The first official pictures of the Mercedes Concept Style Coupe (CSC) have leaked on a German website ahead of its official unveiling at next week's Beijing motor show. The CSC previews Mercedes' upcoming CLA saloon, which is tipped to go into production in 2013 priced from around £19,000.
The pictures reveal the CSC sports styling inspired by the larger CLS. It evolves the look of the F800 concept from 2010, which has led the way for Mercedes' latest design direction.
Underneath, the concept is believed to use Mercedes' new MFA platform. This will also underpin the CLA production car, and has been seen so far on the A-class and B-class. Also planned to come off this platform is a small SUV called GLC, and a shooting brake version of the CLA.
The concept is claimed to be 4637mm long, which makes it 47mm longer than the current C-class. However, the next-generation C-class will grow in size, meaning the production CLA will still slot below it in Mercedes' product line-up.
Power for the concept is said to come from the same turbocharged 2.0-litre petrol engine that appeared in the new A25 at the Geneva motor show in March. It produces 208bhp, the same as a Volkswagen Golf GTI.
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Re: Mercedes CSC concept leaks
Probably because it alienates a large proportion of their customers/potential customers, and maybe time will prove Mercedes right.
But getting back to the CSC, I can't believe £19K either because they charge more than that for the frumpy B Class that is apparently built on the same platform, and this sort of style will always have a premium.
Pricing compared to the CLC will not be an issue as that will probably disappear soon anyway because I believe it was only ever a stopgap offering (as evidenced by its old-school engine offerings), but at least the CLC was a smallish car with RWD.
Now I have to buy a BMW (probably before the FWD 1 series arrives) or the new Toyobaru Coupe to get anything less than 4.5m long with RWD, unless someone else knows better.....
Re: Mercedes CSC concept leaks
For goodness sake Autocar, these are not leaks! Any more than the last twenty cars that have been 'leaked' have been. "Oh no, I've accidently emailed my secret pictures of our new SUV Crossover Compact CC TDi to every car magazine in the world" confided the head of marketing at Leaking Motors...
Re: Mercedes CSC concept leaks
Gimme Gimme Gimme