M-Class turns 10: adds equipment

Mercedes-Benz's SUV, the M-Class, celebrates its tenth anniversary this year and to mark the occasion, the German marque is doing what all companies do -- whacking out a special edition to boost sales.

Dubbed an "Exclusive Special Anniversary Series", the ML Edition 10 arrives in both 350 petrol and 320 CDI turbodiesel variants priced at $91,100 and $94,100 respectively. This represents a premium of $2000 over the 'standard' MLs, and according to Mercedes-Benz a $14,630 saving compared to adding the equipment at full option prices.

Included in the vehicles' standard specification is all the normal ML kit, plus a number of special equipment items. Add-ons include COMAND satnav and entertainment system (over $4000 value), made-over two-tone leather interior, 20-inch alloys, underbody protection, bi-xenon headlamps, glass sunroof and "special bodywork highlights". The Ed 10 also gets sports instrumentation, upgraded timber trim, metallic paint (on some models) and sports pedals.

Benz has sold around 850,000 M-Class SUVs over the past ten years; more than 19,000 of them to local consumers.

The Edition 10 is expected to carry through to the end of the year, sitting in Benz dealers along the facelifted ML-Class models due to arrive in October.

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