Mercedes Centennial Celebration Surprisingly Low Key

When a manufacturer or nameplate celebrates a large birthday, it’s usually big news. When GM celebrated their 100th, Ford spelled out “Happy 100 GM” with their office’s lights at nights, while Ford themselves recently made big news of their 125th anniversary.

So you’d think that something as monumental as a 100th anniversary of one of the world’s most respected brands would be something worth celebrating in a grand fashion.... unless that brand is one of the stalwart flag bearers of German stoicism, in which case you simply release a dark grey (but it’s a special dark grey!) version of your luxury coupe, like Mercedes Benz has. Taking their already nice CL550 and adding a few special Designo and AMG touches like perforated light tan seating surfaces and gilded brass controls. Outside, a special aero package and 20” five-spoke wheels and silver painted brake callipers are supposed to make it look like a special edition worthy of the expected $25,000 price jump. Did they succeed? We’ll leave that up to you.