Auto News 5

HAMBURG, Germany – Mercedes-Benz gave its über-sedan, the 2014 W222 S-class, the unveiling it deserves here Wednesday, one befitting its decades-old headliner. Fending off upstarts from Munich and Ingolstadt, Tokyo and Seoul, and a likely volley from a resurgent Detroit, the S-class is the sedan that defines Mercedes-Benz, no matter what commodity cars and CUVs it launches to capture the aspiring classes.

Europe's mainstream brands, overwhelmed by Japanese competition, all but abandoned the U.S. market in the 1990s. Now, encouraged by the success of brands such as Mini and Volkswagen and facing an increasingly desperate economic situation at home, some of them are looking to return or dramatically increase their presence here. Like an inspector at Ellis Island, Georg Kacher evaluates the most likely immigrants:

There's always a bit of a numbers game at Automobile when you're handed the keys to a convertible in the throes of winter. We've learned that 32 degrees F is the point at which it becomes inadvisable to lower your soft-top. Moisture in or on the top can freeze while the top is stowed, damaging it when you stretch everything out again, so we try to get our top-down fixes only above that number. Thankfully, the Beetle Turbo comes with heated seats and a wind deflector. I packed a pair of gloves and a puffy winter coat for my drive, which took place when it registered 34 degrees F in Ann Arbor. Once I found the power top button (behind the Bluetooth controls at the top of the windshield, out of a tall person's line of sight), and erected the plastic wind deflector (which took me, um, a few minutes), I was off.