German Car Zone

Yes, of course! I'm only giving my personal opinion here!
I wouldn't like such a radical change for Mercedes.

So there were two design chiefs at Mercedes ? Cause according to the first article he was promoted as chief designer in 78.

I don't know much about Gordon Wagoner and much less about the Mercedes/Chrysler model he penned.

Peter Pfeiffer was supposed to have left many years ago (a couple of years after the merger between Daimler Benz and Chrysler). But Pfeiffer decided to stay on because he enjoyed the power, glamour, and the American style (BIG) remuneration packet that all of the German managers got after the merger. Furthermore, Pfeiffer had the support of Jurgen Schrempp and Jurgen Hubbert to stay on as the Head of Design.

At that time (the last 1990's and early 2000), the leading candidate to succeed Peter Pfeiffer was Murat Gunak. Gunak is a Turkish designer and he had been one of the leading lights of the Mercedes Benz design team for many years. Gunak left after Pfeiffer reversed his decision to retire and hand over the reins. Gunak is now the Head of Design of the Volkswagen Group. The other internal candidate was Olivier Boulay. He is French and is still the Head of the Mercedes Design Studio in Tokyo.

Many talented designers such as Steve Mattin, Peter Arcadipane, Anthony Lo, Michael Mauer, etc have left Mercedes Benz in recent years. Steve Mattin is now Design Director at Volvo, Anthony Lo is now Head of Design at SAAB, Michael Mauer is now Head of Design at Porsche. Peter Arcadipane went to Hyundai briefly and then to Mitsubishi and is now a free agent (if my memory serves me correctly).

I think the CLS showed Mercedes has not lost the magic. But the recent scoop shots of the next E Class looks a little disconcerting.............................the strong and deep shoulder lines along the profiles have had the car look fat and and tall (granted the scooped cars have small wheels and tyres).

Let's see what Gordon Wagoner and the rest of the new and talented designers can come up with in the next few years.

Good, hopefully we'll see more consistency in the designs. It bugs me that some MB models are stunning work of art while others aren't as perfected. What I want to see is stunning craft across the entire range.

Good, now we might see better "facelifts"

Yes, Murat Günat is very talented, he designed the first SLK amongst others. I wanted him to take the lead of Mercedes design.

Olivier Boulay, I don't like at all (although he is French). He was in charge at Mitsu and designed the Grandis (not bad), the new Mitsu "front"...And is also responsible for the design of the...Maybach!!

Mauer was at smart and did the Roadster, then left briefly to Saab and finally arrived at Porsche to replace the designer (with an American name I think, can't recall it) who designed the Porsche for some years, 996, CGT, Boxster and...Cayenne. After the Cayenne and the 996 I wanted him to left ASAP, but the 997 proved me wrong. Now it's Mauer, so we may see also a slight change of style at Porsche?

I agree for the E-Class, I still don't know what to think about it. That said, we only have spy shots and very wrong or very bad PS, so let's just wait. The W204 is awesome, the CL looked awful untill the last moment and then...WOW! , so I have great hopes for the W212.

Where I have doubts, is for the interior... The W204 or GLK have good interiors, but not more, and the S-Class is completely inspired by the 7er. So a change of design for the interior would not bother me that much I have to say...

The guy doesn't have a bad resume... It should be inteesting to see if the direction really changes, because in the end the board or at least Zietsch probably signs off on a lot of designs.

The first sketches of the Boxster and Cayenne were actually done by Mr Pinky Lai. He's Chinese and originally from Hong Kong (same as Anthony Lo). Pinky Lai joined Porsche with his then boss Harm Lagaay from BMW around 1990. I think Pinky also came up with the first sketches of the E31 8 series in the mid 1980's.

Anthony Lo designed the Maybach under Boulay's direction. The design was well-received initially. But somehow fell out of favour when the Maybach reached production.

Harm Lagaay, exactly.

As far as the Maybach is concerned...Well initially it was a "Maybach by Mercedes-Benz", hence the obvious MB filiation.

But the final car is very near the concept, it only looks a bit better, that's all.

I think it's not really that the Maybach design fell out of favour. It's that they saw the Phantom and realized that they have been very lazy with the Maybach, basically a W140 with W220 design/equipment/technology and more wood inside, and fancy seats and roof...