Daimler AG's flagship Mercedes-Benz often gets the rap for being an 'old man's car.' More unusual is to hear it from the lips of Gorden Wagener, the luxury brand's youngest-ever design chief.
'The perception was, 'no question, you are the old guy in this game,'' the 45-year-old German said in an interview earlier this year, referring to the car maker's previous generations of poor-selling small cars. Across the entire brand, he said a sporty image was essential.
'In this society everyone wants to be young and successful, and so we have to be sporty,' he said. 'Definitely in our own way--but we have to find our own way.'
Few at the German luxury auto maker are defining that path as much as Mr. Wagener. A once-competitive wakeboarder whose home away from Mercedes's Stuttgart headquarters is in southern California, Mr. Wagener is charged with rejuvenating Mercedes's design to help boost its lagging global sales and woo younger affluent drivers to the brand. Five years since he took the post, his strategy is being tested now as the car maker has been launching, in rapid succession, makeovers of much of its model lineup--the first to be restyled under Mr. Wagener's watch.
rejuvenating：复壮，兴国，修护 affluent：富裕的，丰富的 makeover：化妆美容，改造，改革 restyle：改变款式，重塑
Appointing Mr. Wagener at the age of 39--then one of the youngest-ever design chiefs in the auto industry--was an acknowledgment in itself of Mercedes's brewing demographics problem. At 57, the median age of the brand's U.S. customers is five years older than BMW AG's and six years older than those driving Volkswagen AG's Audi-brand cars, according to San Diego-based research firm Strategic Vision Inc. Both rivals have outsold the world's once-top-selling luxury brand in recent years, in part by appealing to younger, first-time premium car buyers less enthused by Mercedes's more conservative image.
brewing：酿造，酝酿，计划 premium：额外费用，奖金 conservative：保守的，守旧者
Mr. Wagener's answer to the challenge has been some of the biggest shifts in Mercedes design in years, particularly in its smaller cars.
Last month, Mercedes launched in the U.S. a new smaller, sports sedan called the CLA, whose upright diamond grill and sharp lines are aimed at luring 20- and 30-something drivers. An equally sinewy compact sport-utility vehicle, the GLA, is scheduled to arrive next year and was unveiled at the Frankfurt auto show in September.
sedan：轿车，轿子
Mr. Wagoner also led a sweptback redesign of Mercedes's once-boxy A-Class hatchback, which was introduced last fall and is sold only outside the U.S. Both the new A-Class and the CLA, which went on sale in Europe earlier this year, have fueled a sharp turnaround in the brand's once limping small-car sales.
hatchback：掀背车
Together with another hatchback, the B-Class, Mercedes's small-car sales jumped 68% in the first nine months of the year to 267,467 vehicles, and the company recently expanded A-Class production to meet demand. The brand's expanding small-car lineup now makes up a quarter of Mercedes's total sales.
Mr. Wagener's team has replicated--although more subtly--some of it small cars' design cues in a revamped version of Mercedes's flagship S-Class sedan, which went on sale in the U.S. this week, giving it a more fluid, coupe-like look.
revamped:修订的，修补的
Fans of Mr. Wagener's recent work include Frank Stephenson, design director at supercar maker McLaren Automotive, whose design credits include BMW's reincarnated Mini Cooper, the Fiat 500 and the Ferrari F430. Mr. Wagener's challenge is to 'bring in additional, more youthful customers while respecting the values that Mercedes-Benz is admired for, ' Mr. Stephenson said.
Within Mercedes, executives say the leaps in Mercedes design speak to Mr. Wagener's elevated influence. 'He probably has a more powerful voice with the board than any other design chief before him,' a longtime colleague said.