G is for gross

Newswheel staff :: 28 September 2005 :: Filed under SUV, Mercedes Benz, Mercedes Benz GL-Class, Europe & UK, US

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Big, bad G-Wagen successor arrives in January

The Mercedes-Benz ML-Class SUV is too petite for some North American customers. That’s a fact many Europeans simply can’t compute. But that’s OK, because the gargantuan new GL-Class from Mercedes, due out next year, isn’t designed for cheese eating surrender monkeys. It’s for rootin’ tootin’ Americans.
 
Due to appear at the Detroit motorshow in January, the new GL-Class shares its basic floorplan and underpinnings with the second generation ML-Class SUV and the recently-launched R-Class crossover vehicle. Like those models, it’s a thoroughly modern vehicle with a monocoque chassis, in contrast to the body-on-frame approach of the classic Merceges G-Wagen. But that doesn’t mean it’s not a big brute. Designed to fill a gap at the top end of Mercedes SUV model range, the GL will take on heavyweights such as the Lincoln Navigator and Cadillac Escalade in the US market. Consequently, it will be even bigger, heavier and more expensive than either the ML or R-Class. Engines will likely include MB’s new range of four-valve V8 petrol engines for the US, with six and eight cylinder lumps added for European and world markets.

The real American deal
What’s more, the car isn’t just designed to take on US brands on home soil, it’s also built in America at Mercedes Benz’ Vance, Alabama plant (again, along with its ML and R-Class stablemates).

However, there’s a slight problem with this masterplan. Timing. Two or three years ago, the GL-Class would have been a license to print money Stateside. Today, escalating oil prices have dumped cold water on roaring SUV sales in America. Just how badly that will effect the GL-Class is tough to predict. But even now, Americans are paying fuel prices that most Europeans would kill small children for. Unless there’s a big green backlash, or worse a serious economic recession, the GL with probably guzzle gallons of gas on its way to delivering fat profits for MB in the US of A.

The Mercedes-Benz ML: a compact city-car favoured by cheese eating surrender monkeys. Possibly.

Linkage:
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