BMW playing safe, says Benz's Wagener

The head of styling for Mercedes-Benz has a very clear view on how the company's corporate styling will look over the next few years. Gorden Wagener is aiming for a trickle-down effect from the SLS AMG. The bluff nose of the super sports car has already put in an appearance on the new CLS and will shortly show up on the next-generation A and B-Class models.

"I'm not at the end of the road yet," said Wagener, VP of Mercedes-Benz Cars Design. "You see the first results in the SLS or now here in the CLS. That describes pretty much the way we are heading, but it's just a glimpse of the start..."

It's a move that parallels the consistent look of Audis, with their respective frontal styling treatment centred around the single-frame grille of the grand prix Auto Union cars from the 1930s. But Wagener, addressing Aussie journalists at the Paris motor show last week, was slightly dismissive of the way Audi has handled its own corporate look and the way it interacts with brand management.

"If you see what Audi is doing, from the A1 to the A8, all of them look alike... this is a principle we used in the 1990s -- our 'C' looked like the 'E' looked like the 'S'. That worked with three different cars -- it's the Russian [dolls], you know? Audi's doing that now -- successfully, with the whole line-up."

If the three-pointed star seems to be following in the footsteps of Audi -- despite what Wagener says -- it's doing so with its own particular slant by incorporating broader design cues that speak to the brand's heritage. The single-frame grille is as far as Audi goes with that, it might be argued, but the SLS is a full-bottle tribute to the 300SL Gullwing and the new CLS features sculpture lines from the 'Ponton' styling from the late 1950s. However Benz styling compares with Audi's, one thing is for certain; the new look is heading away from BMW's.

"We're definitely moving in two different directions..." Wagener agreed.

"BMW is now going in that direction; the '5' looks like the '7', the new '3' will look like the '5'... so after [former chief designer, Chris] Bangle, BMW is playing safe. [They're] great cars, there's nothing wrong with the new BMWs -- perfectly done, well done -- but the last spark is missing."

At a moment in time when BMW is stepping away from its controversial Bangle looks, Mercedes-Benz is headed in a direction more like its archrival's visual conception for the previous decade.

"We will keep the excitement... we will strengthen our brand... you will see a more homongenous look for Mercedes in the future, but we will still maintain the old character... you see that with the new CLS -- we have been brave..."

But the new look Benzes have arrived without the level of controversy that greeted BMW's E65 7 Series on its release. Arguably Wagener has the answer to that too.

"Whatever we do, we want to do it tastefully..."

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