1992 Mercedes-benz 190e 2.6 Sedan 4-door 2.6l, No Reserve on 2040-cars

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Man makes record-setting drive across the US in 28 hours, 50 minutes

Records, as the say, are made to be broken. Whether that's cramming the most hot dogs down your gullet, running a faster mile, or yes, driving across the United States, odds are that there's someone out there wants to eat more, run faster or drive harder. Speaking of that last example, the record for driving from a set location on the east coast, in particular the Red Ball Garage in Manhattan to the Portofino Hotel in Redondo Beach, CA, has been one that has fascinated gearheads since a guy named Cannonball Baker made the trek from New York to LA in 53 hours, 30 minutes, in 1933.
The competition saw its glory days when Car and Driver's Brock Yates came up with the Cannonball Baker Sea-To-Shining Sea Memorial Trophy Dash (more affectionately known as the Cannonball Run), although the record was most recently set by Alex Roy and his 32-hour, seven-minute trek behind the wheel of a BMW M5 in 2006. Now, there's a new champion, who made the trip from east to west in a scarcely imaginable 28 hours and 50 minutes, behind the wheel of a 2004 Mercedes-Benz CL55 AMG. That's works out to an average speed of 98 miles per hour over the course of 2,813.7 miles.
His name is Ed Bolian, and Jalopnik has a writeup of the epic voyage that details everything from the history of the Cannonball Run to Bolian's preparation and trouble finding co-drivers, to the trip itself. It is well worth a read.

Mercedes-Benz S-Class spied once again

As evidenced by how little camouflage the next-generation Mercedes-Benz S-Class has been caught wearing lately, it can't be too much longer until the car will get its official debut. In our newest shots of the yacht-sized luxo sedan, the cladding still covers up the headlights, front fascia and most of the rear end, but we finally have an almost undisguised look at the rest of the car's lines.
Considering previous spy shots had more camo that better (or fully) concealed the S-Class' body, some of the more obvious things we see in these images include the prominent grille, the CLS-Class-inspired bodyside creases, the pointed trunk opening and, most interestingly, a lack of fancy exhaust outlets. Unlike other S-Class prototypes we've seen, this car does not have integrated outlets, but it does have two pipes on the left side of the car. All current S-Class models in the US and Europe feature a dual exhaust layout on each side of the car, so while some of our questions about the car get answered, it would appear that more are just arising.

Mercedes says it's tops in luxury sales for 2012, not BMW

It turns out that Mercedes-Benz North America has legitimate claim to being the top selling luxury nameplate in the US in 2012.
While sources such as Autodata had put BMW in the top spot, registration data from R.L. Polk shows that Mercedes customers registering new vehicles topped the Bavarian automaker in the most recent calendar year. Polk says Benz posted 274,123 registrations, compared with BMW's 268,498.
In terms of sales posted, BMW had bested Benz 281,460 to 274,134. But sales are recorded somewhat inconsistently from automaker to automaker. Some book the sales as soon as they are shipped from factory to dealer. There is perennial gamesmanship between the two German rivals, and the sales numbers suggest that BMW pushed out some extra sheetmetal to dealers in the last four weeks of the year.