Monday, December 17, 2007








Snapped on the set of American cable TV show “Sex and the City”, the 2009 Mercedes-Benz GLK is wearing no disguise thus revealing all of the design details. As a bonus, we also get a glimpse of the attractive Kim Cattrall, one of the four main characters in the romantic comedy. These photos were taken last Sunday on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills through the filming of the movie-version.

At first, the new GLK looks like a disguised GL but in reality, this production model is significantly smaller than the large SUV. Translated, the name GLK basically means "short version of GL" as K is a diminutive of the German "kurz," meaning short.

The GLK will use mechanical components from the all new Mercedes C-Class (which its based on), and it will keep very close in design to the GL.

The GLK will debut as a 2009 model at the Frankfurt motorshow in Germany 2008. The SUV sighted here is a GLK 350 and power is expected to come from a 3.5-litre V6 with Mercedes 4Matic all-wheel-drive standard. All versions are expected to have the 7G-Tronic TouchShift automatic transmission. Later on there could be a V8-powered GLK63 AMG version.

While the U.S is gradually moving away from large SUVs, Mercedes is losing market share to small SUVs like the BMW X3 and Land Rover Freelander/LR2. With this new GLK it is hoping to get back on top again.

Diesel engines will look a little like this; GLK 220, 280 & 320 CDI. BlueTec models will arrive later on. European pricing is expected to start in the regions of 35,000 EUR but we noticed how the SUV is kitted out with parking sensors, xenon headlamps, power tailgate and tinited windows.

There will be no RHD models due to Mercedes presuming sales won’t be sufficient so the primary markets will be Mainland Europe and the U.S.