Between our official sneak peek and the endless leaks, the 2013 Mercedes-Benz SL is officially out of the bag before its debut at next month’s Detroit Auto Show. And like its predecessors over the last five decades, the new SL continues to offer S-Class luxury and innovations in a svelte, drop-top package.

While the styling might not be a radical departure from the R230 chassis that’s been around since 2003, the new front fascia takes the SLS’ upright nose – an element that’s infecting the rest of the Mercedes line-up – and joins it with a more raked hood and bi-xenon headlamps with fiber optic accents and daytime running LEDs mounted low in the bumper. When we got a preview of the SL last month, we were smitten by the aggressive new front end, but the profile and rear view left us comfortably numb.

The interior, on the other hand, is a masterwork, with more SLS-inspired elements carrying over inside, including the crosshair vents, a beautiful combination of leather, wood and carbon fiber, and a center console that blends simplicity and elegance, topping it off with a squat transmission stalk. The “Mercedes-Benz” text engraved in aluminum on the bottom of the flat-bottom steering wheel is a particularly nice touch, but the silver gauges come across as more Dodge circa 2005 than 21st-century Benz.

Way back when we were calling the SLS the SLC, the men and women at AMG in Affalterbach were keeping a secret: there would be an SLC in addition to the SLS. The current car that we have had the opportunity to love in coupe and roadster forms is slated to end production in 2015. What will pick up where it leaves off is the SLC, a so-called “baby SLS” with a 4.0-liter V8 and an eight-speed, dual-clutch transmission.

Car magazine predicts the future coupe will have aluminum-intensive construction and be a better performer than the SLS it replaces. It could also be a median point, itself a 911 rival but perhaps serving as the basis for both an SLK variant and some other carbon fiber supercar beyond the SLS that could challenge aMcLaren. After the unloved offspring that was the Mercedes McLaren SLR, we’d be in the front row of any grudge match to see if a hotted-up SLC could settle that sore score.

Much in the vein of Audi’s Sportback models or BMW’s slow-to-expand Gran Turismo range, Mercedes-Benz thinks it’s time to get excited about various sizes of its “sports tourer” subgroup. Nearly all of the aforementioned are still trying to find proper footing in their bid to be first choice for the world’s practical-minded customers, but the B-Class has had more success than most. Since the launch of the first generation in 2005, around 700,000 of these little boxes have been sold – despite the U.S. being conspicuously left off the list while both Canada and Mexico got theirs. The car’s number one market by far has been the car’s fatherland, Germany. Number two? China, where sales of the car rose 46 percent in 2010.

Frankly, this strain of Mercedes-Benz product has yet to set our collective car-aficionado loins aflame. That shouldn’t be interpreted as a total failure, however. These people-toting premium German compacts drive alright and offer great interior space with flexible cabins to thrill our family-minded selves, but the unemotional R-Class and current thrill-free A-Class (as well as the “I don’t have sex anymore” first-gen B-Class) could use some evening workshops in how to rekindle the passion in a relationship. Why can’t people carriers also get on the scene like a sex-machine?

Mercedes-Benz is getting ready to wow the crowds that will storm the 64th Frankfurt Motor Show with a bunch of world premieres. Visitors will see, among others, the brand-new B-Class, the supercar-munching C63 AMG Black Series, and of course the third generation of Merc’s luxury SUV.

So less than two weeks before the IAA’s openingMercedes decided to released a fresh batch of pictures of the new M-Class. We’ve already covered the model extensively since its launch, but for those of you who may have missed of forgotten about it, we’ll just lay down the basics once more time.

In Europe, the new M-Class will initially be available with a new 2.1-liter four-cylinder turbodiesel delivering 204HP and 500 Nm (368.8 lb-ft) of torque while retruning an average consumption of just 6.0 lt/100 (39.2 mpg). Next up is a 3.5-liter petrol V6 with an output of 302HP, 34HP more than the outgoing ML 350.

Then there is the ML350 BlueTec diesel powered by a 3.0-liter V6 with 240HP and 616.2 Nm (455 lb-ft) of torque that returns a highway fuel consumption of 9.4 lt/100 km (25 mpg).

All models are equipped with a seven-speed auto gearbox as standard, while an On&Off-Road pack which changes the transmission and air-suspension settings to adapt to the conditions whatever the surface beneath the wheels may be, is optional.

The most powerful version of Mercedes-Benz’s small hardtop roadster, the 2012 SLK 55 AMG, will receive its world premiere at this year’s edition of the Frankfurt Motor Show in mid-September, but the first photos of the V8-powered model have already sprung up on the German car site Autobild.

Visually, the AMG treatmentadds a new aero kit with bespoke parts up front and at the back along with a smoked out lights and larger set of light alloy wheels finished in black. Inside, you’ll find a pair of sports seats and plenty of surfaces covered in stitched leather

And while this is the first time we get to see the new SLK 55 AMG in the flesh and without camouflage, Mercedes-Benz recently shared details on the roadster model’s mechanical hardware.

Power for the roadster comes from a new naturally-aspirated AMG 5.5-liter V8 engine that delivers 62 more horses and 30Nm more torque than the previous model’s eight-cylinder unit, at 422-horses and 540Nm in European-spec, and 415-horses at 6,800 rpm and 398 lb-ft at 4,500 rpm in North American-flavor.

The aluminum V8 engine also features the AMG Cylinder Management system that can shut off four-cylinders from 800 to 3,600 rpm to improve fuel efficiency.

A 7-speed AMG Speedshift automatic transmission featuring three modes (sport, manual and efficiency) transfers power to the rear wheels.