2005 Mercedes-benz Sl500 Base Convertible 2-door 5.0l on 2040-cars

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Zetsche's CEO tenure extended through 2016 at Daimler

There appear to be two takes on Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche having his contract extended for three more years, to 2016. A report in The Detroit News quotes the chairman of Daimler's supervisory board, Manfred Bischoff, talking up the stability at the top, "With today's extensions of the contracts of Dieter Zetsche and Thomas Weber, we are maintaining the important continuity at the top executive level." Bischoff also stated that that Zetsche has a plan to "further enhance Daimler's overall performance."
Over at Reuters, though, the three-year extension was seen as a lack of complete confidence in Zetsche's plans, since his contract was supposedly meant to be extended by five years. A spokesman said the board decided to extend executive contracts by only three years if the person was 60 or would turn 60 during the contract, but that was news to observers. Zetsche wants to make Mercedes-Benz the top selling luxury manufacturer globally by 2020, but has fallen to third place behind Audi and BMW. It hasn't held the top spot 2005, and investors judged it valued at half that of BMW at the end of 2012 once Daimler's truck business was subtracted.
Analysts cites the fact that Daimler stock hasn't bested its rivals but twice in twelve years, and that the company revised its profit target downward last year by nearly one billion euros, warning of stagnant earnings this year and will miss its original margin target for 2013.

2015 Mercedes C-Class order guide leaked

We may not have an official starting price for the 2015 Mercedes-Benz C-Class, but as of right now, we can tell you about all the options for the eagerly anticipated new luxury sedan.
Benz Report has the entire order guide for the C-Class, with breakdowns from package pricing to how many different colors, wheel designs and lighting configurations will be available when the new model hits dealers later this year. As we mentioned in our initial review of the C-Class, there will be a pair of engine options, with the now familiar 2.0-liter, turbocharged four-cylinder available in both rear- and all-wheel-drive configurations and a 3.0-liter, twin-turbocharged V6, which can be had in all-wheel drive, only.
From there, though, the available options are impressive. Much like it does on the current car, Mercedes is offering a pair of packages that sort of define the entire car. With the C300, buyers will have the choice of either a Sport or Luxury package in addition to the base trim, while C400 buyers are limited to the Sport model.

Next Mercedes S-Class stretching into this 600 Pullman limo

To the concern of nobody in particular, Mercedes-Benz will not be re-upping its Maybach line of ultra-luxury limousines. No, instead the German automaker will be stretching its already roomy S-Class, to make this upcoming 600 Pullman version of the decked-out beast.
The car in our new gallery of spy shots is sporting beefy B-pillars and a massive set of rear doors that should allow perfectly graceful ingress and egress from what is likely to be a palatial rear space. (In one photo we can even see a long-wheelbase S-Class in line with the new Pullman, handily exhibiting the size of the new variant.) The exterior modifications are otherwise obscured, though we can guess at revised front and rear fascia and lighting elements, based on both end being heavily taped for these test runs.
It's a good bet that the Pullman will make use of M-B's twin-turbocharged V12 engine, though sources indicate that a hybrid version might eventually be in the offing, as well.