Auto News 5

Since the "Baby Benz" 190E of 1982-93, Mercedes has been trying to get back into the small, relatively affordable segment -- call it entry-luxury or semi-premium -- in the United States. Now, the builder of everything from Western European taxicabs and semi-trucks to S-Classes and AMGs finally has the right product. It was saved for a pre-Detroit auto show reveal Sunday night, although Benz was not planning to display the car on the North American International Auto Show floor during press or public days following the reveal. The 2014 Mercedes-Benz CLA-Class has neither the Bauhaus minimalism of the 190 nor the creased conservatism of the more expensive C-Class. It's a baby CLS.

Four years ago, the Corvette team first weighed the idea of reviving the historic Stingray moniker for the C7 Corvette. They made the decision only six months ago. It took that long to come to a verdict because neither design VP Ed Welburn nor chief engineer Tadge Juechter nor marketing manager Harlan Charles would make the call until they could confidently say their car delivered the looks, the performance, and the character to live up to the 1963-67 Chevrolet Corvette Sting Ray.

Luxury brands face a Catch-22: they thrive on exclusivity but want to sell as many cars as possible. This challenge is especially acute at Lincoln, which has neither cachet nor lots of sales. The brand perceives its best and only option to be an all-out attack on high-volume segments with more exclusive-looking products. We saw the first fruit of this effort last year with the new and dramatically styled MKZ mid-size sedan. Phase two is a small crossover, a vehicle segment that, by Lincoln's estimation, accounts for some 25 percent of luxury sales. The MKC concept you see here is Lincoln's attempt to feast on this large slice of the luxury-sales pie.