GLK closer, but still not 100 per cent
Dr Z says the number crunching is still underway, but a right-hooker GLK is still "realistic"Right-hand drive versions of Mercedes' GLK mid-sized offroader may yet be built. That's the opinion of the Head of Mercedes-Benz Cars and Daimler Chairman, Dr Dieter Zetsche.
Speaking to a gathering of media in Sydney last week, Dr Zetsche would not go as far as guarantee Mercedes would engineer every future model for right-hand drive, however, he did throw some weight behind the push to open up key right-hand drive markets like Australia, Japan and the UK to the GLK (more here).
Launched in Europe and the USA earlier this year, the GLK is built on an all-wheel drive version of the C-Class platform. At this stage, the mid-sized wagon (and all-wheel drive C-Class) is yet to be engineered for right-hand drive.
This same situation exists for 4-MATIC (all-wheel drive) versions of the E and S-Class. In addition, specialist Mercedes models like the McLaren-built SLR are left-hand drive only.
Nevertheless, Dr Zetsche last week described the likelihood of the GLK coming Down Under "a realistic possibility".
"We know about the relevance of the right-hand drive markets altogether. On top of it you hardly can address any markets in the significant and successful way on an opportunistic basis, so therefore, of course, right-hand drive has to be a very fundamental and basic version of our vehicles in general.
"There always can be some exceptions and when the original plan for the GLK was made up, this was one of those exceptions," he explained.
Zetsche said that the original business case for GLK could not be made to stack up if the cost to re-engineer it for right-hand drive was included. Now, the Benz boss says the carmaker is "intensely investigating the status-quo with a possibility of expanding towards right-hand drive".
Commenting on the 'number crunching' currently ongoing behind the decision, Zetsche quipped: "We want to see this [right-hand drive] version and this could define the way we calculate it as well."
"No final decision has been made but it's certainly a realistic possibility,"" Zetsche told the Carsales Network.
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