Brits will no longer be denied the Mercedes GLK – the second-generation of Daimler’s mid-sized SUV will be engineered in right-hand drive and is bound for UK showrooms.
Our new spy photos capture the Merc GLK – codenamed X253 – out on test in Germany, albeit in left-hand drive form.
Reports that the GLK will be unveiled at the Detroit motor show are wide of the mark, according to our intelligence. Instead, expect to see the crossover at an event in summer 2015.
When can I buy a right-hand drive Mercedes GLK in the UK?
A few months after the car is unveiled the car will arrive in British showrooms, where it will sit alongside the burgeoning Mercedes crossover range alongside the ML, GL and G-wagen. We reckon the GLK will be on UK sale by the end of 2015.
Mercedes chose not to engineer the first-generation GLK for right-hand drive. An insider explained the logic for this decision, which is seemingly at odds with a 4×4-obsessed marketplace.
‘Our cars typically have a five-year development programme and the current GLK is coming up to seven years old,’ said our source. ‘That means the decision not to engineer it in right-hand drive form was taken a good 12 years ago. Back then, crossovers weren’t such big business in Europe.’
Merc GLK: spec secrets of the 2015 Mk2
As well as a softer, more rounded wardrobe at odds with the boxy aesthetic of the Mk1, apparent in CAR magazine’s new spy photographs, the new GLK will adopt much of the hardware from the latest C-class range.
That means that rear-wheel drive is a possibility for lower-powered GLKs, although many crossovers at this level of the market are specified with four-wheel drive.
A range of four- and six-cylinder petrol and diesel engines will be offered; the BlueTec diesels will be the runaway favourites in Europe. A plug-in hybrid version will follow.
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