Mercedes-Benz will reportedly resurrect a classic name from the 1980s on a new S-Class derivative, determined to find every niche of the market.
According to Georg Kacher at CAR Magazine, Mercedes will add a “four-door coupe” version of the next-generation S-Class next decade. It would join the traditional sedan and coupe, as well as the new convertible, Maybach and Pullman sometime around 2022.
The SEC name has been tagged to the new S-Class variant, a group of letters used from 1981 until 1993 on the most prestigious coupe in the lineup, before it became the S Coupe, then the CL-Class, and then the S Coupe again. But it’s most associated with the W126-based pillarless two-door pictured above.
Kacher’s sources claim the long-wheelbase sedan would essentially adopt the coupe’s front and rear ends with a more dramatic profile in the vein of Mercedes’ CLA and CLS four-door coupes. It’s a change from an all-new body when the concept was initially proposed on the current S-Class chassis, according to CAR.
You can’t exactly blame Mercedes for finding ways to stretch the S-Class nameplate as high-end luxury buyers migrate to super-plush SUVs, but how many coupes with two too many doors does Mercedes need? And where does “SEC” fit into the company’s revised nomenclature? Shouldn’t it be CL… S?
Time will tell, on all fronts.
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