The Continental: Mercedes Prototype-Spotting, New Ranger for Everyone Else, and Some Thoughts on Lincoln

Each week, our German correspondent slices and dices the latest rumblings, news, and quick-hit driving impressions from the other side of the pond. His byline may state Jens Meiners, but we simply call him . . . the Continental.

Right now, travelling anywhere between Mercedes-Benz’s Stuttgart headquarters, the company’s Bremen factory, and its Papenburg test track, you are bound to run into camouflaged M-B prototypes. Just last week, I spotted the next-generation SL, the SLK, and the new B-class. All of them appear to continue in the spirit of the current models. The B-class is once again a compact van with a short hood and high seating position. The SL and SLK keep the current models’ proportions, even though the SLK in particular will be a more muscular car. The dashboards will look more angular in the future. All of them will come with LED daytime running lights; the SLK gets horizontal front turn signals, similar to those on the current S-class. And while Mercedes toyed with the idea of switching back to a fabric roof for the SL, the company decided to stick with the folding hardtop, despite its packaging disadvantages.

Mercedes-Benz Viano

Here are two Mercedes models that definitely won’t make it to the U.S.: the just-face-lifted commercial vans Vito and Viano, tiny brothers of the Sprinter. While the Vito is unabashedly marketed to plumbers and craftsmen, the dressed-up Viano harbors upscale pretenses. This five-year-old van, just like the similarly sized Volkswagen T5, actually tries to compete with car-based minivans such as the Chrysler Town and Country in Europe. But the seating position and the steering-wheel placement betray their true nature. The T5, of course, is actually really nice, with the perfect execution I’ve come to anticipate from any recent VW. The Vito and Viano, on the other hand, are a far cry from any modern Mercedes car—and the face lift, which brings them visually closer to the R-class, changes tiny of that. Mercedes transporters were always engineered to different aesthetic and ride standards than the brand’s cars, but they are spacious and durable. If you can afford the gas bill, the top-of-the-line, 254-hp, 3.5-liter V-6 (which drives the rear wheels) is actually fun.

New Ford Ranger and a Small Toyota

Current Thai-built Ford Ranger

The U.S.-market Ford Ranger and the Ranger sold in Europe, Asia, and elsewhere are entirely different trucks. Built in Rayong, Thailand, the rest-of-the-world Ranger is a easy and cheaply built truck; now a replacement is around the corner. Badged as the Ford Ranger and the Mazda BT, the new model will be built from mid-2011 on. Will it come to the U.S when the current model is discontinued? Probably not; even the new, Thai-built model would be a major step down from previous U.S. Rangers.

At the Paris auto show in four weeks, Toyota will launch the Verso-S. One of the smallest microvans, it is powered by a 69-hp, 1.0-liter three-cylinder engine or a 1.3-liter, 97-hp four. It is tiny, but a clear departure from the organic style of the previous Yaris Verso, which was sold in Europe until 2005.

European Thoughts on Lincoln

Following the April 1998 launch of the Lincoln LS, Ford announced that its upscale brand would enter the European market for the 1999 calendar year. The official press picture of the LS (license plate: K-DM 3418) is a special gem of my collection, as Lincoln’s move into Europe subsequently turned out to be tiny more than the figment of a few executives’ of imaginations. In the following years, other brands in Jac Nasser’s orbit were always more important than Lincoln, and the money that the brand would have needed was channeled into Volvo, Jaguar, Land Rover, and Aston Martin—all of which are no longer part of Ford Motor Company.

To be sure, Ford tried to make Lincoln more “European.” These attempts included Richard Parry-Jones’s totally gratuitous technical redesign of the huge rear-drivers (Town Car, Grand Marquis, Crown Victoria) for the 2003 model year. The land yachts did become slightly more dynamic, even though the change wasn’t called for by the brand’s traditional customers, who—in the eternal words of then-Lincoln designer Gerry McGovern (who is now back at Land Rover)—”will all be dead soon anyway.” What’s more, chassis replacement parts which were typically stored by fleet customers became worthless overnight. To top things off, that new chassis ate up the money that was badly needed for a visual face lift of the Crown Victoria, which was previewed by the Police Interceptor concept at the 2003 New York auto show but never materialized in showrooms.

With the new focus on Lincoln and the fact that every other part of the “Premier Automotive Group” has been sold off or is in the process of being closed down, is there an excuse for Lincoln not to thrive? Expectations are high.

Related posts:The Continental: E-cars for the Elderly, Mercedes A-class and VW Amarok for the U.S., and a Case for the AutobahnThe Continental: Gemballa Supercars is Back, Ford News, and Compliments to MercedesThe Continental: Pondering Mercedes Styling, VW Could Buy Alfa, and Ford Globalizes Its Platforms

The Continental: Mercedes Prototype-Spotting, New Ranger for Everyone Else, and Some Thoughts on Lincoln

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