According to CAR Magazine, the next-generation Mercedes-Benz CLS will not feature a Shooting Brake version. After only one generation, the German manufacturer is pulling the plug on the variant due to lacklustre interest from North American and Chinese customers.
Apparently, the replacement CLS estate had already been signed off in Stuttgart, approved to great internal acclaim. Unfortunately, due to a lack of interest from North American and Chinese importers, the management decided to abandon it at the eleventh hour.
The magazine opines that brands like Audi, BMW and Mercedes are progressively phasing out differing bodystyles as part of cost-cutting missions due to the slowdown in markets such as China and the Middle East – the axed CLS Shooting Brake is yet another example of market realities dictating the future of product planning.
The CLS Shooting Brake was revealed in June 2012 and is currently available in its facelifted guise. As for the third-generation CLS, that’s due to arrive in the market sometime in 2018.
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Yeah because it looks like a hearse… but sportier.
Perfect hearse, enough said
Strange, most of the hearses I’m seeing lately are Estimas and Alphards and not estates or their old world name, stationwagons.
I like wagons. They marry handling & nimbleness of a sedan with the practicality of an SUV. But I guess Americans don’t fancy ’em like they used too. Its a big SUV market there now. Sad to see the lack of a wagon CLS in the future, cos the current CLS shooting brake is really sexy.