Auto News 5

As the sleek Mercedes-Benz CLS is to regular four-door sedans, so is the recently unveiled Shooting Break concept related to traditional "shooting brake" station wagons. Never mind the concept label: this low-slung, high-style wagon will be a companion model to the redesigned CLS four-door coupe that debuts this fall. The production version of the Shooting Break should appear one year later, but U.S. sales are unlikely.

The Mercedes-Benz R-class was introduced in 2005 amid high expectations, but sales have been disappointing-particularly recently. In 2009 the Mercedes GL-class SUV outsold the R-class five-to-one, and the M-class outsold it by a factor of nine. Now coming up on the six-year mark, the R-class might be expected to undergo a full redesign, but instead the 2011 model is getting new sheetmetal only from the A-pillar forward, along with minor equipment revisions, and carryover powertrains.