Sorry about the blurry picture, but I couldn't find any bigger pics to crop and enlarge.

First and foremost, looks like a HUGE upset if they eradicate the Ponton fender creases, which this render suggests. Even when the W212 first came out, and as a W211 owner I was against the car, I admitted that the fender bulges were a nice and necessary touch. Now, I fully feel that they're well fit and appropriate with this design, and give the car some unique flavor. Without it, IMO it appears like it's missing something in that pic. At the same time, it could be cool as the pre-facelifts and the facelifts will stand apart from each other, and it'll give the pre-facelifts some novelty and a distinction from the newer models.

Aside from that, IMO they nailed the Grille's shape and proportions so well with the car, I was wondering how they'd be able to evolve it. For one, the grille is already large enough, so any larger can look goofy, and the angle of it coincides perfectly with the motion of the headlights. Looks like they are rounding the grille out a bit, and protruding it outwards, and it looks like they're harkening to an even more classic or "retro-modern" approach on that front. I think the W212 Sport has perhaps the best front end in the business, so they have their work cut out for them in evolving that. What I can gauge from the pics, it could look cool or it could look force-fed and more-so ill fit. I'm a sucker for the classic M-B stately face so I'm sure I'll be able to appreciate it regardless!

Remember, this is just a rendering from the Magazine:

 

That magazine has a habit of coming up with oddball renderings. Such a change would be much more than a mid cycle facelift as facelifts generally involve tweaks to lighting, grills and are pretty subtle - see the 2012 C facelift.

One of the hallmarks of a facelift is that a casual observer or new customer won't be able to easily differentiate the cars. Major bodywork is reserved for a new model.

Has anyone seen a mid cycle refresh from any manufacturer that made very obvious changes to a car's appearance? The C was pretty radical for a mid cycle change with both exterior and interior tweaks.

 

Agreed. Actually, I've never seen such an extensive facelift to a cars interior as to the W204 C-Class. The pre-facelifts interior was such a devastatingly poor offering, that even M-B admitted it, by uncharacteristically changing the interior interior practically.

Aesthetically, most people wouldn't be able to see a difference. I personally usually have owned pre-facelift cars I've noticed. For one, once the facelift comes out, they're a better value, and for two, if I can, I like to buy and "mature" with a body style from earlier on.

As for the rendering, I agree, I mean, drastically changing the bodywork seems highly unlikely, which a whole new fender would be.

 

Such a significant facelift would also be inconsistent w/ these photos:
http://www.autocarsworld.com/6070-20...s-benz-e-class

The article doesn't have a date but otherwise postings w/ the same photos are dated from around early 11/2011. I was hoping we'd get a sneak peak at same of the possible exterior changes when the hybrids are unveiled next month, but we'll see.... And it looks like the diesel hybrid won't make it to the US (of course)....

 

R230 doesn't come to mind for anyone?

 

The SL's are a different story, due to them having to be on the market for over 10 years. They'll usually have at least one minor facelift, and with the R230, also a heavy facelift.

Usually facelifts are very minor. The W204 is an interesting case, as it actually has had some of the most extensive work done to it of any normal production car, with a whole new, redesigned interior (extremely rare if ever occurring), and a whole new hood, which looks EXACTLY the same but has minor formations at the edges to fit around the new headlights. Also, of course, the redesigned headlights (also rare, in that they're not just graphically new, but whole new shapes), along with the usual more normal stuff. I say it's an "interesting" case because it actually appears to the naked eye, extremely similar to the pre-facelift, and I actually might like the original look more. Also, M-B did do a big redesign to the front fenders and hood to fit around the fenders on the facelifted CL, but, again, the CL looks very subtly changed from the original one, to the naked eye.

The W212 getting the Ponton creases removed would be so extensive, I actually didn't even take the rear doors into account, which have a portion of the Ponton creases drawn on them. So M-B would have to get whole new rear fenders (much more complex than front fenders, hoods, bumpers, etc. as they aren't a pop off and on part) designed into the actual body, and whole new rear doors, all to lose the car of some of its most complex and character-full, if also its most polarizing, design element.

Also, Alsyli made a good point. I forgot about those real life spy photo's. Though, we don't know if those are testing the facelift, or just different/new features/elements coming to the car.

 

i think most of them will eventually look like cl or cls. i like the look of the new cls. both its headlamps and taillights are cool.

 

The E facelift will have LED headlights, or heavily LED graphic'd headlights as an Option I'm sure. I wonder how easy the retrofit onto pre facelift models will be, or if they'll look good (M-B's newest headlights are sometimes looking overly gimmicky and overdesigned/distracting).

 

The current SL got a new front end, but I don't think the proportions had changed much. I think someone (perhaps on this board?) stated that the styling changes didn't necessarily result in a huge change in the metal stamping that would be required, so it was a pretty cost-effective upgrade. The R-class actually also received a heavy front-end facelift (that *did* seem to change the proportions of the front end quite a bit), so.... The thing is that both tweaks brought the models in line w/ MB's evolving design language (which I'm not particularly fond of, but that's a different story....).

What's strange about the rendering above is that the grille is lifted from concept cars (most notable the truly ugly grille of the F700) and also involves a substantial change to the side sheetmetal, which isn't very typical for MB (at least not over the past 20-30 yrs or so).


SLs are a little harder to generalize about since there's only been 5 (not including the one about to be release) over the past 60 (!) yrs. The model that last throughout most of the 70's and 80's didn't really really receive any cosmetic changes of note.... And the changes to the last-gen model seemed mainly limited to lower-body cladding.

 

I can't really make out very much from that picture........