What's Wrong With This Picture: Old Segment Made New Edition
Once upon a time, luxury cars were defined by giant drop-top land barges like Cadillac’s V-16 or the Bugatti Royale. Somewhere along the way, the luxury sedan-turned-convertible has fallen out of favor with the glaring exception of one of the world’s most expensive cars: the Rolls-Royce Phantom Drophead. But now, having pioneered the four-door coupe and (coming soon) the five-door coupe, Mercedes-Benz’s endless search for “new” segments has it looking backwards to the good old days of massive top-down touring luxury.
According to Auto Motor und Sport, the Swabian firm is looking very closely at a drophead version of its S-Class Coupe, the CL, inspired by the 2007 design study (pictured here) called “Ocean Drive.” Though the business case for such a range-topping power-cabrio has yet to be calculated, Mercedes insists that it will be a two-door convertible, despite the fact that Maybach has an S-Class-based two-door coupe in the works. Since the CL convertible will be a four-place cruiser anyway, why not go properly old-school and make it a four-door convertible like the old Mercedes “ Adenauer“?
More by Edward Niedermeyer
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Those are the ugliest wheels I've ever seen on a MB. Twotone
DeLorean called. They want their wheels back.