Mercedes-Benz Concept Style Coupe revealed ahead of China auto show

Mercedes-Benz is previewing its eagerly anticipated CLA sedan at an event in Los Angeles this week before providing a more detailed look at the Beijing motor show with the unveiling of the latest in a long line of concept cars, the 2.0-liter, 208-hp, four-cylinder-powered Concept Style Coupe.

Pictured here officially for the first time, the heavily sculptured four-door reveals the dramatic appearance that the next junior Mercedes-Benz sedan will carry into North American showrooms in 2013.

Advancing the look first established on the F800 Style concept wheeled out at the 2010 Geneva motor show, the Concept Style Coupe is clothed in a four-door body that makes extensive use of concave and convex surfaces to provide its exterior with what Mercedes-Benz design boss Gorden Wagener describes as “an almost fluid appearance and constantly altering depth.”

The car has a large gaping grille known to insiders as a soft-nose treatment, striking headlamps with LED graphics, a heavily curved roofline, a shallow glasshouse, a high waistline, frameless doors and a trio of sharply creased lines along its flanks. Plus there are curvaceous C-pillars, a tapered rear and a sloping trunk line. That is an unmistakable clear visual connection with the larger CLS, whose success both as a stylistic figurehead for the rest of the Mercedes lineup and at showroom levels heavily dictated the decision to add the less mechanically complex and more affordable CLA.

“The almost-production-standard Concept Style Coupe sets a new benchmark for design in the executive segment,” Wagener said. “Its proportions, surfaces and lines are an expression of our dynamic design idiom.”

Although Mercedes-Benz is quick to point out that the Concept Style Coupe is a one-off show car, Autoweek sources privy to the final appearance of the CLA confirm its styling is largely faithful to the production version of the new sedan.

“Certain design elements have been subtly altered to lend a more powerful look for added presence on the show stand, but as a whole the exterior and interior reflect the true design of the car we will build at our new manufacturing plant in Kecskem

By Greg Kable