Mercedes to build fifth model at Alabama auto plant

[Wolfgang]

So will the Mercedes M-Class Coupe MLC just be an impractical 4x4 coupe?

Although it is quantifiably lower than the M-Class, the MLC does not compromise rear leg- and headroom like the X6, according to CAR's sources. Means to this end include sufficiently wide rear doors, a less radical roofline, adjustable rear seats and a full-length console.

The luggage compartment may struggle to haul tall XXL cubes like refrigerators, but it is commendably flexible, easy to load thanks to a low lip and available with a clever divide-and–tie–down system.

Launching in 2014: M-Class Coupe MLC and a facelifted M-Class

The MLC is due to go on sale in the summer of 2014, only weeks before the facelifted M-Class becomes available. It therefore incorporates all the upgrades under preparation for the sister model, like the latest in infotainment, lighting and driver aids.

Characteristic styling elements include bespoke headlights, taillights and indicators; a meaner-looking and more upright trademark grille with enough holes to accommodate additional cameras and sensors required to monitor the road, traffic and the parking environment; and a sportier interior with additional comfort features.

Mercedes M-Class Coupe MLC (2014) | Secret New Cars | Car Magazine Online

 

[Wolfgang]

M-Class Coupé MLC comes with 2 and/or 4 doors?



http://www.germancarforum.com/gl-class/37861-gls-concept.html

 

[Wolfgang]

2015 MLC M-Class Coupé

Virtuel-Car: Mercedes MLC

 

[LaArtist]

^haha a X6 with CLS lights

 

[Wolfgang]

^^ also the ML side profile.

2012 ML350 (W166)

 

[Wolfgang]

or a sportier two door?

VISIONS AUTOS 2011. - Futur Mercedes MLC SUV coupé ! | visions-autos.sport24.com

 

[K-A]

This could be bad. The X6 must be a hit in Europe as in the U.S this segment was over before it started. It doesn't help that seemingly every X6 anybody reports seeing is driven by those who are stereotyped as douchebags as well.

.... Regarding the "hit in Europe" comment, it (X6) obviously does much better in Europe, and it seems like Europeans generally like the Truck/Car/Sedan/Wagon/Coupe hybrid much more than Americans do. As well, in Europe the car seems to attract a different (better) "crowd".

 

[Morrison]

2015 MLC M-Class Coupé

Virtuel Car: Mercedes MLC

Actually I love this one.

 

[Wolfgang]

Interesting remark from MBUSA marketing exec Steve Cannon:

“The coupe, which fetches a $1,500 premium, is a poster child for the C-Class,” Cannon says. It's actually driving sedan sales (higher).”

WardsAuto - Mercedes-Benz USA Headed for Sales Record

Might this also work with the M-Class and M-Class Coupé?

 

[K-A]

Interesting statement. Did he elaborate on that? I wonder how a C Coupe could drive C Sedan sales higher. I'm assuming he means that it brings extra attention/awareness to the C name, and brings in more shoppers, who in turn might usually opt for the Sedan after all is said and done.

 

[Wolfgang]

^ No additional info has been forthcoming that I am aware of.


Its Mercedes MLC Class vs BMW X6 vs Audi Q6 in 2015
Recently, we brought you a very interesting story on how Mercedes Benz is planning an operation ‘Total Revamp’ to get back its numero uno spot in the luxury car market.

Part of the efforts is to introduce new and innovative products to capture the fancy of the market. We are thoroughly aware of some of these new products such as the Mercedes CLA, GLA, GLG and the star of this article, the Mercedes MLC Class.

The Mercedes MLC is envisioned as a coupe crossover to rival the successful BMW X6 and the upcoming Audi Q6.

AutoBild.de brings us an exclusive rendering of this upcoming MLC SUV. As you can see, it almost looks like the new ML Class with a steeply raked roofline. In fact, it will be based on the new M Class platform and manufactured at the Alabama plant in the U.S. where the ML Class is manufactured (and shipped as parts to India in a box).

Although it will be offered only with a four wheel drive option, it will not have real off roading capability.

The M-Class variant will get the regular range of fuel efficient engines, including diesels with power starting from 258 bhp and going all the way to a range topping AMG version that belts out 544 hp. It will also benefit from the services of a seven-speed automatic transmission to shift cogs.

The tri-star coupe crossover has been green signaled for production. Start of production is in 2015 at the Alabama plant where Mercedes has hired 400 employees just for the job.

Its Mercedes MLC Class vs BMW X6 vs Audi Q6 in 2015

 

[Wolfgang]

The M-Class Coupe comes only with V6s and V8s and arrives in 2014 according to Autobild? True?

 

[Wolfgang]

MB confirmed new model will be "an especially dynamic all-terrain vehicle"?


Mercedes to produce new SUV at Tuscaloosa County plant

Mercedes-Benz will add a totally new sport utility vehicle to its production line in Vance, most likely in 2015. Dieter Zetsche, chairman of Daimler AG, the parent company of Mercedes-Benz, told the company's shareholders' meeting in Stuttgart, Germany, on Thursday that the fifth model destined for Mercedes' sole U.S. auto assembly would be an SUV.

Mercedes officials previously have said that a fifth so-called mystery vehicle would be added to its production line in Vance in 2015, but they had not said what type of vehicle it would be.

"At our plant in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, we are currently preparing for the production of another new SUV: an especially dynamic all-terrain vehicle," Zetsche said at the annual meeting. "You will hear more about that soon."

He did not elaborate.

The new SUV is one of 13 new models that Mercedes plans to add to its worldwide production by 2013, Zetsche said.

In October 2011, Mercedes announced plans to make a fifth vehicle at the Tuscaloosa County factory. The Vance plant now makes M-Class and GL-Class SUVs and R-Class crossover vehicles. It will add production of a fourth vehicle — a new generation of its popular C-Class sedans — at the Vance plant later this year with the first C-Class slated for sale, rolling out of the plant sometime in 2014.

A prototype of the new, still- unnamed SUV was shown to Gov. Robert Bentley and local officials who visited Stuttgart during a recent industrial recruiting trip.

"I can't say a lot about it, but we did see a prototype that they were working on in Germany," said Tuscaloosa County Probate Judge Hardy McCollum after hearing about Zetsche's latest comments.

"What I saw, if it follows the same prototype, impressed me," he said.

"It is a very sleek SUV. It is very eye-catching."

He said he thinks the new model will be popular with luxury car buyers.

The new SUVs' production could bring about 400 additional jobs to the Vance plant, McCollum said. Area automotive suppliers also will benefit, he said. "The most important thing to us was the continuing investment by Mercedes in our county," he said.

Mercedes officials in 2011 said it would invest $350 million at its Vance operations in preparation for the fifth vehicle, bringing its total investment since 2010 to about $2.4 billion. Zetsche was a member of Mercedes' management board and was instrumental in picking Tuscaloosa County in 1994 as the site for Mercedes' first auto plant in the United States. The plant, Mercedes-Benz U.S. International, opened in 1997, making the company's first SUV — the M-Class.

The M-Class has been one of the company's top sellers, particularly in the U.S., since its debut. It continued to excel in 2012. "We set more new records with our SUVs, mainly reflecting excellent sales of the new generation of the GLK (a smaller SUV made outside the U.S.) and the M-Class," Zetsche said Thursday. "The latter was the best-selling vehicle in its segment worldwide."

Zetsche also said that in 2012, the United States passed Germany as the top market for all Mercedes sales. "We set a record in the U.S. market with sales with nearly 300,000 units," he said.

Mercedes to produce new SUV at Tuscaloosa County plant

 

[Wolfgang]

Mercedes answers question no one was asking, planning competitor to the BMW X6

Say it ain’t so Dieter! Mercedes has announced that it is following in the ungainly and ill-footsteps of the BMW X6 Crossover with its own SUV Coupe at one point called the MLC.

Mercedes has been on a roll with its concept styling. The S-Class Convertible and the CLA shooting brake in particular are everything that you would want in an expensive German luxury car. The MLC on the other hand shows that everyone, even the Germans, makes mistakes.

Expensive mistakes, too. The MLC is going to sell for $60,000.

I have been trying to figure out the best way to describe the look of this car for a while. A couple of things come to mind. It definitely looks like a squished M Class. But the MLC also looks like a C Class that has been put in platform shoes. Neither of these descriptions quite gets at just how bad it is, though. What it really reminds me of is a Hot Wheels car, well actually a knock-off hot wheels car. The shape is right but the proportions are all wrong.

And as for the X6, this car’s chief competitor has shown us the bizarre styling has practical as well as aesthetic consequences. The car is like a reverse Tardis, larger on the outside than on the inside. For such tall cars the rear headroom is shockingly bad. A tall toddler in their car-seat would be complaining.

Perhaps Mercedes will have worked around this problem, but I won’t be holding my breath. I will be saving that for when I find myself crammed in the back of one of these.

Underneath its twisted and mottled exterior, the MLC is mechanically indistinguishable from the ML-Class. Though, while historically this would have been another black mark on the car, the recent ML has done well for itself. With its predicted exorbitant price tag, you can expect the MLC to feature the top engines from the ML, including probably an AMG offering.

The more efficiency and environmentally-minded engines don’t seem likely to show up in this high-priced homunculus, though. And, frankly, why would they? The people who are going to buy this car are doing so purely as a lifestyle choice.

The word ‘practical’ would offend them and make the car less appealing.

Even so, if the X6 is any guide, there aren’t going to be many potential buyers, at least in the United States and Europe. It’s possible that with the Chinese’s love of luxury the MLC might find a more welcoming home way back east. But for the sake of East/West relations, I hope they just stick with the lovely ML250 BlueTec diesel.

http://www.digitaltrends.com/cars/mercedes-dares-to-ask-the-question-no-one-was-asking-anyone-want-to-buy-a-competitor-to-the-bmw-x6

 

[EnI]

2014? But still no prototypes being tested whatsoever??? Highly unlikely. Early 2015 more likely - I guess close to ML facelift launch. It would make more sense. New X6 coming approx @ the same time.

 

[Wolfgang]

^ Production is to start in 2015. But a Concept may precede it in 2014?

http:///2011/10/der-mlc-die-produktion-startet-2015/

Mercedes-Benz M-Class Coupe Takes Up Headlines Again

The three-pointed star brand's answer to the BMW X6 SAC (Sport Activity Coupe) is readying its arrival and the Internet is abounding with more and more speculations about the upcoming version of the M-Class.

The online version of Car and Driver is following in the footsteps of Autocar and Auto Express in creating news from made-up sources and is the latest automotive media to do this type of thing concerning the MLC/MLS crossover.

Basing their success on the fact that most Internet users are taking for granted every bit of news with “insider info” taped all over it if it comes from a trusted source, Car and Driver gives a poorly-documented scoop on the upcoming Mercedes-Benz crossover and tells everyone that the model has been confirmed to be launched in 2014.

We know for a fact that the MLC or MLS version of the M-Class is to begin production in 2015 from the above image, which was snapped inside the Mercedes-Benz facility in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, back in... November 2011. In other words, 2014 will only give us a Vision concept car that previews the new model at the most, with the production version to arrive during 2015.

http://www.autoevolution.com/mercedes-blog/mercedes-benz-mlc-mls-crossover-takes-up-headlines-again-68500.html

 

[Wolfgang]

Autozeitung claims an M-Class Coupe mystery might be unveiled soon???

The future X6-rival Mercedes MLC, the secret of which is to be aired in April 2014, is still going on sale this year - but there is also something new to report about the "conventional" brother of the SUV-coupe: Daimler is working on a refresh for the Mercedes M-Class, since the W166 series was introduced already at the end of 2012 and the nominal four-year cycle is coming to an end.

http://www.autozeitung.de/erlkoenige/mercedes-ml-facelift-2015-w166-m-klasse-neuheiten-suv-bilder