Mercedes in exciting estate shocker

WHO said estates can't be exciting? Not Mercedes, if this latest effort at a load lugger is anything to go by.

The German firm might be harking back to the 1960s by calling its new concept car the Shooting Break but it isn't hard to see it for what it is; it's the CLS coupe reimagined for those who spend their weekends at IKEA instead of the golf club.

The original CLS, a coupe with the novel addition of rear doors, was a huge success for Mercedes from the moment it hit the showrooms in 2004, but since then it's spawned a succession of imitators. Bringing in buyers still forced to go with the strait-laced E Class Estate to carry bigger loads, the company reckons, is the answer to the Jaguar XJ and Audi's A7 arriving on CLS territory.

“The proportions are clearly those of a coup: the long bonnet, narrow-look windows with frameless side windows, and dynamic roof sloping back towards the rear create a basic stance with which it looks ready for the off. It is only when taking a second look that it becomes clear that the Shooting Break concept car actually has four doors and an estate rear,” a Mercedes spokesperson told The Champion.

“As such, this study in design reveals its philosophical links with the four-door CLS Coupe, a car which has established a new market segment since 2004 and today is already seen as a design icon which is likely to occupy a very special place in the history of the motor car.”

It's unlikely the Shooting Break will beat the load-carrying capacity of the more conventional E-Class Estate, but then the E-Class doesn't have a nose quietly borrowed from the forthcoming SLS supercar or its snazzy headlights, which ditch bulbs altogether in favour of an armarda of 71 LEDs.

It isn't clear yet whether one of the first coupe estates since the Reliant Scimitar really will hit Britain's roads, but watch this space. Alternatively, buy a secondhand Alfa Romeo 156 Sportwagon for the same sort of thing.