Mercedes Confirms 2012 Launch for CLS Shooting Brake

STUTTGART, Germany — Mercedes-Benz said the production version of its CLS Shooting Break, which debuted as a concept earlier this year at the 2010 Beijing Auto Show, will be assembled in 2012 at its Sindelfingen plant in Germany.

The CLS Shooting Brake (concept was called Shooting Break) will likely be positioned well above the 2011 E-Class wagon, which retails in the U.S. for around $57,000. There is a price differential of around $24,000 between the current CLS and E-Class sedans in the U.S., which suggests a potential sticker of $80,000-plus on the CLS wagon when it arrives here.

Regarding the wagon's odd (and changing) name, Mercedes-Benz notes: "Break, or the homonym Brake, was the name once given to carriages used to 'break' in wild horses and also to restrict (or 'brake') their urge to move, so that they could be put to use as work horses. Since the carts could easily be broken as part of this process, people tended not to use ones which they may have urgently needed for other purposes. Where necessary, 'Brakes' were often fitted out with variable bodies, which were only really used to carry along anything that may have been necessary for the hunt, for example. Any such vehicle which was used when going out shooting was called a Shooting Brake or Shooting Break."

Inside Line says: Why can't they just call it "wagon"? — Paul Lienert, Correspondent