Autoblog

If you'd suspected that Mercedes' F700 show car was a preview of cues we'd soon see on production cars, there's a Schulte Design rendering to bolster your theory. The current S-Class debuted in 2005, so we won't see its replacement for a couple of years, but there's already lots of development underway. The new sheetmetal will be a full redesign, not a freshening, and the rendering depicts a car that takes inspiration from the F700, but tones the cues down a bit. The shape of the front end is very similar, with the headlights and grille echoing what Mercedes showed us in Frankfurt. Along the flanks, the arcing line at the base of the windows has been toned down. Of course, while it's a good rendering, it's still an unofficial composite image, so we should just wait and see.

Solid word on powertrains has come down from on high, though. Mercedes is looking at a hybrid version of the S-Class to compete with the Lexus LS600hL. Our current S-Class will get a mild hybrid for 2009, and there's a Bluetec Hybrid under development packing 224 horsepower/560Nm and returning 44mpg. The engines we know and love in the current S-Class will largely carry over, though we'd expect that attention to efficiency and the hybrid powertrains will be more important because of the new CAFE standards.

[Source: eGMCarTech, Rendering: Schulte Design]

Remember when the Lexus LS 600h was on the way, and there was head-scratching aplenty about the $100K+ price and the delay? At the time, Lexus said it only planned to sell 2,000 of the hybrid cruisers per year, and that they already had orders for 1,650 of them. Then the car came out, and in spite of being treated rather unkindly by the motoring press and boasting a less-than-stellar MPG improvement, it has sold 6,093 worldwide through October. The car only went on sale in July.

Lexus calls the car the "progressive person's alternative." The New York Times called the car the "new standard for automotive hyperbole." After only a few months of sales, it is far too early to call -- but it would be interesting to see if Lexus has done the same thing with the LS that Toyota did with the Prius: no matter what you might think of it, it allows people to make a statement.

While Mercedes and Audi are busy working on... something, and hydrogen BMWs shuttle celebs hither, Lexus has a car on lots that lets luxury buyers make the claim, "I care." (Remember, this isn't about what you think of the statement, so keep the comments civil.) Whichever one the buyers are going for -- progressive, hyperbole, statement, or something else -- it appears to be working.

[Source: AutoblogGreen]

NY Times writer Lawrence Ulrich didn't merely disparage the Lexus LS 600h L, he grabbed the car by its back tires, dragged it around back, and while the Times readership looked on, gave it a big city back alley whoopin'. Invoking Nick Nolte, John Matuzsak, Jor-El, Jared from Subway, and blasting the big hybrid's gas mileage, weight, 0-60 time, price, carbon footprint, and the very reason for being, Lexus' standard-bearer could certainly use some private time to recover.

What compliments there were in the article -- and it did garner some genuine compliments -- were little defense against Ulrich's ultimate assessment that "the hybrid may have set a new standard for automotive hyperbole." While it's possible that Lexus didn't expect such a scathing critique from the Gray Lady, it had to know that there would be questions about the paradox of a big, thirsty hybrid. However, Lexus is only making 2,000 of them, and it's a good bet that there are at least that many rich folks looking for what it calls "the progressive person's alternative." The LS 600h L is a shot across the bow. It will really get interesting when we get a glimpse of act two, and the responses from its competitors.

[Source: New York Times]