For many years, the automotive trade has mastered the artwork of impactful presentation. There are particular editions, fashionable restricted runs, and valuable one-offs of many vehicles. But, nothing is as unique because the final off the road.
To these not conversant in the automotive scene, the time period “final off the road” could not imply a lot. It refers back to the final mannequin produced in a collection. This implies, after this single unit, manufacturing ceases, and the manufacturing gear is repurposed for the subsequent era or a totally completely different automobile. Producers like Mercedes rejoice this last mannequin in particular automobile collection, including it to their very own assortment as an exceptionally unique mannequin. Initially, this automobile usually sits considerably unnoticed for a number of years within the assortment or museum, because the just-discontinued mannequin doesn’t maintain important worth at first. This modifications after a number of years when it’s introduced again into the limelight for anniversaries or particular events.
This occurred within the snow-rich begin of 2023 when the manufacturing of the Mercedes CLS, inside designation C257, ceased. Not simply the present era, however all the CLS collection, as soon as positioned as a distinctively unique and image-boosting mannequin between the E- and S-Class, was discontinued. Whereas the Mercedes CLS didn’t set quantity information since its debut in 2004, it did so much for the model’s picture and established a automobile section that didn’t exist in Europe no less than. Significantly, the primary era of the Mercedes CLS, the elegant C219 collection designed by then-chief designer Peter Pfeiffer, prompted a stir. Its variations from the technically comparable E-Class W211 have been important. Visually, the four-door coupe was such a showpiece that one might need solely anticipated from luxurious manufacturers like Alfa Romeo, Maserati, or Aston Martin.
Between October 2004 and July 2010, round 170,000 CLS fashions have been bought. From the next era C218, with a second physique variant of the Taking pictures Brake property, round 170,000 models have been bought from early 2011 to the top of 2018. The present era C257, produced since early 2019, retires after 140,000 autos. The rationale for the discontinuation just isn’t on account of lack of success however the technical similarity with the E-Class. The brand new E-Class, the final Mercedes automobile to be newly developed with a combustion engine, gained’t have a technical coupe spinoff. The brand new era CLE, a synthesis of the C- and E-Class as a two-door coupe, will suffice to please the aesthetes. The growing variety of electrical fashions with the star emblem signifies that even the Stuttgart model has to cut back its combustion engine portfolio on account of extreme automobile variance.
The Mercedes CLS retires with a final off the road mannequin that’s really spectacular. Painted at the hours of darkness emerald inexperienced metallic, the Nappa leather-based inside is a surprising mixture of saddle brown and black. It’s a CLS 450 4matic that had simply 14 kilometers on the clock at its last handover on the manufacturing website. Its unique value: 110,000 euros. The 270 kW / 367 HP coupe with the inline six-cylinder kind M256 is nearly absolutely outfitted and rides on 20-inch wheels with AMG design. Because the automotive will ultimately be used for communication functions, the often dark-tinted rear home windows have been omitted for potential photograph shoots. “Often, a final off the road is recorded within the manufacturing system with a configuration that features the particular gear and color combos that have been widespread through the manufacturing time,” explains Matthias Knebel, liable for the automobile assortment at Mercedes, “merely put: a final off the road displays the client preferences of the respective period and paperwork how a typical Mercedes-Benz appeared on the streets.”
Within the Mercedes automobile assortment, housed in a secret and strictly guarded corridor in Fellbach, stand quite a few notably unique Mercedes fashions. These embody 600 state limousines, the armoured S-Courses of former Chancellor Helmut Kohl, and a number of other final off the road fashions. The sample of the final off the road is obvious within the instance of the S-Class Coupe, collection C126. It’s painted within the then-popular exterior color “blue-black metallic” (Code 199) and has a mushroom leather-based inside (265). Ordered and delivered with non-compulsory extras like an electrical sunroof, air con, and the celebrated headlight cleansing system, the coupe represented the period’s luxurious. “The final off the road fashions are often mannequin care autos and doc the ultimate state of the respective collection. The usually in depth full gear can be documented within the information,” explains Matthias Knebel, “Particular editions, often restricted, are reserved for our clients – accordingly, such autos are generally bought on the open market, a number of years later.”
It’s not yearly {that a} retiring automobile rolls into Mercedes’ unique, multimillion-classic assortment.
