Once upon a time, luxury cars were defined by giant drop-top land barges like Cadillac’s V-16 or the Bugatti Royale. Somewhere along the way, the luxury sedan-turned-convertible has fallen out of favor with the glaring exception of one of the world’s most expensive cars: the Rolls-Royce Phantom Drophead. But now, having pioneered the four-door coupe and (coming soon) the five-door coupe, Mercedes-Benz’s endless search for “new” segments has it looking backwards to the good old days of massive top-down touring luxury.
According to Auto Motor und Sport, the Swabian firm is looking very closely at a drophead version of its S-Class Coupe, the CL, inspired by the 2007 design study (pictured here) called “Ocean Drive.” Though the business case for such a range-topping power-cabrio has yet to be calculated, Mercedes insists that it will be a two-door convertible, despite the fact that Maybach has an S-Class-based two-door coupe in the works. Since the CL convertible will be a four-place cruiser anyway, why not go properly old-school and make it a four-door convertible like the old Mercedes “Adenauer“?
The last edition of this variant was the 1971 280SE 3.5 convertible.
I like it. I’ll never be able to afford it, but I like it. Now if Caddy or Lincoln or Chrysler would do one at their price, which would still be high but not Mercedes territory, that would get people talking.
I hadn’t thought about a 300C convertible, but that would be a nifty thing indeed.
There are a few custom coachbuilders that turn will turn the 300 and CTS into convertibles.
IMO, the CTS responds quite well to this treatment, which explains why GM refuses to build a CTS convertible.
The 300N concept would have made a great large convertible. RWD, Hemi powered, two doors but big. But then came Daimler…
http://www.newcharger.org/specs/00300NSpecs.html
I think the Ocean Drive concept is going to have to be what the new S-class looks like because the 2012 S-class concept I’ve seen:
http://www.autospies.com/images/users/DaHarder/2012%20S%20Class%20001.jpg
looks much too radical.
One things for sure…its gonna sell really well regardless what it looks like. I keep getting calls from MB to trade my S in for the new S.
The redundancy of “two-door coupe” really grates on me. A coupe has always been a two-door car regardless of attempts by some manufacturers to put the wrong name on a swoopy sedan. Maybe “two-door coupe” got started to differentiate from “two-door sedan”, I don’t know, but “coupe” does that job well enough.
“Do you like my Chevy Corvette? It’s a two-door coupe!”
Even VW is considering:
http://www.germancarblog.com/2010/06/vw-passat-convertible-is-this-it/
Hans, let’s stick extra doors on a convertible and charge more.
Great idea, let’s take out the middle seat and cut down on headroom. Let’s call it the CLS.
Brillant!
It’s so bland that it could be whatever brand the grill suggests it to be.
Those are the ugliest wheels I’ve ever seen on a MB.
Twotone
DeLorean called. They want their wheels back.