Shooting Brake. What a cool name to begin an article with, let alone a name for a car.

Let's get acquainted: The Mercedes-Benz CLS-Class Shooting Brake is essentially the estate version of the CLS-Class - a coupe that combines the sports car elegance with four-door versatility market.

You could say the time I spent with the Shooting Brake (and the recently launched facelifted E-Class Estate) was something of a corny, syrupy-sweet juvenilia, which is what I like so much about how and who I was when I was driving it. And just to be clear, I don't mean that kind of Despicable Me minion toys syrupy-sweet, or corny for that matter. Nevertheless, that's a story for another time.

By and large, the automotive industry in Singapore has been dominated by uplifting tales of good old sedans triumphing over estates. I, being the person I am, disagree on an intense level for a number of reasons and one of them being how most sedans are merely names and styles and the communication between man and machine are based on that and that only.

I've always been preoccupied with babes, baths and bottles (of scotch), but have me placed in the Shooting Brake and everything starts to make sense. It's a space for the passionate, a melting pot of sophistication and progressive entity of desirability.

In layman's terms, Merc wasn't creating mainstream, it was creating a new appearance and a message for people who were looking for something else. This car isn't made for just the casual supermarket sweep. You can drive this down to the gala dinner at a posh nosh hotel and still get numerous envious eyeballs enough to make you feel like a sex symbol.

It's still an estate, no doubt. But it's one that has a lot of suave, more so than others in its segment. I can probably go on for another 17 more pages but I don't see the point. Perhaps that's why we decided to take the whole office out for a shoot with both estates just to prove our emotional logic behind the cars. Whether or not we look good in the picture is, of course, down to personal perception.

But if you want, we can always get acquainted.We love all things bright and beautiful. Pretty things, lovely skies, and good looking people - we like them all.

For car nuts like us, aesthetics probably fill up more than three quarts of our judgement. And naturally, we'd do the same for babes too.

We are not about to describe every feature that turns us on, but think bulbous wheel arches, larger-than-life rims, a nice rump to end it off, and you can't be too far off - in either case. Guys are visual animals, need we say more?

Let's start with the Shooting Brake. It is striking, and possibly one of the nicest looking things to roll out from Stuttgart. But it is also one of the most authoritative, coldest and most boastful representatives of the automotive world. It fits like a glove when you're donning a crisp cut suit (as shown in the previous page). But none of us like to be dressed with a necktie all-day long.

The estate, in comparison, is much more of a humble pie.

First, the driver of this estate probably isn't overly concerned about his looks. He is not the vain pot who cares excessively about his hairdo, his complexion or trying vigorously to flaunt his abs muscle. Because in the real talent show, all those are superficial. In relation to the estate, it doesn't get too carried away by trying hard to be something it isn't meant to be.

We shan't go into details, but the estate will fit the finer things in life - anything you need for a weekend drive-away, picnic, and even space for two kids, while ferrying five up ahead. This is what a wagon is meant to do and the E250 estate does it better by having two extra seats at the boot. 

And for all the talks about getting acquainted with the Shooting Brake (and the editor himself), the estate does more than that. It strikes you on a more personal note, not just a mere acquaintance at the high rollers' party. Think of it as someone who befriends you and wouldn't put all the shine on itself and sacrifice your needs for its ego.  

Some things look best when their form meets function. And on that point alone, the estate is as handsome as it gets.