Mercedes C-Class 2008

This new Mercedes C-Class has some tricky tech on board, such as its adaptive brakes with "hill assist," helping you out when you're on a steep hill by maintaining brake pressure after you take your foot off the brake pedal, keeping you from rolling backward.

It also has Agility Control in its steering, suspension and gearshift, giving you faster shifting and more-stable handling that's modulated according to the car's speed. But can you plug your iPod into it? Yes, with an iPod integration kit, and it also has a lot of infotainment on board, including a 4GB music server, Bluetooth, GPS navigation, and a 7-inch display, all controlled by voice commands.

The C-Class cars will roll out in late summer of this year. Now if Mercedes can just stop cranking out such lemons, this lowest-end but biggest-selling Mercedes might just help save the company's reputation. – Charlie White

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Carlsson C25 World Premier in Geneva

Carlsson will bring a limited series, 753-horsepower car to the Geneva Motor Show.  Only 25 units of the Carlsson C25 hypercar will be produced once it debuts in March.
Based on the Mercedes SL 600 the car runs on a 6.0-liter bi-turbo V12 engine that gets the car from 0 to 100 km/h with up to 1150 Nm of torque.  However, once you go faster than 100 km/h, the car will make use of 1320 Nm.  Top speed is 352 km/h (218.7 mph).

Carlsson CEO Markus Schuster wanted his company to build a car that was safe enough for the road as well as the track.  “Therefore, we deliberately wanted to develop a car which is highly exclusive on the one hand and can be used for the daily journey to office on the other hand,” Schuster said.  “All security-relevant regulations such as pedestrian protection, crash behaviour, ESP, ABS, Airbag systems are identical to large series editions with most modern standards.”
Engineers installed a C-Tronic adaptive and variable suspension to make the car more responsive on curves, but comfortable on straight lines.  All four lightweight 20-inch wheels combine to weigh less than 45 kilograms, and come wrapped in high performance tires.  405 mm slotted brake discs are used up front, along with 380 mm discs in back.

Inside, the company used a combination of tanned buffalo leather, carbon fiber, and suede in a variety of colors.  Race seats, five-point belts, roll bars, and roll cage were all left off the car to keep the luxe vehicle comfortable. Pricing on the limited edition Carlsson C25 will be announced closer to its Geneva debut

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