Mercedes-Benz SLK-Class 2009 News

It's the replacement for today's compact SLK and it should be on the road sometime towards the end of 2011, although a motor show tease is likely in the back end of next year.The next Mercedes-Benz SLK - which will be the third model to carry the badge - follows a familiar pattern. It is compact, with a folding hardtop roof, and will have a range of engines from a baby four through to a stonking AMG V8.Testing is underway at the Nurburgring in Germany and Carparazzi pictures show a car that could be just a mild tweak of today's SLK.  But the car is new and will come with some obvious visual changes from the current model.First - if European sources are right - is a grille which is a cut down copy of the one fitted to the SLS supercar. It's part of a direction change on Benz sports cars, taking them away from an F1 look and more towards the retro direction used on the front end of the Gullwing coupe.The next SLK will also come with daytime running lamps, a different style of door handles and bigger rear-vision mirrors standing up from the sides of the doors. This is a common change, also obvious on Porsche test cars, with new European regulations on the view from any side-mounted mirror.

As the first shoots of spring emerge, new car sales figures for September show a jump in convertible buyers. And money is no object, with many prepared to spend up big to pop the roof down.VFACTS industry figures show a modest sales surge of the Mazda MX5, Mini Cooper cabrio, Volkswagen Eos and Audi A3 convertible - all costing more than $40,000. Further up the price list Audi's A5 cabrio, the BMW Z4, Mercedes-Benz SLK and Volkswagen Eos are also popular with prices for some of the German cars topping out at more than $80,000.Dealers and carmakers say the warmer weather is helping. Mazda spokesman, Steve Maciver, said the order books for the company's popular MX5 were growing. "It's a combination of things but once the warmer weather hits, people like the idea of a convertible," he said.September sales figures show a 17 per cent jump in sportscar sales, which includes convertibles. Apart from topless motoring, luxury off-roaders are also proving popular. BMW spokesman, Toni Andreevski, said the company's popular X5 off-roader, which opens around $86,000, surged last month on the back of fresh supply from the United States. "We've got more stock and buyers are prepared to spend," he said.TOP 10  BRANDS    Sept           YTD 2009 (+/- on 2008)Toyota                   16,007             142,898       -22.3%Holden                      9744               85,667       -14.0%Ford                          8427               70,289       -13.7%Mazda                       7205               57,695         -7.2%Hyundai                    5484               47,625        36.4%Mitsubishi                4312               40,092        -16.3%Nissan                       4079               38,446       -15.8%Honda                       3939               31,787       -22.9%Subaru                      2807               27,225         -9.0%Volkswagen             2307               22,717         -5.4%

The CLK is already dead, although the last handful are still lurking in Australian showrooms, and development work on its other new droptops will not produce a result until sometime in 2010.The born-again Gullwing sports car is coming this year, most likely at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September, but the E-Class convertible which takes over from the CLK is a zero-ten proposition.But there is something else, with the upcoming replacement for the SLK caught during testing last week in Europe.The third-generation SLK, caught as usual by Carparazzi, is still running in heavy disguise but there are some clear pointers to the car that will be on the road in Australia in 2011.The folding metal roof continues and the grille and headlamps are more upright and squared-off than the current SLK.The car loses the F1-inspired droopy nose first seen on the McLaren- Mercedes SLR for a smoother look that's more in line with the latest E- Class sedan.Other styling tweaks expected for the new model are daytime LED running lamps, the new-style Mercedes doorhandles and larger external mirrors 'standing' on the door instead of being mounted ahead of the side window.

As Porsche prepares its luxury Panamera, and Aston Martin worries over its four-door Rapide, Mercedes-Benz is certain of success with its upcoming Gullwing.It knows the combination of the retro-futuristic Gullwing name and body, and a 320km/h mechanical package from its go-faster AMG division, will mean certain success for the fastest car to carry its badge.The Gullwing has been an open secret for more than a year, with camouflaged test cars running around Europe and logging laps at the Nurburgring, but now company executives are talking openly about the car.Benz's safety chief, Ulrich Mellinghoff, talks now about crashing testing carbon fibre body parts for the Gullwing and the head of AMG, Volker Mornhinweg, is dropping hints about the engine for the car."The crashing testing is more like a convertible. There is no energy path through the roof," says Mellinghoff.He also admits the nature of carbon fibre, expected to used for the majority of the car, means there will be aluminium crash panels at each end to absorb impact forces."With carbon fibre you cannot see if there is any internal damage. It can look perfect, but crumbles if you bump it."The biggest question of all for the Gullwing is the engine, with Mornhinweg talking enthusiastically about everything from a new V6 - which is being developed for the baby A and B-Class cars - to the existing 6.2-litre V8 and the V12 used in the SL 'Black Series' with twin turbochargers.But his biggest hint is that something new - perhaps a new-age 5.5- litre V8 - could do the job."We are working hard on something we launch in 2010. It will be a new engine," he says."I think later this year we will have more to say."But he lays false trails everywhere, talking about a range of powerplants."We work very hard on our current 6.2-litre engine. There are a lot of new technologies," he says."Direct injection with piezo control . . . to make combustion in a perfect way. We also have some opportunity to put the turbocharger on some engines."For the smaller cars we have decided on an engine, but I don't want to talk. It's a very interesting thing, we have outstanding performance but we can reduce the fuel consumption."Getting away from the mechanics and safety, the Gullwing is expected to have a paddle-shift gear system, LED running lights in the top of the headlamp cluster and giant metallic disc brakes.It is intended to completely out-strip the McLaren-Mercedes SLR, a joint venture between Benz and its Formula One partner which has never hit its original sales targets, including production of as many as 6000 cars a year with a price-tag in the $500,000 range.The Gullwing is widely predicted to star for Mercedes at the Frankfurt Motor Show later this year, although its debut could be pushed back to Geneva in 2011 if the company decides its is inappropriate to make a huge splash during the worldwide economic downturn. 

The new-age Mercedes Gullwing will be the fastest car in the history of the three-pointed star and should be previewed early in 2009, perhaps even at the Geneva Motor Show in March, for sales from 2010.It gets its name from the scissor-style lift-up doors used on a similar road rocket, the Mercedes SL which hit the road in 1954, and is expected to have the same styling and performance impact as the original.Mercedes has decided to build the born-again Gullwing as it splits its road-car future from its Formula One partner, McLaren, despite the British team's reputation for creating high-performance halo cars.It will be pushing much harder with the AMG sub-brand which has been a global hit, including Australia where sales set a per-capita world record, and will become the new flagship for both Benz and AMG.McLaren has its own supercar in final development for a preview in 2009 but it is the Gullwing which is creating the most interest in Mercedes' future-car programs.The car has been testing for more than a year and looks to be a long-nose two-door coupe which is likely to have the first in a new generation of AMG turbocharged V8 engines. It should easily crack 300km/h and have a Ferrari-style 0-100km/h sprint time.The Gullwing is an open secret in the Mercedes-Benz world, where plans call for a production run of up to 5000 cars during a 5-10 year model life.This is a massive contrast to the SLR, which has never sold to the expectations of either Mercedes or McLaren and came with a $1 million-plus pricetag.The final SLR model was unveiled at the Paris show a fortnight ago with a roadster open-topped body and the 722 performance package created to pay hommage to the SLR which won the Mille Miglia road race in Italy in 1955 wearing the 722 number to reflect its 7.22am start time.Details of the new Gullwing are still being protected by Mercedes, but it is expected to have a race-style monocoque body built from a combination of aluminium and carbon fibre.The engine choice is not confirmed, as AMG is moving to turbos but the Gullwing could stay with an updated version of the current 6.2-litre V8 - called the 6.3 by Benz - but the company's powerplant chief Dr Leopold Mikulic says it will have more than 400 kiloWatts of power.