I almost gagged on my breakfast muesli when this vision demonic first appeared on the screen of my device a little over a week ago. If only I could unsee it. And it’s taken me these 12 days or so to be able to deliberately open up these images again in order to vent my spleen over them. I guess it was inevitable, what with BMW’s whale-size kidneys splatted on the front of their recent cars. Got to keep up with the neighbors in Munich, as well as appease the Chinese, who have absolutely shunned the current EQS due to its sleek nose and generally too anodyne appearance.
So yes, slap a garish version of the classic Mercedes sedan grille from the 1960s on the front of an endlessly long hood that of course has no engine, as this is an EV. And let the world know that this is Mercedes’ new design language; no more wimpy front ends!
It’s not like I needed to show you this, but it’s worth noting what Mercedes is reaching back to, in this case the W111 Coupe from the 1960s.
Ironically, already back in the mid fifties, the raging internal design battle was whether the classic upright radiator grille should be kept or ditched for the sedans and at least the coupes. One of the styling concepts for an alternative to the W120/121 (top) already had the wide mouth grille (right) that was being used on the 300SL and 190SL.
With the development of the W108/109 “Heckenflosse” sedan and coupe, this issue became even more divisive, with the battle lines drawn on either side. We know who won, but it was close. (Don Andreina has a superb post on the development of these cars here at CC) The coupe especially would have looked decidedly more contemporary with the new style grille.
Since then the classic grille was eventually ditched, first on coupes and then on the C and E class sedans. The S Class’ grille kept aspects of the classic look, although like a bar of soap, it got smoother and rounder as the generations went on.
The EV S-Class analog EQS arrived in 2021 with only a smooth clear nose and the iconic star. That and a too low profile and lack of rear seat room made it a flop, most of all in the Chinese market where presence as well as an expansive rear compartment are key elements for success in the true luxury class.
In 2024, the EQS got a nose job, a remarkably crude effort at bringing back a suggestion of the classic grille. But it was too little, too late.
The Hongqui Guoli, China’s top luxury car, shows what the market there likes. And of course Rolls-Royce and Bentley have been playing that game for a very long time.
So if Mercedes wants to stay in the game, it’s time to up the ante, with this preview of the next generation S Class.
In the case of the Vision Iconic, it’s actually a coupe, to recall the heritage of those long-nose coupes from the 1930’s.
Any similarity to Jaguar’s much-derided Type OO Concept is purely coincidental.
The interior is more retro-future playfulness.
To think how I lusted over a new S-Class back in the day. Is it because I’m old now? How did 72 year old guys feel about the new S Class in 1960, 1965, 1973 and 1979? Did they think they were hideous, affected and pandering to the past and to those crass Americans?
I remember when a Mercedes was the ultimate aspirational car in the U.S., and I can remember the person in our neighborhood who owned one. Everyone stopped to look when he went by.
It’s really sad what’s happened to that brand and Daimler-Benz in general; few people these days are bragging about Mercedes quality or style. When they merged with Chrysler, I thought Chrysler would drag down Daimler, but in retrospect it might have been the other way around.
Very much so. I’d guess, based on my education from TTAC University, MB lost the plot in the early to mid 90’s. Too much cost cutting to push back the Lexus insurrection? R&D not thoroughly vetting their save-the-planet digestible wiring harnesses?
I probably have one car acquisition left in me. I’ve always loved MB E class sedans and want to pursue a gently used W213 once I follow through on my relocation plans in 2027. It’s a beautiful design but I also recognize it’s not a Mercedes from the days of yore…
The Jag was derided by the the far right who took the ads seriously. But Jag fans know it’s dead as a brand without a radical revision that isn’t the XJ6 updated. The long bonnet/hood has clearly struck a chord. It’s when we see them in the flesh that the design can be judged.
It was derided by anyone aware of what Jaguar stands for. When I first saw it I thought “this is the sort of thing M-B/Maybach would come up with, as they have done in the past”, not Jaguar. This was a sure way to alienate any of the Jaguar faithful but IMHO acquire no new customers.
Both the Jag, the Maybach and the M-B are, in my eyes, excruciatingly ugly but the last two fit in the tradition of bombastic cars from both makers, so at least they make sense. Sort of.
“Far-right”? Not everyone who disliked those risible Jaguar ads was so-called ” far- right” [which in the UK seems to be anyone who doesn’t share the views of the Hard Left]
It’s the German Jimmy Durante!!
Boy, that’s downright fugly and why is the Good Humor Ice Cream man crouching next to it?
Ahhh …. so that’s who it is. I thought he was a random, inexplicable hospital orderly. My interest in MB reached room temperature long ago.
It is a Studebaker Lark.
It’s the first new Mercedes to grace this webpage in something like five years and generating discussion. We think everything is ugly. Mission Accomplished?
I quite like the EQS, actually. I’m so over grilles, especially on EVs where they can’t even suggest a function. I get what Jaguar was doing with the Type OO, taking some risks and trying to break some molds. Unfortunately this doesn’t do either of those.
Did they hire some stylists from Mitsuoka?
I knew the PLC would make a comeback someday!
When we finally reached the point we could afford a luxury car, we shopped Mercedes, Audi, Cadillac and Infinity. I recall my wife saying the Merc was like driving a truck. We bought a Lexus and have never looked back.
I think it’s a bit patronising and simplistic to blame huge grilles on Chinese tastes. You’ll find most of the considered luxury/high tech brands in China rock a no grille look with conviction. It’s more a case with these brands with rich history of design elements that have become technically redundant (though grilles in the last 20 years have in many cases been almost completely blocked off for aero reasons). Anywhere you are in the world, people want their Mercedes to be easily distinguishable, how to do this without preserving some recognisable form of the grille is a difficult question to solve.
It depends totally on the market segment. Yes, all of the new high tech EVs from China are very contemporary and sleek in their designs. I’m specifically referring to the very top end of the market, where brash front ends are still very much present. The very sleek EQS has been a flop most of all in the China market, where EVs are becoming the dominant format.
Mercedes seems to have done just fine without a huge vertical faux grille these past 30 some years. I’m sorry, but this comes off as a blatant overreaction to the failure of the EQS. Mercedes and the other European premium brands are slipping badly in China and they are desperate to slow that erosion down. This car would not have happened otherwise.
I am also shocked by the comic look of Mercedes concept car. However, the trademark Benz grill is very iconic and influential for most of people inspired to own one. Ask everyone what is his or her mental picture of a Mercedes vehicle, the signature grill and the three-point star hood ornament. So in my opinion, Mercedes has not made any mistakes to teas the public with this concept car. But I have to admit that grill on that concept coupe, I assume it is its next GT coupe, looks ridiculous, for a s class saloon it is probably tasteful.
While Chinese market is very important to German automotive companies, BBA — Benz, BMW and Audi, German has sold a lot of those cars in China until recently because China economy has been softening, competition from Chinese own high end EVs. Those EVs are penned by former European top auto designers, engineered with inputs from former European auto experts, made with the highly efficient manufacturing process and very large subsidies from central government. The outside EVs such as EQS are simple inferior. I believe the Mercedes marketing team just the wrong focus group feedback. Actually EQS does not sell well in US either. Recently we are on the market for GLC, Mercedes salesman said he could give us a $10k discount without negotiations.
In that interior photo, what is it that they’ve replaced the glove box with? It looks like either a holder for a wine bottle, or perhaps a cylinder of laughing gas.
Which may explain why the product launch was overseen by a dentist.
For those who missed a Stutz-by-Exner the first time around?
Krank up the klass, baby!
NIce recall!
And how about the Exner Mercer?
Bingo – that’s the one!
So Benz’s top schnoz has to compete with that Hongqui conk? Well, tickle my ivories.
Mind you, I always thought the huge MB grille looked a bit of a carbuncle on the Fintail, and then especially on the crisp W108/9. It only began to look half decent when made wider and squatter on the final 280SE 3.5 coupes. So there may well have been a few codgers back in the day poo-pooing the Sindelfingen facial glitz.
Concept cars generally bore me to snores, but I must say, I don’t share the splenetics with this one. There’s some interesting shapes in the 300SL roof outline, and the profile shot of the car isn’t bad at all.
As for the grille, well, let’s face it, shiny, crass, ugly, dominant, fake, these are the recurrent motifs of our time, so perhaps the grand plunderers who can afford such a car should look on the exterior the same as they do deep within.
I thought the same thing about the side profile, in fact ironically from the front wheels back it looks closer to a modern E type than anything Jag’s ever tried, let alone that thing they’re reinventing themselves with, the long nose, the slick greenhouse with a fairly upright windshield(by modern standards) the pinched tail are all there.
When I first saw a picture of this monster, I hoped, ‘Oh, this must be AI-generated rubbish.’
Then I realised: they’re serious.
This thing has one good thing going for it. There’s no better way to illustrate the abyss of today’s automotive design.
That requires a Costco sized container of eye bleach. I’ve lost interest in Mercedes cars after the 90s. Too many gadgets and failure points and terrible reliability after the unkillable cars of the 70s and 80s.
After some thought, this grille reminds of a Cadillac Escalade with its equally cartoonish grille. I prefer to remember the elegance of the W108.
It appears someone who worked on the Plymouth Prowler back in the day is still employed by Mercedes. The merger of equals barfed up its final revenge.
I hate to say it but I kind of like it. The EQS is contemporary to the point on anonymous without the badge. In fact the facelift made it even more anonymous since the gigantic three pointed star was shrunken into a good ornament, so from a distance what is it? A Hyundai? A Malibu? To me it’s one of the drabbest designs Mercedes has released, it’s inoffensive enough but it is absolutely in the realm of the commoditized pod car that gives us gearheads nightmares. Shifting direction back, albeit maybe too far back in execution, to giving Mercedes an imposing presence isn’t a bad thing to me in principal.
Plus I’ve been pretty irked with the SL grille getting plastered on Mercedes sedans in the last decade or so. To me that should be reserved for special models like it or the various coupes, where the sedans get the more upright classic grille. To me Mercedes peaked with the W126 and W124 and any deviation or evolution from that era has been for the worse, so maybe I’m just too dug in on traditional… but when being contemporary comes at the cost of identity what’s even the point of the brand?
I can see this car being driven by a kept woman of a billionaire who lives in Monaco. After one year, it becomes passe. All of you have good remarks, some of which have given me a good laugh. The Chinese car shown is also hideous and, obviously, meant for the Nouveau Riche. Mommy can drive it to the supermarket in the Beijing suburbs and be the talk of the town. The comment about good styling being lost is correct. I drive a GMC Acadia. As for styling, does it differ much from a 1920’s four-door large sedan? Not really, but it is functional. I do not get excited about its appearance. Attached is an ad for a Packard featuring the boring styling of today’s SUV’s – but functional and comfortable.
Want a Benz with a modest grille? Think big! (it’s a turbodiesel, by the way, though the BEV-version looks exactly the same)
Yikes. All this thing needs is a fin on the roof and you’ve got the 2026 Batmobile.