GLK-sized gap in MB's local range

Audi, BMW, Volvo -- even Land Rover -- have compact SUVs to offer prestige buyers. BMW has been making hay forever with its X3, Audi's sales are currently buoyed at record levels because of the introduction of its Q5 model, Land Rover has had an epiphany with the Freelander and pundits are calling the XC60 the best Volvo ever. So where's the Mercedes GLK?

If there is one glaring niche to fill in MB's local range, it's the GLK. Most other niches of any significance are filled, but not that hole left by the lack of a light-duty prestige SUV. This is a story that we've covered in the past (read our international launch review here for a primer and the local division's plans to introduced the car more here).

"When you lose someone to another brand, that's when it hurts," says David McCarthy, Senior Manager Corporate Communications at Mercedes-Benz Australia/Pacific.

McCarthy was speaking to the Carsales Network in the context of customer retention in a broader sense, but this inevitably led to a discussion concerning the lack of a Benz rival to compact SUVs from prestige importers.

It's not a certainty that a Benz buyer will necessarily progress in a linear way from B-Class to E-Class or C-Class to CLS. They may want to stop along the way at a GLK, if lifestyle leads them in that direction. At the present, Benz is missing an opportunity here and there's a school of thought that even if the GLK didn't sell in huge numbers, its importation might be justified as a means of keeping Benz buyers within the stable.

"We're not happy with the fact that we don't have [GLK here]," says McCarthy. "We are lobbying very, very hard to get that vehicle -- and I think in times where the corporation is looking... for every sale it can get, I think that makes a very strong case.

"In the US, interestingly, GLK this year... year-to-date 2009, ML has sold 8242 [units], GL 5440, GLK 9444. So GLK for them is an extremely important product.

"We remain convinced here that that vehicle is [worth] at least a hundred units a month. Personally, I think it's much higher than that."

McCarthy believes the 250CDI version of the GLK would be a sub-7.0L/100km car to incur the dispensation of the Luxury Car Tax and consequently sell at a lower price. Unfortunately, that quirk of the Australian market is not one that applies in other right-hand drive markets.

And as per our earlier reports, securing the support of markets like Japan and Britain, where left-hand drive vehicles can be registered from new, has not been easy, although McCarthy says the other RHD markets do admit that the business case for a rear-wheel drive RHD GLK is "strong". But even without the support of other RHD markets to bolster the Aussie case, McCarthy believes the factory can be swayed by the local argument that any new variant, early in the development cycle of the GLK, can help pay for design and engineering costs. As such, it should be considered.

"At a time when you've got a model that's newly developed, that's at the start of its model life, to do another variant on it, to significantly amortise the cost -- because basically, you're going to use the rear-drive/right-hand drive C-Class platform pretty much -- you're not reinventing the wheel."

MB's local MD, Horst von Sanden, attended a meeting of Mercedes-Benz divisions from RHD markets in Stuttgart to lobby for the 4x2 GLK around a month or so back, says McCarthy. Following von Sanden's successful lobbying, the business case for the car was resubmitted to the factory and remains under consideration.

"Hopefully, in the next month or so, we'll have some indication," says McCarthy.

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