F/L SL, S class anyone....?

Having said all that, i would hardly call BMW a design leader too. But dats another story. For 'direction', however 'boring' and 'monotonous' they may seem, i'd have to look towards Audi at d mo.
Jus my nickel