It’s not really clear why, but for some reason Mercedes-Benz of Japan decided that what they really needed was a Star Wars-themed edition of their CLA small sedan. Then, to really seal the deal, what they came up with looks a lot like a regular CLA with about $100 of crap from ThinkGeek thrown in. Bang up job, fellas.
There’s two variations of the Star Wars edition, and they’re both from the dark side:
So, let’s see, your car can be based on either be the mysterious, powerful leader of the Dark Side and second-in-command of the whole empire, or an nameless grunt who’s primary role is to be disposable blaster-fodder in massive battles. Tricky choice.
It seems that both colors are special, limited runs (60 each) of what just looks like black and white, called Calcite White and Night Black, which, of course, look nothing like the regular black and white you can order a CLA in.
Well, sure, they seem to offer a Night Black, but I’m sure this one is different. Probably because of midichlorians.
In addition to the two eye-popping colors, the Star Wars edition cars also get some unique seat stripes on the white one, ribbed seats on the black, and this set of special features:
So, you get custom puddle lights (that I kind of like), a dashcam that plays R2-D2 sounds, a goofy windowshade that makes it look like the crew of the Millenium Falcon is inside and about to receive some very bad news about Alderaan, some Star Wars-design floor mats that look like you got them from Target, and a special present, a Star Wars 40th anniversary license plate thing.
Am I being too hard? I mean, who doesn’t love Star Wars, right? I guess this all just feels like a half-ass cynical money grab. If they really wanted to do something, there’s a lot of fun things they could have done: stripe kits that (in a toned-down way) reflected the markings of, say, an X-Wing, a nice R2 dome on the roof, custom UI for the center stack system and LCD dash, and on and on. It’s a Star Wars edition—it doesn’t need to be so subtle.
Maybe I just expected more out of a company with such a long, rich history of working with Empires allied to the Dark Side.
I kid, I kid! You know I love you, Mercedes.