2010 Mercedes-Benz E550C

In the late 1980s and early '90s, when Mercedes-Benz was indisputably engineering-led rather than marketing-driven, the iconic W124 series E-Class sedan defined the company: solid, sober, quietly respectable, reassuringly expensive, discreetly oozing middle-class aspiration from every panel. The W124 E-Class coupe combined that middle-class aspiration with a frisson of extravagance, like a Franck Muller watch peeking from under the cuff of a Brooks Brothers shirt.
The W124 E-Class coupe was basically a short-wheelbase, two-door version of the W124 sedan. It shared powertrains, suspension, major interior parts, and most key platform hardpoints and dimensions with the four-door. The coupe disappeared from the E-Class lineup with the W210 E-Class in 1996. Instead, Mercedes-Benz launched the CLK, a swoopy two-door that aped some of the W210's design features, most notably the distinctive quad-oval headlight front graphic, but was built on the smaller, less expensive C-Class platform. Crucially, the CLK was priced under the E-Class sedan, instead of above it, as the W124 E-Class coupe had been.