Mercedes Benz

Mercedes-Benz Ag stock company was formed here today to become the largest corporate unit of the Daimler-Benz group and the second-largest West German car maker in sales volume. A Daimler spokesman said the Mercedes-Benz capitalization was set at 1.8 billion marks ($900 million). Final approval of the formation is set for June 28, at Daimler-Benz's annual shareholder meeting in West Berlin. The company, which will be second to Volkswagen in sales, will be responsible for Daimler's car and truck manufacturing operations at home and abroad.

DaimlerChrysler said the Justice Department is conducting a criminal investigation into allegations that the company's Mercedes-Benz subsidiaries participated in a price-fixing scheme among New York-area dealers. The world's fifth-largest car maker said in a filing Friday with the Securities and Exchange Commission that the case is connected to a 1999 proposed class-action lawsuit against two Mercedes-Benz units, Mercedes-Benz USA and Mercedes-Benz Manhattan Inc.

Daimler-Benz, maker of the prestigious Mercedes cars, plans to trim 20,000 jobs over the next two years, a newspaper Tuesday quoted Mercedes' chief as saying. The staff cuts would be the first in Mercedes' history. Mercedes, based in Stuttgart, employs about 180,000 people in Germany. Werner Niefer, president of the Mercedes-Benz subsidiary of the Daimler-Benz conglomerate, was quoted as telling Die Welt that the reductions would be made through attrition and early retirements.

Mike Jackson, senior vice president of marketing and sales for Mercedes-Benz of North America, was saying that while sales are down, marketing hopes are up. The glimmer in the recession, he told a breakfast muster of Los Angeles automotive writers, came with recent reports that the rich seem to be getting richer. More disposable income, theorized Jackson, should mean more buyers for Mercedes' new S-Class luxury sedans.

A decade after Cadillac first moved to ditch its image as stodgy purveyor of land yachts, General Motors Co.'s luxury brand is now poised to take on the world. It has long overshadowed Lincoln, its domestic luxury rival. Now Cadillac wants to crack into the premium market dominated by German heavyweights BMW and Mercedes-Benz. Key to that strategy is Cadillac's introduction Tuesday of a sleeker, more powerful CTS sedan at the New York International Auto Show, a move to better match up its lineup with the Germans.

Mercedes-Benz will be one of several automakers using the upcoming Los Angeles Auto Show to look into not only the near future, but also the more distant horizon. Such is the philosophy behind the automakerÂ"s 2025 Ener-G-Force concept SUV. Named like a Monster energy drink, it was conceived as a reinterpretation of the old-school G-Class SUV that Mercedes has been selling since 1979. Design elements like turning signals and running lights mounted on top of the fenders and a distinct three-piece greenhouse pay homage to the current SUV that Mercedes deems iconic.

Investing has been a massive exercise in frustration for millions of Americans over the last decade or so. Two market crashes in 12 years drove many people away from equities. Now key U.S. stock market indexes are at or near record highs again, after a strong 2012 rally that has spilled into 2013. The average domestic stock mutual fund rose 15% last year, the third annual gain in four years. Meanwhile, the hunger for perceived safety has driven interest rates on bonds and other fixed-income securities to record lows.

The car: 2012 Mercedes-Benz ML63 AMG The power: 518 horsepower and 516 pound-feet of torque coming from a 5.5-liter, twin-turbocharged V-8 routing power to all four wheels via a seven-speed automatic transmission with paddle shifters. The photos: 2012 Mercedes-Benz ML63 AMG The speed: 0-60 in 4.7 seconds and a 155 mph top speed The bragging rights: Not the fastest SUV available (Porsche's Cayenne Turbo wins that distinction)

Your life is about to change, and your sports car is terrified. A Peg Perego Duette child stroller. The pair of Old English mastiffs you're dog-sitting indefinitely. A glee club. A metamorphosis of priorities has dropped one or more of these into your world, and suddenly your slick little two-seater won't work for you anymore. So let me offer a suggestion: Check out BMW's redesigned 2011 X3 xDrive35i. It's not necessarily the best all-around vehicle in the luxury compact SUV segment, which includes the Audi Q5, Mercedes-Benz GLK and Acura RDX. But without question, this second-generation X3 is the fastest, sportiest and most fun to drive of its peers.

It's rare to see a hint of Maserati or a dash of Aston Martin in a family sedan. The reason is simple: Automakers need to sell mid-size sedans by the truckload. To please that many people at once, the design needs to avoid offending buyers even more than it needs to entice them. So it's refreshing to see Ford's 2013 Fusion, a good and good-looking car in a segment where form follows way behind function. The 2013 Fusion is the second generation of the family sedan from Ford, but it doesn't share a freckle with its predecessor.