Mercedes Benz gained a design accolade earlier this month when it’s Mercedes Benz R-Class won the best of the best Red Dot Design Award, one of the most prestigious awards of it’s kind worldwide. The Red Dot Award received 2068 entries this year, and a total of 485 products were awarded the red dot. However, the best of the best award was reserved for 36 outstandard products, and the Mercedes Benz R-class is part of the ranks. Other Red Dot Design award winners include Nokia’s Nokia 8800 mobile phone and LG’s design team who won Design Team of the Year.
The Mercedes Benz R-class is a six-seater sports touring SUV (IMHO, funky speak for ‘minivan’) offering a host of poweful engines producing from 224hp up to 306hp. There are also AMG versions, with the R63 AMG giving you 510 horses to play with from it’s 6.3 litre V8 AMG engine. The R-class was one of the first Mercedes Benz together with the CLS to feature Mercedes’ new muscular design with sculpted side profiles and all that jazz. The car features Mercedes Benz 4MATIC all-wheel drive, air suspension at the rear and a 7-speed 7G-Tronic slushbox.
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This car is absolutely breathtaking. Saw it yesterday being displayed at a local supermarket. It's fricking huge, and you might say minivan Paul, other people might call it an SUV, I'd rather call it a LHV, or 'Long and Huge Van'. But the curves and design are stunning, interior design really modern and luxurious, and ample leg room even at the last row of seats. You can literally play football there!
This is apparently the new "MPV/SUV" market for Europe and North America e.g. Chrysler Pacifica.
agree with speed junkie. i am lost for words, having seen this car. fantastic. kudos to mercedes.
ps – P1, where's your MPV? dont bother to answer.
This is old news. Its big….its like the Stavic. They call it full size MPV. When they first revealed it, they claim its gonna beat the Odyssey or the Estima. But to me, this is waaaay to big to be compared to the Japs. The Alphard or the El Grande, perhaps. But still, this is the Merc of the MPVs!
I wonder why BMW is still lagging behind. Why? MPV is too sissy for your brand meh?
I think that Lotus has showed us with the Lotus APX that MPVs do not necessarily have to be sissy, hopefully BMW will take note.
maybe manuacturer told paul tan not to post this because they are still selling old model.
This Merc makes the Ssangyong Stavic look like a dugong.
I don't know how tall this one is in reality as i've not seen it but it does remind me a bit of the Honda Odyssey or Stream…maybe Odyssey is pushing it but Stream I think i can imagine both of this side by side.
Those who question BMW must understand one thing ler….
They focus very commitedly on handling. Can you imagine a minivan which handles brilliantly? They could use the X5 wheelbase and create one but I doubt it'll be any good. Might as well focus on their strengths isn't it?
Mercedes Benz R-Class !…..
hi…i'm new here…..erm…for this R class…its huge….but dun forget the Audi Q7….but i would love to see BMW have this type of Crossover….
It is indeed a breathtaking design. It probably has every reason to get the best of the best award. But personally, I kinda dislike the egg shape head lights. I don't know….it looks a bit off. I think it'd look much better with the CLS or the new S-Class head light. I mean, take a look at the 4th picture. What's the rational of combining the egg shape with that small triangular. Everytime I look at the front profile I was like, "??????????!!"
Anyway, I must say that this is the best looking MPV/SUV/LHV I've seen so far. And the R63 are just marvelous! Err…Paul, where does the 7G-Tronic originated from? The F1?
The 7G-Tronic is a 7-speed automatic gearbox with torque converter.
Apparently I read somewhere that this is a neither-here-nor-there 'misfit' of an MPV…or Estate…or SUV…or Crossover? This is M-B trying to be a jack-of-all-trades!
Just as chrisbangle is a Bimmer fan, and myself a Merc fan BUT…I still don't dig those Chrysler Neon-ish extended headlamps. Ugh!
recipe for this car…
merc m-class + merc s-class = merc r-class…..
this car is targeting the american market at the first place…
all feature gt in the m and s-class…u gt it in this car…hhmm…better u guyz c the brabus version…really garang this car…also brilliant…
Almost perfect viewing it from every angle. Unfortunately, the front view seems rather uninspiring.
I've seen this model on the road in Australia, it looks even better in the flesh.
Now, where's my ill gotten wealth when I need it….
Fantastic ! World Class Real designer car :)
looks like a stavic celup. and much more!! :) seems like european car makers are taking ideas from their asian counterparts?!
oh my… impresive, nice design, LCDs… n Stavic tail lights! well… i just dont really like the headlights… looks strange… overall, nice design there…
A design award is to recognize the design elements of a single product, its innovation and creativity in creating the form and function of the product. eg. Nokia 8800 took the award, but the product did badly in the market as compare to its rival Motorola V3. Perhaps Paul can further elaborate why the R-class took the prize? Coz everyone here seem to dislike the headlamps, including myself.
eally hate the headlamp? i suppose this is merc image, no matter how you see it, u will see merc DNA in it. i believe of u like mercedes, then u like this R-class as well ;-)
dis is better den da cl
This thing is huge especially in its LWB form. It sits on the same platform as the M class and shares most of its hardware. It has quite a lofty driving position but at the same time you feel coccooned inside the cockpit. On the road it is very quiet, take the corners well and feels like a compact executive car.
Rivals to Stream, Wish, Estima, Odyssey etc.
Sure, it's got a sporty and muscular stance. But the headlights…I'm not too sure about that. Maybe it will grow on us, the same way the quirky Savvy grew on me…
If the 2 pieces heaadlights are joined together then it'll look nice…
uve gt to b kidding mitlanevo…this r-class in on its own…no rival stated…