Auto News 5

An all-new E-class goes on sale this summer.
The E-class may no longer be the biggest-selling Mercedes in the USA, but this model, which traces its lineage back to the Pontoon sedans of the 1950s, remains the heart of the brand's now greatly expanded lineup. This year sees the rollout of an all-new model (the W212 chassis, for students of the three-pointed star), with the six-cylinder E350 and V-8 E550 in early July. The E-class range fills out with a new coupe (in the same two variants), which replaces the CLK and appears a couple of weeks ahead of the sedans; the AMG-tuned E63, which will debut at the New York auto show in April before heading to dealers in November; the all-wheel-drive 4Matic variants, which will appear in September; the new E320 Bluetec, a 50-state diesel that arrives early next year; and the last member of the family to arrive, the E350 wagon, which will be unveiled at the Frankfurt auto show this fall and which will begin plying the streets of America's best suburbs sometime in 2010.

Klagenfurt, Austria
The principal appeal of convertibles has always been the prospect of swanning along the seaside with the top down to catch the sun - and the eye of bystanders. No vehicle available today performs that function as well as the new Mini Cooper convertible, but to demonstrate the polyvalence of the car, the world press launch was organized in the dead of winter in the snowbound Austrian Alps. True to the brand's contrarian, fun-and-funky marketing spirit, the motto for the car and the launch was "Always Open." Journalists were exhorted to drive with the top down, and all of the test cars were fitted with a new standard feature, the Openmeter, which serves as a life-of-the-car recorder of hours spent driving with the top fully retracted.