Search BenzInsider
 

Tuesday, October 03, 2006

Mercedes GLK unofficially announced
A day after I was wondering whatever happened to the GLK, we get the news that Klaus Maier has confirmed the release of a new SUV, which will be positioned below the current M-class. According to Autoweek, the GLK will launch in 2008 in Europe and 2009 in North America. Klaus Maier, Mercedes executive vice president of sales and marketing, said "The new SUV is a very interesting car for the US market," while speaking to analysts in Stuttgart September 19. I am not quite sure why it took the media 2 weeks to get the story out. Autoweek has some more details on its competitors, mainly the X3, Acura's RDX and possibly the rumored Q5 from Audi.

Additional info:
The GLK will be built at Mercedes parent DaimlerChrysler's plant in Bremen, northern Germany.

The SUV likely will be based on the Mercedes C-class platform. Spy photos indicate that the new car will resemble a smaller version of the GL class, Mercedes' recently launched large premium SUV.

To win the GLK contract against competition from Brazil, workers in Bremen had to agree to cut total production costs by 100 million Euro. GLK production will secure jobs for 2,000 to 3,000 workers in Bremen.

German press reports said D/C had threatened to build the GLK in D/C's plant in Juiz de Fora, Brazil. The plant was originally selected to build an SUV called the ForMore for D/C's Smart small-car brand.

D/C canceled the ForMore project in April 2005 as part its restructuring program for the loss-making Smart business unit.

posted by Muamer Hodzic @ 10/03/2006 04:40:00 PM    
 
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home
 

 

 Previous Posts

 

 

  Feeds

 

 

 

 
 

 

Copyright  2006, BenzInsider.com. All rights reserved

This blog is not related in any way with Mercedes-Benz. Opinions expressed in the comments section are the opinions of the commenter and do not necessarily represent my views.