What they're claiming is indeed Mercedes somewhat going back to their roots. Their cars have become incredibly wedge shaped now, but my problem with them "losing that" is that they are doing ANTI WEDGE lines onto wedge-y proportions, a'la CLS, which looks terrible. Mercedes has to understand, if you want to do *Classic Dropping Lines* to emphasis the elegance from half a century ago, then great, but you have to compliment it with the Designs architecture. The CLS to me is a mess because it's got modern Sporty proportions, but then some classic attempted elegant dropping line, which doesn't work. The car needs to have a high, extravagant front end, and the whole theme needs to slope downward, a'la Classic RR's. The new Mercs with Sporty proportions and dropping lines are amateur at best, IMO.
This is why the E-Class, even though it shares the current trend of very complex and brutal forms very much, has more cohesion to me, as it all follows one path: Extreme angled/wedge in all aspects, all focusing and wrapping into the very angular and imposing front end.
And it's true, the Design idiom that Mercedes is claiming to go forth with, is the same that BMW re-started with the F01, save for the dropping lines. Also, the overhangs on current Benzes are quite short, shorter in fact than some current BMW's (who's overhangs are growing). The W212, especially for a Luxury Sedan, has very short overhangs.
I wish M-B would stay with the brutal forms, as it fits M-B so much, and BMW is doing organic elegance and I like the positions that the two are in, in terms of meeting their pasts and futures. I mean, M-B's have always been brutal and imposing, that's what separates them rest from all the copycats. However, where they need to focus on is regaining that simple elegance to COMPLIMENT that, because THAT'S what Mercedes is all about. The CLS would be almost perfect without the side line ruining things, and the B-Class is a disaster. Also, the F800 is a semi-mess. I like the W221/W212/W204 idea, as to me they embody Mercedes, and each can use aspects from the other to balance them out to be more "perfect", however I "get" them.
When I look at the 204, and the 212, I see cars meant to evoke the spirit of the 80's Benzes. The W212 gets a lot more gimmicky than the W204, which is why I like to say that it "looks like a caricature of what a Benz is supposed to look like", which makes it more polarizing, however considering the conservative nature of these cars (Sedans), if it rubs you the right way, it evokes an emotion out of you due to that, that more conventional designs might not.
