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2014 Mercedes S-Class priced lower from $92,900*

The massively overhauled 2014 Mercedes-Benz S-Class will start at $92,900, not including a $925 destination fee, when it arrives at US dealers in October. That's a 2.8-percent drop over the 2013 S-Class, although Mercedes is fast to point out that a drop in price doesn't equate with a drop in equipment for the executive sedan.
Besides an extra 20 horsepower from the 4.6-liter, biturbocharged V8, the S550 sports a standard panoramic sunroof, keyless start, a rear-view camera and LED headlights, taillights and interior lights. Adding the German manufacturer's 4Matic all-wheel-drive system bumps the S550's price up to $95,900.
If the S550 doesn't quite cut the mustard, you can wait until November, at which point Mercedes will quite happily sell you the new S63 AMG 4Matic for $139,500. Power is also up on the S63, from a max of 563 ponies with an AMG Performance Package to 577 horsepower as standard on the 2014 model.

Mercedes-Petronas AMG W04 launched to little fanfare, lots of pressure [w/video]

No indoor cocktail hour for the launch of the W04, the newest chassis built by the Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One team. Instead, Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton spent a morning in photo and video sessions at the track in Jerez, Spain then paused a moment to introduce the car. The team will want the W04 to demonstrate the World Championship credentials of the team personnel and one of the team drivers, instead of the mostly humble performances we've seen over the past three years.
The W04 has been fitted with a new five-element front wing, pushrod front and pull-rod rear suspension, a second-generation Coanda exhaust and an "aggressively packaged" rear end. A small vanity panel, à la Infiniti Red Bull's RB9, covers the stepped nose.
Team principal Ross Brawn has called it "a clear step forward in design and detail sophistication," but as much as we truly respect Brawn's abilities and achievements, we heard him say similar things about the updated W03 last year before almost every race weekend from about mid-season. We really hope he's right this time, and so does the team's newest driver, Lewis Hamilton. We'll do our best to ignore the parallels of the Mercedes F1 team having signed a sponsorship deal with Blackberry, another company trying to find its way back to the top and still struggling, and just point you to the video below of the W04 in action.

Mercedes testing C-Class plug-in hybrid modes in Germany

Testing appears to be underway for what would be the first Mercedes-Benz C-Class with a hybrid powertrain. We can see a pair of the prototypes undergoing testing in Germany, with one, a C-Class Wagon, still heavily clad in camouflage and featuring a more noticeable outlet on the passenger side of its rear bumper.
There's also a more production-looking sedan, which features a not-so-discreet flap over its rear-bumper outlet. It's difficult to speculate on power outputs for this fuel-sipping C-Class, although our spies seem to think that this car will feature some combination of a four-cylinder gas engine with an electric motor, although just which four is unclear (note, we wouldn't mind if MB fit its 2.0-liter turbo with some batteries and motors). Regardless, the four-pot/electric motor seems like a pretty reasonable combo, although it probably means that Mercedes won't be challenging the six-cylinder-powered system of the BMW ActiveHybrid3 any time soon.
When the plug-in C-Class arrives later this year as a 2015 model, it will likely offer a full range of driving modes, including both gas or electric, only, as well as a more traditional hybrid mode.