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From Germany to China, and from Brazil to Korea, TTAC’s staff spans the globe to bring you the best automotive content on the web. What we don’t have, however, is a staffer in France, so we can’t tell you exactly what is going on in this video promo for the forthcoming Mercedes SLK. What we can tell you is that we never expected a Mercedes to be sold using French sensuality. It just goes to show that you never know what to expect…
8 Comments on “Ooh-La-La: New SLK Gets Frenchy...”
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That’s one guy smiley: he might have to go for corrective plastic surgery.
I just jumped through but one of the clearest views of it seems to be at 8:25.
Even though this is obviously a foreign ad promo/pitch aimed at the more cultured, renaissance Euro-dude, I’m not sure all that ‘fancy French tawkin’ is going to help M-B lessen the SLK’s chick car image…tho at least they did do away with the ridiculous pointy-nose styling, it does look a bit more ‘butch’. Still can’t see Baruth trading in one of his Porsches on this more butcherer SLK, though.
My mother has one of the first generation SLKs and still loves it, she never warmed up to the looks of it’s pointy beak successor…and now that the economy’s in the tank, it’s all a moot point anyway.
This will end well. He will meet an equally bland nice girl. She will take the SLK and he will get the Clio for his office rides. Then they will have bland children (probably not his) and move to a bland “LeMansion”, they will sell the bland SLK for a bland GLK (probably with the same E-gremlins), provided he doesn’t loose his job. Everybody will look happy.
Poor guy. Would he only have chosen the right car, or no car at all! You don’t meet the really nice girls driving an SLK.
He must be a French hairdresser.
Whatever this video is, it is NOT intended for the French market. All the selling point supers are in English, and at about the six and a half-minute mark, the road sign choices are “city” and “beach”. My guess is it’s intended for the kind of buyer who would be impressed by the sexy dialogue in French… perhaps the kind of person who would have a French hairdresser – someone in West Hollywood maybe.
This is basically an attempt to “butch” up the SLK’s image. The whole conversation between the driver and what seemed at first to be the car with a female voice turns out to be the road… He is ‘taking her’ and there is even a little cat fight (two roads want him…) towards the end.
Difficult to make a more overt attempt at screaming “This is NOT a chick car”.
Mercedes continues its approach of making small – medium -large versions of the same look. This new SLK has so many cues from the bigger SL because it is not plagued by the same un-desired label… I think it’s working for BMW’s Z4…
Ok guys being French I thought I could help here…my two cents worth for a translation:
Female: “Come, get closer, I’m here…keep on going”
“I want to see you at the wheel”
“Happy to see you here…”
Male: “who are you?”
Female: “Go on, guess…”
Male “Have we met before?”
Female: “Oh yeah”
Male: “Are you a brunette?”
Female: “You’re cold”
Male: “Blonde?”
Female: “Colder”
Male: “Come on, describe yourself”
Female: “Alright, I like challenges, I’m resourceful, my curves are sensational, but not as sexy as yours…”
Male: “Come on, give me a hint” “You wouldn’t be… made of stone?”
Female: “Bingo!”
Male: “Nice to meet you!”
Female: “All the pleasure is mine” “So show me what you got inside” “What do you think of this?” “I’m staying with you!” “And what do you think of that?” “You take my breath away” “Say you only love me” “Come on say it”
Female 2: “And what if I kept you company?”
Female 1: “Don’t even think about it”
Male: “Sorry!”
Female 2: “Hello my hero” “No stay with me!”
Female 3: “Hey come here”
Female 2: “No stop!”
Male: “Sorry!”
Female 4:” Come here!”
Female 3: “Don’t listen to her”
Various females: “Not bad!” “Keep on going” “Come here” “Don’t even think about it” “Don’t go” “Stay with me”
Male: “Don’t worry, I’ll be back!”
Female” “Come back soon”
Aaaaaargh!
Doesn’t sound that classy once you know what it means eh?
So certainly NOT aimed at the French I agree KTS. Gets very irritating if you understand everything that is said…
cheers
Matt
http://bestsellingcars.wordpress.com/
Agree with the translation. My 0.02 is that the female voices are meant to be the roads on which the guy is driving, hence the “sensational curves”, “made of stone” and “what do you think of this” when he approaches a twisting uphill section.