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Cars

Saying Goodbye to Mercedes SLC (aka SLK) Final Edition

Mercedes-Benz have announced the Final Edition for the SLC (aka SLK), with the initial yellow that was revealed in 1997. I was sad to learn that the SLC will no longer be produced. Nowadays, everyone wants to own an SUV, like the MPV trend a decade ago. During the last decade, people have moved away from sports cars and even sedans to SUVs. As the SUV market has become more saturated, there is an SUV for any taste.

People like the practicality of an SUV and assume that an SUV can be sporty. The demand for the sports car started to decline. This happened slowly but, when we look at recent years, people don’t really buy sports cars anymore. Just SUVs!

This trend is the most evident in the premium market; we still see Ferraris, Aston Martins, and Bentleys. However, we don’t really see BMW Z4s or SLCs like the old days. As I have understood, Mercedes-Benz pushed as far as possible to keep the SLC on the production line, but it didn’t manage to survive.

SLC was a ground-breaking car when it was revealed in 1997! With a metal roof and a very attractive design, it was the most iconic car of its era. However, the metal roof is a serious additional weight and people generally want more space. Also, most importantly, buying an SLC is not cool or trendy anymore. People usually buy this type of car to show that they are trendy and cool. They are not buying it for its features! As being trendy moved from SLC to GLC, people started to avoid the SLC.

This shockwave has reached the SL as well. Hopefully, Mercedes-Benz will keep the SL in production, even though it will make a loss. Their strategy is to keep an iconic product in the production line. Like the S-Class, the SL is an important asset of Mercedes-Benz and makes it distinctive from other manufacturers. People might be buying other Mercedes-Benz products while being influenced by the SL.

Long story short, the SLC is going to end soon, but it will be remembered in the future. I am sure the same will happen to SUVs, as it happened to MPVs. Sooner or later, we will see a reduction in the SUV range.
Mercedes-Benz SLC Final Edition

Mercedes-Benz SLC Final Edition

Mercedes-Benz SLC Final Edition

Mercedes-Benz SLC Final Edition

Mercedes-Benz SLC Final Edition

Mercedes-Benz SLC Final Edition

Mercedes-Benz SLC Final Edition

Mercedes-Benz SLC Final Edition

Mercedes-Benz SLC Final Edition

Mercedes-Benz SLC Final Edition

Mercedes-Benz SLC Final Edition

Mercedes-Benz SLC Final Edition

Photo Credit // Mercedes-Benz

Categories
Cars

Rewind YouTube Style 2012 with Psy and Carly Rae Jepsen

Gangnam Style, I think Psy made the 2012 as the most YouTube involved year of the human history. Thanks to his music video Gangnam Style, which is watched nearly One Billion times changed everything. Basically, each one person out of six on this planet watched Gangnam Style at least once. (However, Microsoft Word still assumes that I made typo by writing Gangam and underlines it as red.)

And YouTube recently made a video called Rewind YouTube Style 2012. It is the mix of Psy Gangnam Style and Carly Rae Jepsen Call Me Maybe songs. And some of the other YouTube sensations were also featured on this video.

And Mercedes SLK! Come Kia and Hyundai, you missed the train on the Gangnam Style video but this time your cars should be have been there! I was expecting to Kia but end up with Mercedes. And this makes the Mercedes SLK as the year 2012’s YouTube sensations as well.

And there is one quite old Volvo S60 is hidden left of the Mercedes SLK.

Pictures’ Copyright
Mercedes
Categories
Cars

Mercedes SLK with Diesel Power

In 1997, the SLK was introduced the market with revolutionary folding hardtop mechanism. There were no other alternative to offer the same technology and SLK became one of the most iconic cars of 1990s.

When it was revealed, nobody thought about a diesel SLK. During those years, diesel was not an option in automotive industry. Actually, no one bothered to buy a diesel instead of a petrol engine. Therefore, SLK was never offered with the diesel. The same tradition carried on with the second generation SLK.
However, the increasing price of petrol and huge demand to diesel change everything. The third generation SLK is now available with diesel option. 2.1-lt diesel engine producing 150 PS and 500 nm torque (it is really high) and achieves 100 kph in 6,7 seconds. With 4,9-lt average consumption and 128g CO2!
World has changed, SLK has changed!

Pictures’ Copyrights
Mercedes

Categories
Cars

Mercedes-Benz Steering Wheels are the same!

Interesting coincident with Mercedes models. When you take a closer look to new Mercedes models, you will see one thing in common, the steering wheel. I know it does not sound that important but, Mercedes offers the same steering wheel on these models; B, C (Sedan, Estate, Coupe), E (Sedan, Estate, Coupe, Cabrio), CLS and SLK
The important point is, regardless of the model and the price tag. The steer wheel looks the same, in terms of design and quality. And this is not something really nice to see, when you buy an expensive Mercedes!
Why they do it? In order to save costs, because nobody will ever change decision to purchase a competitor because of the steer wheel. And this save money for Mercedes and sustains the same sales figures ;)
CLS
C Sedan
C Coupe
E Sedan
SLK
E Coupe
B
Pictures’ Copyrights
Mercedes
Categories
Cars Fashion

Again the Mistake: Mercedes-Benz SLK Fashion Week Footage

All the car advertisements on TV and on YouTube are done by a production company. There are millions of companies working in this business. The movie might be two or three minutes, but takes ages to shot. It is a really tough work and needs nerves made from steel.
Despite, the greatest efforts there are always minors mistakes tend to occur; especially with automatic cars! The automatic cars have four different gear positions; P (Park), R (Reverse), N (Neutral) and D (Drive). As usual, the car drive in D position and P position is selected when the car is parked, very simple. When the car is on P position, the transmission is engaged with a lock to avoid car moving by its own. In other words, in P position, car cannot move. It is similar to neutral but with a locking feature.
However, many production companies forget this basic rule and make funny videos. They always show the scene of engaging the gear lever into drive position and in next scene, we see that car is moving in park position. This is technically impossible. An automatic car cannot move in park position. Most of the time, car is placed on a truck and the shooting is not done in real driving condition, also the actor never actually drives the car. As the drive position moves the vehicle forward, they always leave the gear on park position and record the video.
As you may see in Mercedes’s SLK video for Fashion Week, Melissa Bristos engages the gear lever into drive position and suddenly car starts to move in park position in next scene. We all think that, Melissa drives the car and they achieve this by moving the steering wheel from left to right, while the gear lever is engaged to park position. And this makes an unrealistic video!
I am sure that, agency will be saying this; you cannot leave the vehicle on drive position while the car is over a truck. Actually, you can! Your actor either never leaves the brake pedal or she engages the hand brake. The hand brake is capable of holding the car in stationary at any circumstances. In addition, if you don’t apply any throttle there will not be any problem at all!
Next time, when you shooting a video for a car company please engage the gear lever into drive and don’t create funny videos! Otherwise, you show your behind the scene tricks!


Pictures’ Copyrights
Mercedes
Categories
Cars

Speed Date: New Mercedes SLK

Mercedes revealed the new SLK recently. Like previous two versions, it is one of the best-looking car in Mercedes range. As I mentioned in my previous posts, new SLK looks like a small SL, and offers very sophisticated technologies, which can easily out date the SL!

Today topic is not the technology, it is the interactive movie of the SLK, Speed Date. Before starting, the interactive movie has a very nicely designed composition and integrates the technologies of the new SLK in a very nice harmony. Also, they didn’t spoil the story!
However, they made a small mistake during the shootings! The two SLKs, which were used for this interactive movie are not the same. Many people know that, there are couple of vehicles are ready for this type of movie shootings and they supposed to be identical. They have different equipment; this might sound crazy but the vehicles are not identical. Actually, they supposed to be identical to sustain the flow of the movie.
The non-matching equipment is the auto dimming rear view mirror. During the driving sequences, the rear view mirror is not auto dimming one, it can be realised by the small switch or button under the mirror. If you have the auto function, you need to worry about the long beam, which is annoying your eyes at night. Mirror automatically dims itself and reduces the problem. Unfortunately, this equipment is optional in Mercedes and they charge you extra money. I am not complaining, this is the Mercedes style “alles in ordnung und alles ist optional”. Probably the Mercedes team did not realise this minor point and I did not see anything on internet about this.
If I am going to buy a SLK, I would definitely buy most of the options. Unless, it does not look like a proper Mercedes. And they worth to buy! My opinion, go for the SLK 350; 3.5-lt petrol engine which produces 306 HP. Perfect match for SLK.

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