Mercedes GLK for Sale – but not in the UK.

The growth of mid-range 4×4s carries on apace, with the first official pictures and specifications coming from Mercedes.

This spurt in the mid-size 4×4 offerings is a very sensible move by the manufacturers. There is no way that the green lobby is going to stop the proliferation of 4×4s, but making smaller offerings is one way to take the edge of the ramblings about environmental damage. Anyone with a brain knows that the whole man-made climate change lobby is about as believable as the assertion in the seventies from the same ‘authoritative’ sources that we were about to slip in to an ice-age. But as long as the media continues to give coverage to the nonsense it is sensible to have options. And these smaller 4×4s are very good options.

I wrote a week ago about the new Q5 from Audi, and that for me seems to be the pick of the bunch. But Mercedes is playing the game with the new GLK. Expect to see the Mercedes GLK for sale in Europe, at least in its less powerful guises, before the end of the year. But don’t expect to see it here. Why, I hear you cry. Well, quite simply, Mercedes doesn’t think the UK market is important enough, so it’s made a car that will cost it a chunk of money to make in RHD form, so it’s going to let the sales run in the rest of the world to see how it goes. It’s is even apparantly considering a RWD only option for the UK. Shame on you Mercedes. The UK is one of your most important markets, and consumers won’t take kindly to being excluded from the GLK. They will simply opt for the Q5 and stary there. And that will mean a big trade-off when people consider other vehicles in the range. Once they’ve got used to Audi build quality and their exceptional interiors, a Mercedes is going to seem a much less enticing option. Not a good plan.

Anyway, what has the GLK got to offer. At launch expect to see an entry-level 2.1 diesel witn around 170bhp and 40+ mpg. In addition there will be 3.0 Diesel and a couple of petrol engines – a 3.0 and a 3.5. It is rumoured there will also be a GLK AMG63 at some point in the future. The usual range of sport and off-road options are available, as are a range of gearboxes. But none of that matters, because it won’t be coming to the UK until at least 2010.

Bad move, Mercedes.

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