The Ninja-mobile

I met a friend for lunch recently, a woman well past the first flush of youth. The last time I saw her, she was still driving a "mommy-wagon" even though her kids had long-ago flown the nest. So when an all-black Mercedes E550 with dark tinted windows roared up to the restaurant patio and my friend slithered out of the driver's seat, I was astonished enough to mis-swallow my wine and cough for a full five minutes.
Over lunch she told me that this was her first Mercedes. Her husband, who tools around town in his beloved Aston Martin DB9, had suggested checking out Mercedes when she announced that she needed new wheels. "I loved the design of the car" she said, "but I just wasn't sure I'd feel comfortable driving something that snazzy. We started to leave the showroom and I saw someone else trying on the car and realized that I really wanted it so I ran back in and bought it on the spot."
Who can blame her? Mercedes hit the mark straight on with their new E series, particularly the $55,525 sporty-looking E550 coupe with it's 382 HP V8 that sprints from 0-60 MPH in a mere five seconds and a seven-speed adaptive automatic transmission which provides a ride as smooth as cream. A frequent complaint, that coupes feel cramped and visually inadequate, is blown away by the lavish use of glass in pillar-less windows and a fish bowl-sized panoramic sun roof. The rear seats lack a lot of leg room but they are honest-to-goodness real seats and comfortable enough to tote some friends along for a shopping expedition or even those grown-up kids when they come home to visit.
In addition to the racy design, a new high-tech safety feature called Attention Assist has been added to Mercedes usual array of engineering marvels. After twenty minutes of driving, more than seventy parameters will be continually monitored and evaluated in order to recognize a loss of driver attention, at which point a bell chimes and a coffee cup symbol with the message "Time for a rest?" appears on the dashboard.
"Now that you have the E550, what do you think? I asked. "I saw the model when it debuted and I must admit I was very taken with it myself."
"I feel ten years younger and very sexy." my friend replied with a grin, "Why should guys have all the fun?" and dressed head-to-toe in black to match her car, she zoomed off looking like a ninja on a mission. As for me, I'm waiting for the 2011 new E550 convertible... in flaming red, I think.