Mercedes-Benz is planning its statement in response to the BMW X3. Running under the working title MLK-Class, the new smaller-than-M-Class (ML500, et al.) sport/utility will be created on Mercedes’s next-generation C-Class beginning in the 2007 calendar year. Like the MLK, the next-generation midsize M-Class will be on a unibody platform.
The compact MLK will only be built in Europe, where Mercedes expects to find more consumers because of the new SUV’s tidy size. Small, elegant SUVs look like the Next Big Thing in the Old World. Because of its C-Class roots, we can expect the MLK to come with the new four-valve 3.0-liter and 3.5-liter V-6s in the U.S. as well as a supercharged four and turbodiesel for the home market.
Following Mercedes-Benz’s announcement that the company plans to market 50-state emissions compliant BlueTec diesel versions of its ML-, R-, and GL-class sport-utes here in the US by the 2009 model year comes this look at the BlueTec GL which will show up at the Detroit Auto Show.
Does the vehicle of the future still have a steering wheel and foot-operated controls? The Mercedes-Benz F 200 Imagination, which was presented at the 1996 Paris Motor Show, serves to test a new ergonomics concept and is the product of the efforts of engineers and designers. Little joysticks in the doors and the center console for steering and braking replace the steering wheel. This is impossible without electronic assistance, and so the technology is called drive-by-wire.