cawimmer430
Piston Pioneer
It all started on a Saturday morning on March 28. I woke up late because I had been working through the night on some school-related projects and had been doctoring up some digital photographs. So when I woke up today, it occurred to me that I had nothing to do for the weekend. No schoolwork to finish, no projects to take care off; nothing. As I lay in bed, I pondered what I was going to do. How was I going to survive a Saturday and Sunday without getting bored? There’s nothing but trash on TV, I’m bored of shooting people in Grand Theft Auto and I didn’t feel like taking a walk and photographing birds in flight.
Then I remembered the date, March 28. Something about it seemed familiar and the more I thought about, the more it made sense. It had something to do with Mercedes-Benz. Then I realized what was so special about this date: the new W212 E-Class was premiering in downtown Munich. At the same time as this thought was being processed in my head, my body was responding on its own. I jumped out of bed, shaved and showered, got dressed and hoped into the BMW and sped through the Munich morning traffic to reach the magical place called Mercedes-Benz Niederlassung München in the Arnulfstraße. Even as I drove by, I could see that this wasn’t going to be easy. Every single visible parking space was in use and there were gobs of people swarming in from all directions eager to catch a glimpse of the new star in this class. Two W212s were already outside and covered by a mass of people.
I managed to find a parking space a few hundred meters away and had to sandwich park between an S-Class and A6. Thank the lord I had the small 1-Series today, because if I had arrived in the E320 I would be looking for a suitable space for ages.
I have already encountered the new W212 E-Class on several occasions prior to this day, but those were generally short moments where I just caught a glimpse. And the one time in the Mercedes Museum where I was faced with a new W212, my heart wasn’t in it because the vehicle on display was a standard trim model that will be supplied to taxi and police fleets.
Today was really the day where I would encounter the W212 up close and personal. And I was ready. The first W212s I inspected were the smokesilver and black models positioned outside in broad daylight. I was already impressed in the first few seconds.
But first I sampled the atmosphere of the event. There was the smell of delicious Thai and Bavarian food in the air courtesy of some local catering. Music was provided by one of Munich’s biggest radio stations (Radio Arabella, which I never listen to!). One of the big shots of the place (forgot the name) was interviewed by the radio station and explained the new features of the new E-Class. I was standing right there, a few meters away documenting this with my camera. It was a fascinating experience, listening to what he had to say about the car.
I guess I can start on the design of the new E-Class then. To me the design is a clear evolution of the W211 E-Class infused with recent styling cues of the W204 C-Class and X204 GLK-Class. I cannot stress this enough. For those thinking the headlights upfront appear similar to those of the Lexus GS, guess again. There is no visible similarity that I can detect. Seeing the car in detail up close is probably the key to understanding this. Most W212s on display were either black or silver, with a few smokesilver and one maroonred example mixed in. A few models had the AMG sport package on them. Most of the models on display were E220 CDI, E250 CDI, E350 CDI and E350 CGI models. There were two E500s.
The “bigshot” explaining technical and design aspects of the E-Class. The last photo shows the lucky man who won the lottery and gets to spend the weekend with the new W212!
End of Part 1
Then I remembered the date, March 28. Something about it seemed familiar and the more I thought about, the more it made sense. It had something to do with Mercedes-Benz. Then I realized what was so special about this date: the new W212 E-Class was premiering in downtown Munich. At the same time as this thought was being processed in my head, my body was responding on its own. I jumped out of bed, shaved and showered, got dressed and hoped into the BMW and sped through the Munich morning traffic to reach the magical place called Mercedes-Benz Niederlassung München in the Arnulfstraße. Even as I drove by, I could see that this wasn’t going to be easy. Every single visible parking space was in use and there were gobs of people swarming in from all directions eager to catch a glimpse of the new star in this class. Two W212s were already outside and covered by a mass of people.
I managed to find a parking space a few hundred meters away and had to sandwich park between an S-Class and A6. Thank the lord I had the small 1-Series today, because if I had arrived in the E320 I would be looking for a suitable space for ages.
I have already encountered the new W212 E-Class on several occasions prior to this day, but those were generally short moments where I just caught a glimpse. And the one time in the Mercedes Museum where I was faced with a new W212, my heart wasn’t in it because the vehicle on display was a standard trim model that will be supplied to taxi and police fleets.
Today was really the day where I would encounter the W212 up close and personal. And I was ready. The first W212s I inspected were the smokesilver and black models positioned outside in broad daylight. I was already impressed in the first few seconds.
But first I sampled the atmosphere of the event. There was the smell of delicious Thai and Bavarian food in the air courtesy of some local catering. Music was provided by one of Munich’s biggest radio stations (Radio Arabella, which I never listen to!). One of the big shots of the place (forgot the name) was interviewed by the radio station and explained the new features of the new E-Class. I was standing right there, a few meters away documenting this with my camera. It was a fascinating experience, listening to what he had to say about the car.
I guess I can start on the design of the new E-Class then. To me the design is a clear evolution of the W211 E-Class infused with recent styling cues of the W204 C-Class and X204 GLK-Class. I cannot stress this enough. For those thinking the headlights upfront appear similar to those of the Lexus GS, guess again. There is no visible similarity that I can detect. Seeing the car in detail up close is probably the key to understanding this. Most W212s on display were either black or silver, with a few smokesilver and one maroonred example mixed in. A few models had the AMG sport package on them. Most of the models on display were E220 CDI, E250 CDI, E350 CDI and E350 CGI models. There were two E500s.
The “bigshot” explaining technical and design aspects of the E-Class. The last photo shows the lucky man who won the lottery and gets to spend the weekend with the new W212!
End of Part 1
