Mercedes Stalks Better Returns, Pins ’08 on Smaller Crossover
January 13, 2008

By Bill Visnic

DETROIT – Daimler AG’s Mercedes-Benz unit, which despite a beaten-down market managed its 14th consecutive record sales year in the U.S. and gutted out a 2 percent worldwide sales hike, wants to improve its return on sales to an ambitious 10 percent by 2010 “at the latest,” says Dieter Zetsche, chairman of Daimler’s board of management and Mercedes Chief Executive.

“Thanks to the hard work of the previous few years, we’re starting out this year from an excellent position – in terms of efficiency, quality, service and unit sales,” Zetsche says at a reception here prior to the opening of the Detroit auto show.

He says for ’08, the company will get behind two all-new products: the GLK compact crossover and the CLC coupe, a 2-door hardtop based on the mechanicals of the recently launched, all-new C-Class.

The GLK, which Mercedes unveils in Detroit in lightly disguised Vision GLK concept form, goes on sale in the U.S. about this time next year. The CLC, likely to become the entry point to the Mercedes brand, will not be for U.S. consumption – thanks, perhaps, to weak response to its former entry-level coupe, casually executed on the underwhelming previous-generation C-Class platform.

Although still a year away, the edgy GLK appears well-timed for a U.S. market quickly downsizing its tastes and hungry for improved fuel-efficiency. Showing two distinct versions – the GLK Freeside and the GLK Townside – it appears the company also plans to hedge regarding utility vehicles’ essentially marketing-driven façade of off-road capability. We’ll let Mercedes say it:

“Whereas the Vision GLK Freeside is an all-rounder that showcases the capabilities of today's SUV vehicles both on and off the road, the Townside version is designed to make its mark with dynamic performance on the tarmac.”

Mercedes says the GLK will be available with a 2.2-liter 4-cylinder turbodiesel using the upcoming Bluetec emissions-reduction technology that makes diesel-powered vehicles fitted with the system eligible for sale in all 50 states. The company says it will be the first application of the Bluetec system for 4-cylinder diesels.

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