Desire drives change of heart

Germany had previously said the baby four-wheel-drive, which is a size down from the M-Class and pitched directly into battle against BMW's X3 and the upcoming Audi A7, would not be produced in right-hand-drive, ruling it out for local showrooms.

But now the man who heads research and development at Daimler has raised hopes that it could, after all, make it here. Dr Thomas Weber, at the opening of the Detroit motor show, gave a hint there is a small chance the decision will be reversed in time for Australian customers to get the car, which the company is showing publicly for the first time.

“So far, its not finally decided,” Weber says. “The focus is on the left-hand-drive market. I know there are some discussions in all the other markets. We will see.”

The GLK was launched in Detroit in two versions — the urban-focused Townside and the more adventurous Freeside — with an economical and eco-friendly turbocharged 125kW Bluetec common-rail direct injection diesel four-cylinder with 4Matic all-wheel-drive system.

GLK is Daimler's response to the global boom in compact softroaders and Mercedes-Benz knows the GLK must become an important contender in a segment which reaches as far down as the Toyota RAV4 and Honda CR-V at the bottom end.

“We are a huge player in the SUV segment,” Daimler chairman Dieter Zetsche says. “Now, with the GLK, we have a model for it.

“It's an important part of our growth strategy. We see huge potential in Europe, in the US and also in other parts of the world.”

However, the right-hand-drive markets would likely have to commit to considerable volume to get a decision in their favour.

“Really important will be what is the volume behind it,” Weber says.

“It costs a lot of money.

“And so we need volume. It takes some action to make a left-hand-drive AWD vehicle right-hand-drive.”

Still, he concedes the importance of having the GLK for all countries.

Mercedes wants lift overall sales to fight BMW and Audi on all fronts.

GLK might also be a launchpad for the upcoming hybrid models.

“But, of course, we need all these technology packages also for markets with right-hand systems,” Weber says. “The next question is what will be possible later on with hybrids.

The good news for Australia is that it would be relatively easy and fast to prepare a right-hand drive model.

“No real technical issues. Again, it's a question of volume behind it and what are the costs,” Weber says.

“But all the countries with right-hand-drive at the moment, they are building up a team to discuss this issue: how can we handle this for the future, what the question for the engineering is, how fast in the future can we come with right-hand-drive cars to the market?”