2015 Mercedes-Benz S-Class Coupe Has A Loose Thread

IF YOU want to know how it feels to be in a design review, you could do worse than visit Richard James in Savile Row. There, standing in front of a mirror, will you have all the twisted disfigurations of your growth exposed. Smoothly, quickly, young freshly-shaven tailors dart eyes about head, shoulders, torso and hips. Each misconfigured, each declared barely fit for cloth. Fixed to the spot, not a compliment in earshot, every genetic code is corrupted. Only a $4000 suit can save you now.

In car design land, a clay model is open to similar verbal assault. Engineers will needle you about pedestrian impact. An aerodynamicist will iron creases in your tailgate. The studio engineer will be finding the right patterns to use. And then the design chiefs arrive. 

A few deft comments from experts will in the swiftest of movements switch your perception of any given object. Except the designers of the Mercedes-Benz S-Class Coupe. How many eyes must have gazed upon it as it sat in the studio, each line taped, and re-taped. Under such scrutiny, a clay model is exposed in a span of four months to the observations owners will make over forty years. It is a lifetime condensed, so why has the Mercedes Coupe a conspicuously imperfect haunch? 

Consider a fishing-rod withstanding a catch: the rod is arching at the tip; straighter towards the reel. It is a metaphor for poised tension, and an example of the tension designers seek when crafting a line. In profile, the Mercedes Coupe achieves this tension in the line running from the headlamp to rear fender. Yet in other views the line runs so far back, into such a full fender volume, that the 'handle' of the line is misguidedly bent outwards. This creates a second arc of tension, like a fishing-rod with carp pulling at both ends. It conflicts with the main haunch feature and warps the integrity of the line. Every design theme ultimately needs to convey quality, so to stick resolutely to extending this line defeats the point. As for the rest of the car? LJK Setright might describe it as 'expensively beautiful'. Perfect for Savile Row, then.