The 2010 Mercedes-Benz GLK 350

With the new Mercedes-Benz GLK 350 now available for delivery, I wanted to post some reviews for you to see.


"The transmission rocks. While the GLK's seven-speed auto allows for manual shifting by rocking the shift lever left to right, driver input really isn't necessary. Switch the vehicle from Comfort Mode to Sport mode and the seven-speed will hold gears longer, allowing quick bursts between turns without ever changing cogs." http://www.motortrend.com/

"Few Mercedes-Benz owners in the U.S. ever take their vehicles off-road, a reality the German automaker not only realizes but embraces. Thus, the GLK is targeted at affluent women -- and it appears Mercedes has hit its mark. This baby Benz has clearly been refined for the on-road market." http://www.emercedesbenz.com/

"Good vehicle safety integrates the prevention of accidents via quick response to driver input, electronic assistance (ABS, stability control, brake assist), progressive impact absorption, controlling the body movement of passengers due to impact, and quick emergency response to passengers in severe impacts. The 2010 GLK fulfills each of these five elements in this increasing scale of safety concerns: As such it's ideal for today's family, whether they're visiting relatives halfway across the country or running errands around town." http://www.sfgate.com/

The all new GLK is here and ready for you! Call or email me to schedule your personal demonstration of the latest Mercedes-Benz SUV.

Myths About Leasing - Part 4 of 5

Myth 4: Early-termination fees exact a far heavier penalty than if you change your mind when you buy a car.

It only seems that way. If you decide to bail out of a car purchase, you'll pay the piper, too. The car may be worth far less than you still owe on the loan. And because depreciation is spread evenly over the term of the lease, if you turn in the car early, you are sure to have "used up" more of the car than you've paid for, particularly if you made no down payment.

The early-termination fee is the way the dealer evens things up.

Moral: Plan to keep your car to the end of the lease. It doesn't make sense to stretch out the term to get lower payments if you're likely to break the lease early.

Toyota Is World's Top Automaker

Toyota has dethroned Detroit rival General Motors as the world's top automaker, but there were no celebrations Thursday at the crisis-hit Japanese giant, which is bracing for its first-ever loss.

For many automakers around the world, particularly the US Big Three, the main priority is not to be the biggest, but just to survive a global economic downturn that has sent demand for cars plunging.

Figures from the companies showed Toyota had ended General Motors' 77-year reign as the world's biggest automaker last year, selling 8.97 million vehicles against GM's 8.35 million.

But both makers suffered from weak demand. GM's sales tumbled 11 percent while Toyota saw a four percent drop in global demand -- the Japanese group's first decline in a decade.

"Toyota's rise to the top wasn't really positive because it was achieved not by growth in sales but by a sharper decline in GM's sales," said Mamoru Kato, auto analyst at Tokai Tokyo Research Centre.

"The gap between the sales of Toyota and GM will probably expand for a few years because of growth in the market for environmentally-friendly cars where Toyota has a lead with its hybrids," he said.

"Then, hopefully, a few years later GM will begin to catch up with Toyota, which would be the best scenario for the auto industry. But at this point it's not clear if this scenario will be realised," Kato said.

"Being number one in terms of size has never really been our goal. Our main objective is to be number one in terms of quality and customer service," Toyota spokesman Paul Nolasco.

But despite all its troubles, Toyota is still in better shape than GM, which will run out of cash if it does not get the second part of a federal bridge loan next month.

GM president Fritz Henderson said the situation was dire for his company, which received a four-billion-dollar emergency loan last month and is due to collect another instalment of the bridge loan in February.

Mercedes-Benz AMG Expands the Brand

AFFALTERBACH, Germany — AMG, the sporting arm of Mercedes-Benz, is opening 175 new AMG Performance Centers around the globe by the end of 2009. The goal is to expand the brand and enhance customer relationships in 15 countries, including the key markets of Germany, the United States, Japan and China.

The new AMG centers will feature a redesigned sales showroom with consistent furnishings, materials and color palettes. Through the designo program, customers will be able to personalize their vehicles with unique paint, materials, trim and content, and a customer hotline will connect each center to AMG headquarters in Affalterbach.

Each center will also offer the AMG Performance Roadshow, a total customer immersion in the AMG brand, including talks from expert presenters and "intensive" test drives in a variety of AMG products.

From Edmunds Inside Line

Myths About Leasing - Part 3 of 5

Myth 3: Excess wear-and-tear charges are unfair.

Not so. These charges are designed to make you pay for your (over)use of the vehicle. You'd face the same financial hit if you had purchased the car. Dings in the door or tears in the upholstery would cut into how much you'd get when you traded it in. The charge on a lease is more in-your-face, but the financial pain should be about the same.

But don't leasing companies pile on charges for wear and tear? No, says Jerry Mahoney, who provides leasing for American Automobile Association members. "If anything, they have become more lenient, giving the consumer the benefit of the doubt."

Myths About Leasing - Part 2 of 5

Myth 2: A lease consigns you to everlasting payments.

It's common knowledge that leasing makes sense only for those who get a new car every two or three years, those masochists who hit the showrooms as soon as a loan is paid off. The corollary is that if you love the no-payment years of owning a car, you should scorn leasing.

Whoa. Not necessarily.

If you want to buy the car at the end of the lease, your contract will give you a right to do so -- at a set price.

And as Myth 1's example shows, you wouldn't be a chump if you went the "lease now, buy later" route. In fact, it affords you some protection. If you no longer want the car at the end of the lease, you can just walk away. If you had purchased the car new, you'd be stuck with selling it or trading it in, and there's no guarantee how much money you'd get.

Scion Tops Cosumer Reports Reliability Study

Once again, the quality, durability and reliability of Toyota Motor Corporation and its brands is ranked at the top. The following article was found on MSNBC.com.

NEW YORK - Toyota Motor Corp.’s Scion brand topped the list of most reliable cars in Consumer Reports’ annual vehicle reliability rankings released Thursday, as Asian automakers continued to crowd the top of the magazine’s rankings.

Meanwhile, Chrysler LLC vehicles saw their scores fall sharply from 2007, while Ford Motor Co.’s nameplates gained ground over their Detroit rivals.

“Scion has a portfolio of three fairly small, fairly well equipped vehicles,” said David Champion, director of Consumer Reports’ auto test center. “It’s a basic form of transport, but put together well.”

The study compiled responses from Consumer Reports readers for more than 1.4 million vehicles this spring, using the results to predict reliability of 2009 models. The results are closely watched by automakers because of their influence on car buyers.

In this year’s study, Honda Motor Co.’s Acura and Honda lines ranked right behind Scion, followed by the Toyota nameplate and Toyota’s luxury brand, Lexus. Asian names occupied all of the magazine’s top 10 slots, with a domestic automaker not appearing on the list until No. 11 with Ford Motor Co.’s Lincoln brand.

Toyota spokesman Xavier Dominicis said Toyota was pleased to see Scion — which just launched two 2008 models, the xB and the xD — top the list.

“Generally speaking, when a vehicle first launches, that’s when you’re more apt to have any issues that need to be worked out, and this is a vehicle that came right out of the gate and earned this praise right away,” Dominicis said.

For more on this story, go to http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27341890/from/ET/ .