mercedes-benz

It's like banning high school football in Texas, surfing in Hawaii, or gambling in Nevada: The new party in power in the German state that's home to Porsche and Mercedes-Benz wants to impose speed limits on highways.

Last week Germany's Green party won an election in Baden-Wuerttemberg on a platform that includes a speed limit of 75 mph to help reduce vehicle emissions. On German autobahns without speed limits, 75 won't get you out of the slow lane.

About 65 percent of the state's highways currently have no speed limit, Bloomberg reported.

"Traffic in … Read more

The idea of a van conversion is nothing new. Consider the water-bed-toting vans of the '70s with their diamond-shaped portholes and air-brushed scenes from Yes album cover art on the sides. But a company called Brilliant Transportation has updated the idea of the van conversion for our less whimsical age.

Enter the Brilliant Van, a conversion based on a Mercedes-Benz Sprinter. The tall Sprinter allows stand-up room inside, and Brilliant fits it with leather recliners and two 32-inch LCD TVs fed by DirecTV. A color printer and a 3G Wi-Fi hot spot enable type-A personalities to keep busy. The Brilliant Van even has a hardwood floor.

We've always liked Mercedes-Benz's Sprinter van, a practical vehicle with easily configurable interior space. Freightliner has sold them since 2001 in the U.S., and Dodge even got to put its own badge on the Sprinter when Daimler owned Chrysler. The Sprinter is powered by a 3-liter diesel V-6, giving the vehicle 400 miles range. Mercedes-Benz fits it with its Adblue emissions clean-up system to make it comply with U.S. regulations.

You could probably buy one of these vans from Brilliant Transportation for the right amount of money, but the company is really in the business of rentals. Based in New York, the clients for its chauffeurs-driven vans are mostly businesses and entertainers. … Read more

The Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 not only showed up at the Amelia Island Concours D'Elegance in Jacksonville, Fla., but Mercedes-Benz Assistant Product Manager William Vetter took a few minutes to host a video walk-around of the race car.

The video shows the race car's features, from the lowered, lightweight carbon fiber body to the features on the steering wheel, from the gear-shift paddles to the button you can push to take a sip of whatever beverage you've got squirreled away.

There are other cool features such as a center console button that literally blows the doors off … Read more

A German advertising agency highlights an innovative idea from Mercedes-Benz in this Web video.

The Mercedes-Benz safety feature, "Pre-Safe," is a collision warning system that anticipates oncoming hazards.

In the ad "Transparent Walls," the Pre-Safe concept plays out more like an art installation piece than a safety feature demonstration. Transparent Walls shows what Pre-Safe would look like as seen through human eyes.

Live video is captured on the onside of a wall and projected around the corner onto another wall--making the wall look transparent. As drivers pass, they can literally see what is coming from behind … Read more

At CNET, we love the current generation of the Mercedes-Benz C-class. This compact sedan comes with solid cabin tech and excellent performance. Incarnated as the C63 AMG, we were blown away by what this car could do and even how it sounds. Now Mercedes-Benz is increasing our C-class pleasure.

At the Geneva auto show, Mercedes-Benz showed off a coupe version of the C-Class, its graceful roofline unbroken by rear doors. But rather than sacrifice all practicality for sleek looks, passengers in the rear seat will find they actually have headroom. And as a note of Mercedes-Benz luxury, the front seats … Read more

A 1965 Mercedes-Benz 600 Pullman landaulet built specially for Pope Paul VI will make its first U.S. appearance at the the 16th annual Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance held March 11-13, 2011.

The pontiff not only rode in comfort, but also stayed protected in the modded 600. The vehicle featured an individual seat that could be raised and lowered during processions through crowded streets. The car also featured an elevated roof, extended rear doors, and raised floor were also fitted along with other special equipment such as bulletproof glass.

The 600 was likely chosen to be modified for the … Read more

The Geneva auto show is filled with signs that the industry turnaround under way in North America has reached Europe.

Automakers are bouncing back from the downturn of the past two years with a number of production vehicles and concepts in Geneva.

Volkswagen Group, helped by its new subsidiary Italdesign Giugiaro, will unveil an array of concept cars to show the industry it has the design depth, as well as the production capability and the financial strength, to topple Toyota as the world's No. 1 automaker.

BMW will debut the Vision ConnectedDrive, a futuristic roadster concept that shows how … Read more

Mercedes-Benz today offered up a first look at the slightly redesigned 2012 C-Class Coupe. The sporty, new, two-door C-Class will debut at the 2011 Geneva auto show.

The front view of the coupe features a prominent radiator grille, a short front overhang, a long hood and a long sloping roof.

The C-Class Coupe offers two direct-injection engine options. The C250 trim comes with a 1.8-liter four-cylinder engine, offering 201 hp and 229 pound-feet of torque. It goes from 0 to 60 in 7.1 seconds and averages a combined 24 mpg (estimated).

The C350 trim features BlueDirect injection 3.… Read more

Mercedes-Benz does not shy away from tech for its top-tier cars; these vehicles have every new electronic feature the company can conceive. For the CL550, that means adaptive cruise control that can bring the car to a complete stop when traffic ahead halts, a split-view front LCD letting the passenger watch a movie while the driver views the navigation system, and night vision, which uses infrared projectors and a camera to show the driver the road on dark nights.

Although we've seen some of these features before in other Mercedes-Benz cars, the CL550 also debuts a new engine, a … Read more