A high level of environmental friendliness is an innate characteristic of the successful smart fortwo cult car. The diesel model - the smart fortwo cdi - always underlined this claim with carbon dioxide emissions of just 88 grams per kilometer, the lowest figure worldwide for cars with a combustion engine. Now the smart fortwo is setting a new record with emissions of just 86 g/km or consumption of 3.3 liters of diesel per 100 kilometers in the manual “softip” mode which means that it keeps its title of CO2 champion.

In the U.S., Mercedes-Benz was the fastest-growing premium brand in January and significantly increased its market share. With a market share of 2.1 percent, Mercedes-Benz is the market leader among German premium brands. Its passenger car sales increased by 40 percent to 14,700 units (2009: 10,500 units). Meanwhile, Mercedes-Benz also posted a sales record in Canada in January, delivering 1,600 passenger vehicles to customers (January 2009: 1,200) for an increase of 34 percent.

In the sedan category, the popularity of the C-Class – the gateway to the Mercedes-Benz brand for younger and first-time Mercedes-Benz buyers – maintained its lead as the volume leader with sales of 4,028, up 32.8% over January 2009. The all-new, 9th generation E-Class continued to shine with sales of 3,824, up an astounding 116.3% over January 2009.

The price of all the custom tuning is certainly not cheap, especially when equipped with so many LCD screens and carbon fiber trim. So if you want haul your kids around and need to get to that soccer game really fast, then this can be your for the price of just $518,000.

Other active safety features on the E-Class include Adaptive Highbeam Assist, Lane Keeping Assist, Blind Spot Assist, Speed Limit Assist, the PRE-SAFE® Brake which initiates partial or emergency braking automatically if there is an acute risk of a head-to-tail collision, and DISTRONIC PLUS proximity control.