Mercedes hopes to take on Rolls-Royce Drophead with Ocean Drive

This is beutiful. MB and BMW-RR are the absolute best cars in the wrold. The Phantom is beutiful and this is beutiful too. Bentley-VW cant match this class and prestige.

I'd take the Bentley-VW over the hum-drum Mercedes and ugly Rolls Royce.

I'd take the Lamborghini-Audi over any Mercedes or BMW

I'd take the Audi R8 over any Mercedes or BMW.

I'd take a murcielago over the mercedes slr

I like them both but there twice as much as my Bentley, the insurance would be a killer.

I'm not into convertibles any more (got caught in the rain too many times in my youth) and I don't buy cars in that pice range; however, if I were forced to pick one, I'd rather have the Ocean Drive to cruise South Ocean Boulevard with. My favorite auotmotive work of art is the new Bentley Brooklands Coupe.

Amen...

First of all, a Rolls is a Rolls is a Rolls. Regardless of who the parent company is, Rolls buyers rarely want anything else.

Second, how are they going to strengthen the chassis on this car enough to handle the full spectrum of AMG engines they are claiming to be planning for this car. The car is either going to be wickedly expensive (more than the Rolls) or borderline dangerous.

Thirdly, the article states that the Audi A7 convertible will be powered by a 340hp V8 as a base engine. Excuse me but Audi gets way more than that out of the 4.2 now. By 2011 engine output will be far beyond 350 on even the most basic 4.2. I also seriously doubt that the W12 will find it's way into anything other than an A8. When the new A8 debuts, the W12 will probably be updated with FSI technology possibly combined with turbocharging to bring the car closer to the power of the 65AMG.

Lastly, I believe the range topper in the A7 would most likely be powered by a Quattro gmbh derived twin turbo V10 from the upcoming RS6.

Your comments on RR are spot on.

However I don't feel comfortable comparing a VW engine to a Merc. It may have similar or even better sounding hp numbers, still it's not from Stuttgart where money is never a question when developing engines.

Money is never a question with AUDI-DEVELOPED engines, either. Audi develops all of the best engines in the VW Group (4.2L V8, 5.0/5.2L V10, 2.0TFSI, etc), not VW. And at this point, I'd feel less secure in a Mercedes's reliability than an Audi's, but I'm not getting into that.

Forgot to mention- Audi brings in all the big money for VW. They are fast approaching BMW-levels of profit. The injection of Porsche know-how never hurts.

In a sense, this engine already exists in the Bentley 610GT. It will probably become a hand me down by then.

the ocean is beautiful. grill needs to be bigger & bolder perhaps overhanging the lower vent. the basic shape of the lower front end is right though just needs the grille over it.

Are you joking? It's huge already. They can't put a grille of that shape at the same size of Audi grilles, because it would be terribly disproportionate.

Can someone please tell me if Mercedes moves this far upmarket then what is the purpose of Maybach?

Good luck taking on RR. Heres a few tips
For individuality make sure you offer the following;
-24 different colors with 3000 color variations
-15 Colors of leather, with the options for any color your client wants
-8 types of wood a cut from the same tree to match perfectly inside the cabin.
-Make sure and offer a stainless steel option for the bonnet.
-For exclusivity Build less than 100 a year.

Mercedes does not offer any current models with all wood interior trim that i know of, and the leather and materials used on benz are not anywhere as fine and elite as rolls royce. I believe the truest competitor to the Drop Head and Only competitor will be the Bently Azure. And no mercedes even gets near the level of exclusiveness as Bentley so Goodluck to any Merc Engineers on here trying to Make the Oceandrive a Luxury competitor.

These will be rolling around Dubai in the masses...

Oh, so now it's going to cost $400,000? Stupid move by Mercedes... I wouldn't have been surprised if it was $100K-150K, but this is ridiculous. There's no way they can compete with the Drophead for buyers (let alone two Bentley Continental GTCs), no matter how fast it is. They don't have the obsessive attention to detail of the ultra-luxury brands, nor do they have the badge power to lure people away from Rolls-Royce. It's an S600 convertible, and should be priced as such.

The cost is directly related to the structural engineering needed to make a convertible of this size with 4 doors. Since cars are no longer built using ladder frame chassis anymore, it is nearly impossible. Look around the market, there aren't any. In fact, the last one ever built was in the 1960's. Think about side impact safety without the use of a B pillar. Think about structural integrity without any roof structure. The larger the car, the more flexing the body structure has. The only way you can stiffen it enough to make it all work is to consturct the body out of some pretty expensive alloys that are both rigid and extremely light weight. Aluminium, Titanium, Boron Steel and others are not only expensive but extremely difficult to work with. Entirely new construction methods would need to be incorporated. With low volume production levels, most of them would need to be done by hand further adding to the expense. It is not simply an S600 with the roof cut off. It would be a closer description if you compared it to buiding an aircraft.